Foods That Boost Brain Power

Just like our heart, lungs, or muscles, our brain also requires nutrients and there are foods particularly important to keep it happy and healthy. The food we eat must have to do on how our brain functions, we all know that what we consume affects our body and our looks outside. Brain foods matter, scientists are learning continuously that what we should eat takes a benefit to our brains. All of us don’t like stress in our bodies, when we are physically stressed out or mentally our bodies release some inflammatory cytokines. Stress is an infection and these chemicals swift our immune system to fight back against stress through inflammation. Brain foods are rich in minerals, good fats, vitamins, and antioxidants that provide energy and aid protecting our brain against diseases. To keep our mind and bodies in shape, we must focus on giving our bodies to consume whole nutritious foods.

Your head is not only responsible for cognition and memory, dictating fatigue levels every day is also its critical role. Nourishing our brain with key nutrients boost and its overall function is just as fueling the muscles is critical to performance. This result as you feel more alert at your station, and at work. Furthermore, there are certain foods that can help wing off age related memory loss. Here’s a short list of brain foods.

Berries

Berries are a great source of flavonoids and anthocyanins that boost memory functions, particularly cherries, blueberries, and blackberries. The research found that blueberries might lessen the effects of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, and defend our brain from oxidative stress. Based on research, consuming blueberries have significant improvements, learning capacity, and it is also rich in memory improving antioxidants.
Consume It – You can make a Blackberry smoothie, put it in a blender and use frozen and fresh berry for this shake. This is an easy on the go breakfast and you can take it to the office. Also try adding blueberries in an oatmeal for a richer breakfast or a snack.

Salmon

The membrane of our brain cells is made up of omega-3 fats, the same fat that can be found in salmon. Research shows that consuming fish oil or omega-3 fatty acids makes our brain cells more flexible and making your processing power as good as possible. Omaga-3s also boost IQ in kids, and delay memory loss as we age. Salmon’s fatty acids are brain and heart healthy; it boosts neuron function in our brain for clear thinking and for better focus. Your mind is sharp when your neurons are functioning optimally. Salmon is recommended for people who does not like strong fish but want the benefits. It is easy to grill, bake and broil because of its fat content and meaty texture. You can also add sauces and marinades to it as well, without breaking down the texture and content of this fish there are a lot of flavor combinations to try.
Consume It – All seafood has omega-3s, but fatty fish and salmon contain most of it. In a week, aim for two 3.5-ounce servings. Also try out flaxseed oil in salads or pasta, omega-3-enriched eggs and walnuts.

Almonds

Almond is a smart snack that is rich in vitamin E. Based on my research into vitamin E fights oxidative stress in our brain caused by a diet refined carbs, sugar, white flour, and fat. Vitamin E protects our brain’s omega-3-rich cell membranes.
Consume It – Add to top hot cereal, yogurt or add to protein shakes.

Avocados

Avocado is one of the healthiest fruits you can consume. It is a fatty fruit, but a monounsaturated fat or the good kind that contributes to a healthy blood flow and keeping blood sugar levels steady. Avocado lowers blood pressure, which is good for brain health, given that high blood pressure is a factor in declining cognitive abilities. Avocado contains folate and vitamin K, that help protecting against stroke and prevent blood clots in the brain. Vitamin C and B are nutrients aren’t stored in our body and need to be replenished daily which also can be found in avocado and have the lowest sugar and highest protein content of any fruit.

Consume It – Try iced avocado for snack, just used crushed ice and mix with evaporated milk and condense milk. You can add a little sugar for sweet flavor.

Eggs

Contains a nutrient called choline that is rarely talked about, our brain’s messengers called neurotransmitters keeps it signaling properly. Include egg into your diet, although our bodies produce choline, scientists believe that production is patterned at best for some individuals, mainly pregnant women. The egg yolk contains choline, folate, lutein, vitamin B, and zeaxanthin that support brain health. These nutrients protect neurons for optimum brain functioning and help maintain healthy cell structure in the brain.
Consume It – Egg can be used as recovery meal, hard boil it and add to salads. Make sure you consume the whole egg; the nutrient choline is in the yolk.

