In addition to physical exercise, your brain and body need the right nutrients to perform optimally. For optimal brain performance, it is important that you eat the right foods and just as important that you avoid bad foods.

Additionally, you need to make sure you are drinking enough water to keep your body and brain hydrated.

There is a lot of overlap between a brain healthy diet, and a healthy diet in general. What’s good for the body is good for the brain. By improving your diet, you will likely get many benefits to not only your brain and an improvement in brain function, but you will likely also see improved energy, weight normalization, improved mood, better immune function, and many other benefits.

I’ve personally seen huge improvements in my mood, physical energy, and brain function by cutting down on my sugar and refined carb (i.e. bread) intake as well as improving the overall nutritional quality of my diet.

For this section, I want to introduce you to a world leader in brain science.

Dr. Amen is a renowned physician who:

• Practices as a psychiatrist and brain disorder specialist.
• Is the author of more than 30 books – five of which are New York Times best sellers
• Has studied the brain in depth, what is harmful for it, and how to heal it.

In his book Feel Better Fast and Make it Last, Dr. Amen discusses guidelines about the best way to eat. Here is a short summary of his recommendations:

Be mindful of the quality of the food you eat

There are foods where each calorie is full of nutrition. For example, fruit and vegetables, whole grains, and fish.

There are also foods where each calorie provides practically no nutrition. This includes sugary foods like cake and cookies, as well as packaged snack foods like chips.

It is important to choose your foods carefully. You can get the same number of calories from unhealthy food as you can from healthy food. Healthy food will lead you to feeling better and help your brain function better. Unhealthy foods will do the opposite.

When choosing foods, focus on the nutrition rich foods. Concentrate on choosing brain smart calories.

Just making these simple changes can also help you to lose weight. Excess weight has been shown to have a negative impact on your brains ability to function [12].

Here are some general guidelines to help you make better food choices:

• In general, the less processed the better
• Try to eat whole foods
• Try to eliminate food additives and artificial preservatives, dyes, and sweeteners
• Try to choose organic and reduce the intake of pesticide residues

Drink water and avoid sugary drinks

Both our bodies and our brains require proper hydration to function properly. Studies show that being dehydrated by just 2 percent impairs your ability to carry out tasks that require attention, memory, and physical performance [13].

To ensure you are properly hydrated, aim to drink about 8 ten-ounce glasses of water a day. You should also limit consumption of drinks that dehydrate you, including caffeine, alcohol, and other diuretics.

Scientists have studied the negative effects of sugary drinks on your health extensively [14]. Drinking water instead of sugary drinks will have a huge positive impact on your brain health as well as your overall health.

To help with this, take a refillable water bottle with you throughout the day. You can measure how much you drink by how many times you refill your bottle.

Eat protein throughout the day

For optimal performance, it is important that you get enough protein throughout the day. Getting enough protein helps to:

• Keep your blood sugar levels in balance
• Decrease cravings for unhealthy foods
• Burn more calories than you would if you only ate high-carb, sugar filled foods

Try to keep your protein intake between 15 to 25 percent of your total daily calories. While counting calories can offer a lot of insight into your diet, this isn’t always practical or necessary. As a rule of thumb, for someone who requires 2000 calories a day (a typical adult) you should aim to get between 75 and 125 grams of protein each day. Try to spread this across each of your meals.

You can google your favorite foods along with “nutrition facts” to find out how many grams of protein are in each serving.

Understand fat

Views on dietary fat have been changing in recent years. It is now understood that healthy fats are necessary for good health – including the health of your brain.

Low fat diets are bad for the brain and can cause mild cognitive impairment or even dementia [15].

Your overall health can be improved by consuming more healthy fats and fewer unhealthy carbohydrates [16].

Healthy fats include unsaturated fats such as omega-3 fatty acids – which are important for brain health (more about this later). You can get this by eating salmon, tuna, and sardines as well as plant sources such as chia seeds, walnuts, and flaxseeds. Supplements are also an effective way to get your omega-3s.

Some saturated fats are healthy – like those found in fiber rich foods such as vegetables, beans, nuts, fruit, and coconut. Saturated fats that should be eaten in moderation are typically found in most animal products and some vegetable oils, processed meat, and margarine.

The type of fats that should be avoided altogether are trans fats. They are typically found in processed foods such as margarine, prepared fried foods, packaged baked goods like donuts, crackers, and snack foods.

Eat healthy carbohydrates

Unhealthy carbs are found in foods containing sugar or foods that are highly processed.

Healthy carbs are typically found in high fiber foods. These don’t cause as much of a spike in your blood sugar levels which helps reduce the amount of fat your body stores. They can also help reduce cravings for junk foods.

You can find healthy carbs in most fruits and vegetables. You can also find them in whole grains, beans, and lentils. Foods with healthy carbs also typically contain a lot of fiber – something most people don’t get enough of (the typical adult should aim for around 25 grams of fiber a day).

