Feed Your Brain!

By June Lay
Junefit.com

How many times during this week did we consider how our food choices are connected to the function, appearance and health of our body?

Is there a brain-food connection and if so, what can we feed it to enhance its performance? After all, our brain controls and regulates all our voluntary and involuntary physical functions as well as its mysterious functioning of our mind! Brain nutrition according to experts has a few basic aspects, each corresponding to our basic primary nutrients of carbohydrates, fats and proteins. So, once again we might want to consider that each of these nutrients is important to our body, and reconsider diets that eliminate or drastically reduce any one type of food (OK, I couldn't resist since so many of us are carb-starved these days!). All of our nutrients provide our brain with the raw materials to protect, power and keep it functioning at its best.
Feeding our brain includes:

• Carbohydrates. Complex carbohydrates such as those found in our starches, grains, vegetables and fruits (fruits are technically simple carbs), give our brain the raw material for glucose. Glucose is the main fuel that powers our brain and that brain cells use for energy. Our brain cannot store it like our muscles, so we need a steady supply. This means that if we haven't eaten all day and/or we're on a restricted carbohydrate diet, we may find ourselves craving sweets, feeling fatigued, moody or just not functioning at our best (we may not even be aware of our lowered abilities).

  Carbohydrates are also the primary source of most of our vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals (including antioxidants), which protect our brain from premature aging, and those free radicals that may contribute to some of the well known brain diseases. Now of course, we want to give our brain those carbohydrates that house the most nutrients, so I'm not referring to donuts here (sorry, I couldn't resist!).

   

• Fats. Yes, fats! Fats -- or, shall I say, our essential fatty acids found mainly in our polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats (fats found in fish, coldwater fish, shellfish, vegetables, nuts and seeds) -- provide our brain with the raw materials to maintain brain cell membrane integrity and functioning.

  A study reported in "The Journal of Neurobiology of Learning and Memory" reported a study done on rats (their brains function similarly to ours, I'm not kidding) reported a loss of cognitive functioning after rats were fed a diet consisting of 40 percent fat (similar also to what most of us Americans eat). During the study it was found that when the diet was high in saturated fat versus unsaturated fat, the rats suffered more impairment. Their learning and memory functioning were reduced. Saturated fat can clog arteries and cause a buildup of plaque that eventually reduces blood flow. And we don't need to guess what reduced blood flow means to our thinking ability! So, let's eat our fats, but let's be choosy where they come from!

   

• Proteins. Proteins provide the raw materials for those vital brain chemicals known as neurotransmitters. For instance, when we eat a piece of lean meat that contains tryptophan, we enable our body to make the well known neurotransmitter serotonin (this is the same brain chemical we increase in our brain taking Prozac for instance) by providing it with the raw materials of amino acids. Let's not forget that our lean meats such as lean chicken, fish and turkey provide the same aminos as the higher fat meats, without the dangerous saturated fats we read about in the preceding paragraph!

 

• Water and exercise. In the interest of keeping our tip short enough to read, here are just two more vital things we give our brain. Water, a nutrient as we recently read in my first tip, is the primary component of blood which carries all our vital nutrients to our brain. Exercise, of course, increases our circulation, and therefore increases the blood supply to our brain bringing those nutrients with an increase of oxygen (don't we all think more clearly after moderate exercise?).

So, the next time we're ready for a meal, let's think about this: We're feeding our body, including feeding our brain. Although our brain averages about 2 percent of our body weight, it uses more than 20 percent of our energy, and about half of the blood sugar floating in our blood vessels! Of course, I'll still have that donut, just not as often!

>Sources used include: Brain.com, John D. MacArthur; Journal of Neurobiology of Learning and Memory; Biological Psychology, Kalat, 6th edition. Information given is not a substitute for medical advice nor is it meant to provide medical advice. © junefit 2004. Powered by Yellowbrix, Inc.