Simple Nutrition Insights

Boost Your Brain with Smart Eating Habits

• Leonila • Episode 71

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Unlock the secrets to a sharper mind and improved cognitive function as we journey through the fascinating world of nutrition and brain health with registered dietitian Leonila Campos. Ever wondered how the food you eat shapes your brain's performance? Discover the essential nutrients, like omega-3 fatty acids and antioxidants, that play a pivotal role in protecting your brain and enhancing memory, focus, and mood. From delicious sources like salmon, walnuts, and dark chocolate, we'll guide you through incorporating these brain-boosting ingredients into your meals.

Hydration is more critical to your brain's health than you might think, especially during the colder months when your water intake can easily decrease. Dive into practical hydration tips and learn how to spot the hidden dangers of refined sugars and trans fats lurking in your diet. Hear Leonila’s expert advice on how to dodge cognitive pitfalls like inflammation and brain fog, ensuring your brain performs at its best every day through mindful eating and drinking habits.

Finally, we arm you with a practical food reference guide that makes grocery shopping a breeze, ensuring you never have to guess which foods will support your brain health. Each bite matters, and with our handout, you'll be making informed choices that not only fuel your body but also sharpen your mind. Leonila Campos encourages you to prioritize every meal as an opportunity to enhance your cognitive well-being, setting you on a path to a more health-conscious and balanced life.

Nutrition for Brain Health

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Speaker 1:

Hey, hey, welcome back to another episode in the Simple Nutrition Insights podcast, the podcast where we dive deep into how nutrition can fuel your life. I am your host, leonila Campos, registered dietitian, and today we are exploring the fascinating connection between what we eat and how our brain functions. We are going to talk about memory. We're going to talk about focus, our mood and long-term cognitive function. Do you know that the brain is about 60% fat and consumes 20% of the body's energy? We'll uncover specific foods and nutrients that support brain health, how to incorporate them into your meals and some simple tips to keep your minds sharp. So I oftentimes have patients that ask me what are some of the foods that I can have to improve my brain function, or what are some of the foods that are going to support my memory, my focus, and so I think it's really important to emphasize that our brains need 20% of our energy, right, and so it makes sense that when we are not eating enough, you are going to have issues with headache or fogginess or not feeling so well, and so this is really important to remember, right, when you are looking at your meals and when you're looking at your day-to-day and how you feel overall. Sometimes I've had clients that have recurrent headaches, right, and so, as we're looking into the nutrition aspect of it, we're looking at figuring out ways how to improve that right. And headaches can come in for so many reasons, right, many factors can contribute to it Dehydration, right, sleeping enough, hormonal changes, sensitivity to light, so many things, right. But there's something that we can control and some things that we can improve and see if that helps a little bit, right, and so nutrition is one of them. But it also affects when we don't have the proper nutrition, right, when we're not feeling ourselves properly. It also affects our memory. It also affects our ability to remember things, to stay focused. Hence the reason why there is free breakfast and free lunch, at least here in the United States. It's because there has been so much research that shows that when children don't eat in the mornings or at lunchtime, their ability to learn right, their academic performance, really, really is affected. And it makes sense, right, because our brain uses 20% of our energy, and so we're not getting those nutrients as well. As you know, using those nutrients for development, it definitely affects us in so many ways. So keep those things in mind as well.

Speaker 1:

But let's start with key nutrients for brain health, right, which is one of the questions that I always get asked. One of them is your omega-3 fatty acids, and this is an essential nutrient, meaning that we have to get it from food, or a supplement if, for some reason, we don't get it from food. But the first line of intervention is food first, right. If we're able to get it from food, let's do that right. If, for some reason, we can, okay, let's explore the area of, you know, supplementing. So where can we find omega-3 fatty acids? You're going to find them in your fatty fish, like salmon, mackerel, sardines, walnuts, flax seeds and chia seeds. We're able to add a variety of these nutrients right, and get some of these omega-3 fatty acids.

Speaker 1:

Now you might ask, well, what are the benefits? The benefits is that they are essential for our brain structure and function. It reduces inflammation and it supports memory. So, again, it's an essential nutrient that we need, again, not only for brain function, right, we need it for so many other functions, like reducing inflammation, reducing cortisol levels, managing oxidation right, and, most importantly, supports our memory. So here are some tips, right, and now I am going to do this with each of the nutrients that I'm going to mention how to use them right. Just a helpful tip. So aim for two servings of fatty fish per week, right, and this can also help you with your heart health, so it's a win-win addition. Or you can also add a tablespoon of flaxseed to smoothies or oatmeal right, so you have if you don't add seafood or any animal products. But you also have the ability to add flax seeds and walnuts and chia seeds to get some of these omega-3 fatty acids as well. So aim to add those consistently right to get those omega-3 fatty acids.