Fruits and vegetables provide an enormous array of the nutrients, vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants that are necessary for good health.

In general aim to eat more vegetables than fruit – even too much natural sugar can have a negative impact on your health.

Herbs and spices

Even food seasonings have health benefits. Not only do they make your food taste better, but they also contain many health-promoting substances.

Some examples include basil, black pepper, garlic, ginger, mint, oregano, and turmeric.

Avoid potentially harmful foods

Some people have sensitivities to certain foods without realizing it. These subtle reactions can contribute to mood issues, anxiety, temper problems, or learning challenges. These food sensitivities often go undiagnosed because it is so difficult to track down the source.

If you find you are having health challenges that don’t seem to respond to anything you are doing, consider an elimination diet. Remove the questionable foods listed below for a month, then add them back one at a time to see what effect it has on your mood, energy level, and mental clarity. Some of these foods can just be eliminating altogether.

• Sugar – which has no vitamins or minerals, just simple carbs. Sugar has been associated with many, many health issues, including brain fog. A diet with too much high-fructose corn syrup has been shown to negatively alter learning and memory [17].
• Artificial sweeteners – these sugar alternatives are associated with many negative health effects including increasing your risk for Alzheimer’s disease [18]. Avoid aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal), saccharin (Sweet’n Low), and sucralose (Splenda).
• Gluten – found in wheat, barley, rye, kamut, bulgur, and spelt. It can also be found in most commercially made breads, cakes, cookies, cereals, and pasta. It is sometimes hidden in salad dressings and sauces, processed foods, and cosmetics. Gluten is implicated in some auto-immune conditions. In people with celiac disease, gluten can reduce blood flow to the brain, and a gluten free diet can reduce anxiety.
• Soy – found in tofu, edamame, and soy sauce as well as many other foods.
• Corn – Also high in omega 6 and low in omega 3 which makes it pro-inflammatory. It has been shown to damage the intestinal lining and create leaky gut.
• Dairy – can cause inflammation

Not everybody reacts negatively to these foods. You will have to experiment to see how you respond. For some, eliminating a problematic food can have a profound impact on their life.

Time your meals

Intermittent fasting, or time restricted feeding can significantly improve memory [19]. It can also help you think more clearly and feel more energetic.

Intermittent fasting requires that you limit the amount of time during the day that you eat. You don’t necessarily reduce the amount you eat, just when you eat.

Eating windows are typically restricted from 8 to 12 hours of the day. For example, if you have your first meal at 10:00 in the morning, you should finish your last meal for the day by 10:00 (for a 12 hour window) or by 6:00 (for an 8 hour window).

Intermittent fasting has been shown to have many health benefits including weight loss.

I personally skip breakfast and eat my first meal at noon. This approach allows me to enjoy dinner with my family.

Eating hacks

There are specific ways to eat that can directly boost your brain’s performance.

To boost attention and energy focus on high protein, low carb foods. This promotes the production of dopamine in your brain. The result is you feel more energetic and focused but you may also be more worried and rigid.

To boost your memory, try eating a choline-rich meal [20]. This leads to an increase of acetylcholine in your brain which results in an improvement to your thinking and memory. Choline rich foods include shrimp, eggs, tofu, scallops, chicken, turkey, beef, cod, salmon, shiitake mushrooms, chickpeas, lentils, and collard greens.

Action plan

Take small steps each week to change your diet. This keeps you from getting overwhelmed and helps you to stick with the changes you make.

Start with eliminating sugary drinks. If you currently consume a lot of sodas, juice, energy drinks, etc. switch to drinking only water for a week. You should notice a positive change after a few days (though it may take some time for your body to adjust).

Choose 20 foods that you like that fit the brain and body healthy descriptions above. To make food preparation easier, make a meal plan of a limited number of healthy meals and eat them regularly. Think of breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Plan your shopping around these meals. Try it for a month – you will not only notice a difference in how you feel but will also develop the habit of preparing and eating healthier foods.

For most, it isn’t always practical to plan out each meal and prepare them everyday. If you are looking for a system that will help you stay on track, I recommend this system. It is specifically designed to ensure you get the nutrition you need. It has many other benefits as well, including:

• Normalize your weight
• Helps combat the effects of stress
• Supports your body’s natural detoxification process
• Improves your energy
• Reduce craving for unhealthy foods

Click here to get started.

Key Takeaways

Eating healthier foods and eliminating unhealthy foods can improve mental performance as well as your overall health.
Aim to eat more unprocessed, whole foods. Reduce or eliminate processed foods – especially sugar.

Get started today:

Try replacing sugary drinks with water for a week or two and notice the improvements to your thinking and overall health.

Take small steps to improving your diet and try and make them a habit. Don’t overwhelm yourself by trying to change everything at once.

If you are looking for a practical way to improving your eating habits and undoing the damage from an unhealthy diet, I recommend following this system.

Works Cited

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