Tomatoes

Tomatoes contain powerful antioxidant lycopene and beta-carotene which make it especially good brain food. By eliminating free radicals, its carotenoids protect our brain against inflammation. Our brain contains natural fat that makes it a target for free radicals that cause damaging inflammation. Lycopene could help protect against the type of damage to brain cells which occurs Alzheimer’s and the development of dementia.
Consume It – use tomatoes as sauce to spaghetti and salad for a healthy food snack.

Kale

Kale is a vegetable that is loaded with lutein, that protects neurons from oxidative damage caused by hard running, heavy breathing, and by pollution. Oxidative damage is linked early memory loss, Alzheimer’s disease, and poor cognitive function.
Consume It – Serve in salads and can be added to soups and casseroles.

Celery

A vegetable that offers a lot of benefits, it only contains 16 calories per cup. A natural anti-inflammatory that can help lighten indications related inflammation because of its high levels of polysaccharides and antioxidants. If you’re looking to shed pounds, it is a great snack option with packing loads of minerals, nutrients, and vitamins. When eating celery stalks, don’t skip the leaves and the seeds, since it tastes great in things like soups and stir fries and can provide extra health benefits.
Consume It – Chop celery leaves and stalks along with onions for any casserole. You can also add chopped celery to stews, vegetable patties and hamburgers.

Whey Protein

Whey might save the brain, since this is the main proteins in other dairy foods and in milk. Based on experiment and test by scientists, mice brain cells were better able to process oxygen when they consumed whey, this is a sign of optimal brain function.

Consume It – Mix in a blender with a cocoa and banana for a flavor, a potassium and a power of antioxidant. Also, you can make it as a recovery drink, mix 20 grams of protein into a water.

Yogurt

Research suggests probiotics, some beneficial bacteria found in some yogurts, that may affect brain function. As I have researched, people who ate yogurt with probiotics twice daily for four weeks showed better connectivity between brain regions than a control group.
Consume It – Aim for several servings of yogurt weekly, look for live cultures on the label. Probiotics are also in kefir, kimchi, and other foods with live bacteria.

Whole Grains

Promoting good blood flow to the organ system, whole grains can lessen heart disease which also includes the brain. Whole grains can be found in cereals, brown rice, whole grain breads, and oatmeal’s. Technically, wheat germ is not a whole grain, but it can be a substitute because of high levels of fiber, omega-3’s and vitamin E.
Consume It - Try two tablespoons of wheat germ daily, or a whole grain slice of bread, a half cup of whole grain cereal a couple times daily. You can also add brown rice to your diet.

Coconut Oil

When it comes to our brain, it’s full of benefits. Coconut oil suppresses cells responsible for inflammation and works as a natural anti-inflammatory. It destroys bad bacteria that hangs out in our gut and it can help with memory loss as we age. Because of its saturated fat content, coconut oil once thought as a no food, upon research consuming a little of coconut oil ignites your body’s fat burning furnace because it provides a healthy dose of a medium chain fats. With this in return, it creates ketones that fuel our brain. 25% of our cholesterol is found in our brain, and in addition, our brain is 60% fat and needs fat to function. A unique type of triglycerides that are good brain food can be supplied by coconut oil. The healthiest kind to be consumed is virgin unrefined coconut oil that has only a hint of coconut flavor. You can use it for baking or frying and works to add to soups or to drizzle it on salads.

Consume It – You can also add coconut oil to your hot drinks, smoothies, soups, and yogurt. For cold drinks, make sure to stir coconut oil to melt gently.