Speaker 1:

The next one is a group right. These are your antioxidants, which includes your vitamin C, your vitamin E and polyphenols. Now, you find these ones. You find your antioxidants in blueberries, strawberries, oranges, spinach, nuts, seeds and dark chocolate. Yum. The benefits are that it protects the brain cells from oxidative stress and slow aging-related cognitive decline.

Speaker 1:

Now, when we think about our meals, right, and how they are composed and what our plates are missing oftentimes, is a good majority of our antioxidants, right, a good majority of our antioxidants, right. And so what I usually suggest to my clients is like you don't have to eliminate things, right, but you have to look at your plate and ask yourself how balanced is my plate, right? What food groups, what nutrients am I missing that I can add them? Right, and you're adding nutrition. You're adding fuel. You're adding these components that your brain needs. You're adding fuel. You're adding these components that your brain needs.

Speaker 1:

So a tip here, right is, snack on a handful of mixed berries, or add spinach to your morning smoothie, or add spinach to your omelet or your scrambled eggs. There's so many ways we can add these antioxidants to protect our brain cells from oxidative stress, right. And there's so many things that affect our brain cells, right From environmental, from the food that we eat toxins, and so if we're not doing anything to protect ourselves, right, then we can see that. You know cognitive decline, but it also affects just our brain cells and our ability to repair. So make a point to add these foods right on a daily basis. You want to be able to add these foods throughout the week, right, every single day, finding different ways to do that.

Speaker 1:

The next group is your B vitamins Vitamin B6, vitamin B9, vitamin B12. And you find these B vitamins in leafy greens, eggs, whole grains and fortified cereals. The main benefit is that they play a critical role in producing neurotransmitters and maintaining brain energy levels. Now your B vitamins are for energy and metabolism and so we want to be able again to add them with food first. Again, if you come to me and you say, hey, I want to add a supplement, okay, let's see how we can optimize your nutrition first right, and if we're still struggling to add these nutrients, then we can optimize your nutrition first right. And if we're still struggling to add these nutrients, then we can consider a supplement. And here's why I'm not saying that you're never going to need a supplement, but what I'm saying is that we need to be able to add these food first right, because you're not only going to get the B vitamins right so, for example, leafy greens you're also going to get vitamin C, you're also going to get fiber, you're also going to get these antioxidants. So you want to be able to add food, because you get so many other nutrients in comparison to a supplement that you only get that right and it becomes expensive versus actually really getting it from food, and it becomes expensive versus actually really getting there from food. So some tips here right to add your B vitamins, include a variety of greens, like kale and arugula in salads or your smoothies, you know, if you want to add your eggs into different recipes, you want to add your whole grains, right? You know whole wheat or quinoa or barley. There's so many Wild rice, there's so many whole grains that you can add, even if you're following or if you have celiac disease or you have gluten sensitivity. There's so many other grains, whole grains, that you can still add that don't have any gluten.

Speaker 1:

The next one is choline. Now, choline is found in eggs, especially the egg yolk liver and soy products. So the main benefit here, right. And if you think about prenatal vitamins, right, specifically for moms or women, your prenatal vitamins are going to have choline because it's essential for the brain development of the baby. But it doesn't mean that once you are a baby and growing in the womb that you don't need these nutrients. You still need it. Right, your brain is still functioning, still rebuilding and repairing, so we still need choline and there are ways to get choline right.

Speaker 1:

Eggs, again, the egg yolk liver. I know some people are like oh, liver, you don't have to add it. You can find it in so many other products, but it's just it's higher in these specific food. Soy products, right, aromame, tofu, soy milk, anything that's made out of soybean is going to have choline and some of the benefits is that it is important for memory and learning due to its role in acetylcholine production. So a mouthful there. But the main thing is that we have to remember is that it's important for memory, right. So if we're trying to help our memory long-term, right being able to add a variety of these foods again that are going to have our choline. So I know sometimes people are like oh, and now? I want you to understand that these are just general guidelines. Of course you want to work with your dietitian to individualize them. If you have specific conditions that you're trying to work with or that you're trying to manage with, or that you're like trying to manage, or if you want something more individualized, right, work with your dietitian, um, to optimize your nutrition for your brain health. But you know, you can add, for example, your whole egg in like a veggie packed omelet for breakfast. You can add again soy milk or do a tofu stir fry so many ways that we can add these, all these foods right in one single meal.

