Next time you consider eating more healthily, don’t neglect your brain in the equation. Certain foods can help improve brain matter, mood, synaptic connections, arterial function, as well as reduce the risk of stroke, Dementia and Alzheimer’s, and more.
Here are the top 5 foods for your brain:
1. Wild Salmon—“Smarter than the average bear”? Hate to break to Yogi, but if he’s getting his food only from “pic-a-nic” baskets, he is greatly lacking in brainpower compared to his brethren, catching salmon in the local river. Wild salmon is one of the best sources of Essential Fatty Acids (Omega-3), a rich source of protein, low in saturated fat, and low in contaminants, such as Mercury. What differentiates the wild variety from those farm raised is that the former grow and evolve their muscles, tissues and fat levels the hard way, fighting for survival of the fittest in the oceans and rivers. By contrast, most farm-raised salmon exist in an artificial environment and are fed a special diet to make them look orange and healthy. Oftentimes color is added later before the fish goes to market!
2. Cacao Beans—That’s right; the basic ingredient of chocolate. But gorging on chocolate bars isn’t going to improve your IQ any time soon. Why?! Because it’s the cacao bean, minimally processed, that proves most beneficial to your bean. The trace amounts of cacao in most chocolate bars are over-processed and combined with such unhealthy ingredients as sugar, milk fat and artificial flavoring. In its purest form, the cacao bean is one of the world’s longest-revered foods, going back to the Aztecs, and has in recent years been shown to be a veritable powerhouse of cognitive enhancement, mood and bliss-enhancement, antioxidants, flavonoids, catechins and many other brain and body-enhancing elements. To receive the brain benefits from cacao, choose only chocolate bars and foods with a high cacao percentage, at least 75% cacao content or higher.
3. Matcha (stone-ground Gyokuru green tea powder)—if you’ve learned anything from the previous two entries then you probably know not to confuse Matcha with the type of green tea that comes in bags. Matcha is a finely-ground powder of topmost part of the shade-grown green tea-plant and NOT your average green tea. It does not come in tea bags; it’s not brewed or boiled, nor does one consume the watery extract from leaves, but rather consumed whole. Macha is loaded with antioxidants; catechins; vitamins, such as C and A; Fluoride; and perhaps most important, EGCG or Epigallocatechin Gallate, a compound found uniquely in green teas which has been shown to possess almost unbelievable anti-cancer, anti-aging and overall health benefits.
4. Acai Berries & Blueberries—Fresh Acai berries, not to be confused with pills claiming to contain Acai and all the beneficial properties therein, possesses not only all of the antioxidant, vitamin and brain benefits of blueberries and other purple berries, such as blackberries, but also Essential Fatty Acids (Omega-3’s) like those found in wild salmon. But fresh Acai berries are hard to find; hence the nod to its purple brethren, which is readily available throughout the year in its natural form.
5. Coffee Beans—Much like the cacao bean, the coffee bean, is incredibly rich with antioxidants, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. Fresh-ground gently roasted coffee has numerous brain and body health benefits, including caffeine, which has recently been shown to be GOOD for the brain, not bad. Also regular coffee consumption has been shown to actually reduce the risk of mental decline and diseases, such as Dementia and Alzheimer’s. The problem is when coffee is combined with other unhealthy things, such as triple-carmel-double-whip-chocolate-creme-mocha-blast-freeze drinks, weak over-extracted brewed cheap poor quality coffee, coffee loaded up with artificial cream and sweeteners, flavored coffees, yada, yada, yada.
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