Oatmeal

Provides an energy to your brain that needs to work because it is certain carb-rich food. By fueling better memory and concentration, our body quickly strips glucose from the food and sends it to our ticker. Cook up organic oatmeal from recipes or look for organic versions to avoid harmful additives and to avoid brain killing high fructose corn syrup. Try adding cinnamon to your oatmeal to help fight diabetes.
Consume It – Mix up your oatmeal with agave, sunflower seeds, and blueberries. Also try a tropical breakfast by adding coconut and mango to your oatmeal.


Don’t Forget Foods that Boost Memory

Chocolate

Research shows that adults who daily drunk of a flavanol-rich cocoa for months achieved better on memory tests compared to adults who drunk a low-flavanol cocoa. Dark chocolate can be good, it contains antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties that lessen blood pressure and improve blood flow for heart and brain. Most chocolates we see in the supermarket are highly processed and have few benefits, take note that the darker the chocolate, the more benefits for health it contains. Skip the white chocolates and milk and choose a slightly managed dark chocolate that have 70 percent of cocoa. This guarantees that you will get the brain benefits you need. Chocolate is the most delicious brain booster, consuming just a few ounces can help concentration and it improves brain blood flow.

Olive Oil

Based on studies, Individuals who used olive oil with food had better notches on memory tests compared to people who consume a low-fat diet. Real olive oil contains a powerful antioxidant that can be found in the oil called polyphenols, plus extra virgin olive oil added to diet converse the age and disease related changes, also it improves our learning and memory. This oil also helps to fight against proteins that are noxious in our brain. Take note that virgin olive oil is not a good option for cooking, since it hydrogenizes and decompose at high temperature. Eat it cold or consume it by adding to noodles or salads.

Raisins

A potent source of boron can be found in regular old raisins, this compound improves memory and increase attention as research shown in tests. Always choose raisins that are organic, nonorganic raisins sometimes have carcinogenic chemical compounds and harbor neurotoxic pesticides residues. One another important source of brain friendly boron is apple, you can add this fruit to your healthy diet.

Pumpkin seeds

These seeds are rich in zinc than many other seeds, it supplies this valuable mineral which is vital for thinking skills and enhancing memory. These little seeds are precursor to good mood chemical serotonin, full of stress fighting magnesium, tryptophan, and B vitamins. The amino acid tryptophan that are loaded to these seeds is a necessary component for good neurotransmitter operation. Conferring to research, pumpkin seeds have been revealed to reduce social anxiety. Pumpkin seeds can be healthy snack that can have a positive effect in our brain, it is filled with omega-3 and omefa-6 fatty acids. These fatty acids increase our overall brain functioning and development. It also supplies magnesium to our brain which has calming effect, and zinc that boost our immune system. You can add these delicious seeds or mix with nuts and raisins, or add to oatmeal with cinnamon and a hint of honey for a healthy heart and brain breakfast.

Broccoli

Vitamin K is identified to improve brain power and cognitive function which ca be found in broccoli. As per research it can slow the crack-up of acetylcholine, neurotransmitter which are needed in our nervous system to bring off properly and to keep memories and brains sharp. Low level of acetylcholine can cause Alzheimer’s disease. Broccoli is also loaded with vitamin C, one cup provides you 150 percent of recommended vitamin C daily intake, and with its high fiber level you will feel full quickly. You will remember other things if you remember to eat broccoli. As an evidence by memory studies on people who consume broccoli it improves memory function due to its choline. For people who does not like the taste of broccoli it can be cut to small and add to salads, chopped it fine and add to soups, or can be boiled and add to a creamy chowder base.

Brussels Sprouts
As per research, this vegetable is full of vitamin K which believe that can help healthy older adults in their verbal memory skills.

Fresh Tea

Drinking freshly brewed hot or iced tea two cups per day contain a small amount of caffeine, which is good for focus, mood, and enhancing memory. Tea promotes healthy blood flow and contains antioxidants particularly called catechins. Take note that drinking tea must be fresh, powdered or bottled tea does not have the same benefits.

"Smart Fuel: Digest Good Foods for a Healthier Brain"