Speaker 1:

The next one is magnesium. Oh, I love magnesium. Magnesium has over 300 biological functions in our body and so it makes sense that you know one of them is going to be brain health. You find magnesium in almonds, pumpkin seeds, avocados and whole grains. The benefit here is that it helps reduce stress and improves sleep, which are both critical for brain health.

Speaker 1:

You know, it's interesting because sleep is one of the questions that I ask my clients every single time I see them, because sleep plays such a huge role in recovering, repairing how we are going to go about our day the next day, our mood, our mental health, our stress management. So sleep plays a huge role. And oftentimes, the majority of the times, clients that come to work with me, they are not getting enough magnesium from food, right? And so as we start adding some of these foods right, I continue to ask these questions Sleep might improve, right? They might feel more rested, they might be getting more deep quality sleep. Of course, there are other factors, like sleep apnea, or they're anxious about something, or they have high levels of stress, or they go to bed really late. These are things you know. These are other factors that we also have to be able to control to help our sleep. But in the sense of magnesium, right, it does play a huge role in our stress management, in our sleep. So if you have issues there, right, I can work with your dietitian, because there's so many magnesium supplements out there too that you know.

Speaker 1:

Again, you want to start with food. So, adding, you know, one ounce of almonds every day, or adding one ounce of pumpkin seeds every day, or avocados or whole grains right, you're getting so many nutrients there not necessarily magnesium, but these are some of the higher foods that have magnesium in them. A tip here in terms of how to add it right, add avocado slices to your toast. Or sprinkle pumpkin seeds over salads, right. Or have a snack with almonds and a piece of fruit, right, almonds and strawberries. Or add almond butter to an apple. Right, and that is one of the ways to add some of these magnesium. You can add pumpkin seeds to your oatmeal, right. Or you can add avocado to your tacos. So many, so many ways to add these nutrients. So just to recap here and now.

Speaker 1:

This is not an inclusive list, right? I don't want you to just focus on that and not eat anything else, but I want you to add these foods, right. So if you're not adding them and you're working on your nutrition, make sure that you make a point to add these foods on a consistent basis, right? So your omega-3 fatty acids coming from fatty fish, like salmon, walnuts, flax seeds, chia seeds. Your antioxidants, such as vitamin C, vitamin E and polyphenols, like blueberries, strawberries, oranges, spinach, nuts seeds and dark chocolate, which you're also going to get some of your magnesium there. Know some of um, your magnesium there, as well as your b vitamins, right for energy and for producing neurotransmitters, as well. Your choline, right, and your magnesium. So, again, this is not an inclusive list, right? There's so many other foods, too, that um that I have mentioned to help with brain function. These are the main ones, right, so, adding a variety of these foods throughout the day.

Speaker 1:

Now let's talk about some of the lifestyle, lifestyle and eating patterns for brain health. Right, there's um that has been shown that has most of these nutrients. Right, and something that we can follow, something that can also help, just in general. I'm sure you've heard of the Mediterranean diet, right, or the Mediterranean way of eating. It highlights its brain boosting benefits and emphasizes on whole foods, healthy fats and antioxidants. Right? So if you're looking for, like a guidance or some kind of guidance there, or like just an overall overview of what that is, you can follow something similar like the Mediterranean diet, and it's not only going to help, again, with brain function, it is also going to help with your heart, right, because it limits the amount of red meat that we consume and limits, you know, sugary foods and all that, but you're also adding pretty much all the nutrients that I talked about. They are included in this way of eating.

Speaker 1:

Hydration also plays a huge role in our brain function, and so making sure that we're hydrated right, staying specifically now that it's winter time, when we get dehydrated, we can also get a headache right, because our bodies are pretty much made out of water, and so we need that consistent hydration for better blood flow, right, and just to have more of this balance in our blood. And so we want to make sure that we're if, as it's getting colder, right and we're noticing okay, I'm not drinking a lot of water and this is something that I'm talking to my clients now, because I do see that often is, let's find some ways to add some hydration right, we're not out as much, it's not hot, so we're not not sweating, so our bodies are not needing to keep us cool um so often and we just are colder, right, we don't get thirsty and we don't want cold water. So some other ways to add some hydration right. Adding some warm water with lemon right, I have clients that do that. Tea, right, non-caffeinated tea, tea that doesn't have any caffeine, chamomile tea, mint, lemongrass. And that's another way to keep you hydrated. Right, because it's pretty much water. Just adding a little bit of herbs there for a little bit of flavor. What else? But if we were to choose for an amount, right, about 64 ounces is usually what the general recommendation at a minimum. It's higher if you're active. It's higher if maybe you're needing more hydration for specific conditions or you might need less for a specific condition. So, again, this is where talking to a dietitian is really important, because you can really get individualized information and individualized interventions. So, yes, try to aim for about 64 ounces a day, and that is about four water bottles, like just your regular 16.7 ounce water bottles.

Speaker 1:

And one of the ways to measure how well hydrated you are is by looking at the color of your urine, right? So don't do it first thing in the morning because it's going to be dark. You've been so many hours without any hydration. But just throughout the day, right, as you go about your day, look at the color of your urine and see okay, maybe I need a little bit more hydration, maybe let me have a little bit of more tea to help me. Soups, right, like like, um, just your clear soups, chicken noodle soup or a stew those are some other ways to add some hydration too. Um, let me see what else here. Yeah, those are the main things here, right?

Speaker 1:

Uh, on that sense, there are some things that we should consider, should limit, right, should be cautious and be aware of, because there's some research, you know, that shows that that does affect our brain and just our overall health, right, and it's more so like a high amount of refined sugars and processed foods, right. So, if we think about, my meals just consist of sugary foods, highly processed foods, right, that contributes to inflammation, brain fog and mood swings, right. So when you think about, let's say, a sugary drink, you are going to have the sugar spike at that moment, right, but you're going to crash, most likely because we cannot have these higher levels of sugar in the blood, you know, for a longer period of time, unless, if we have insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome or diabetes, your body is going to send stasis and insulin to get the sugar out of the blood, and so if we're not adding our wholesome foods, right, some of these foods that I talked about, then we're not helping our bodies to fight that inflammation right, to help our brain cells with oxidative stress. So we want to be able to again look at these foods, look at our meals and see, okay, are most of my meals considered highly processed foods? Lots of fast food? I don't see any of these foods on my plate. That's where we can start. Right, let's try to add some of those foods to help our brain function.

Speaker 1:

Trans fats here's another one, and I talk about these also with my clients, specifically if we're having cholesterol issues, triglyceride issues, liver issues, where we have a higher amount of fat around our organs or around our liver. So our trans fats trans fats are chemically created. In a way. There is a little bit of trans fats in your animal foods, mostly your animal meats, but these specific trans fats have been created right, chemically modified, to last longer. But also they're cheaper because you know it's mass production and they have to keep food shelf stable. In order to do that right, they have to use something that helps with that. So you're going to find trans fads on packaged baked goods, fried foods.

Speaker 1:

Now I've done an episode on how to read a food label, so if you haven't had a chance to listen to that episode, go and check it out. But every single food that is going to have a food label on it, right, is going to have trans fat and it's always going to be zero. But that doesn't mean that there is zero trans fat, right, it's just because the FDA told the food industry hey, it indicates that these higher levels of trans fat is creating issues in heart health, right, cardiovascular issues. And so they said, okay, we have to reduce it to 0.5 grams or less and if that is the case, you don't have to add it on the nutrition facts label. But again, it doesn't mean that it doesn't have any zero transfer. What you have to do is go where the ingredients list is and try to find partially or fully hydrogenated oils. Again, go into where your ingredients list is on that specific product and try to see, okay, where is the fully or partially hydrogenated oil? That, my friend, is a trans fat. So even though the food label says zero trans fat, if you see that ingredient, that means that it does have it. It has it at less than 0.5 grams, but it still has it per serving. So let's say you have three servings, right, and it has 0.4. Now, with those three servings right Now you're at 1.2, right Grams, which is high, right?

Speaker 1:

We know that trans fats affect your heart health and your cardiovascular system significantly. It just clogs your arteries. Your body is like, hey, we're not sure what to do with this thing, and so it contributes to cardiovascular health. It also affects your liver and it affects your heart. So you want to be able to avoid that ingredient if possible, right, if you're like you know, this is why I can afford that, you know, and that's what I'm going to do for now. Try to limit it, right, especially if you have some of those conditions, because it's just going to contribute to more heart issues. So try to avoid fully or partially hydrogenated oils as a trans fat. But when you think about in terms of brain health, that affects also your brain, right, it has been linked to increased risk of dementia. Again, because it's something that you know, it's not, it's creating more inflammation, right? Your body's like, hey, we're not sure what to do, and it's you know, it's affecting your entire body, not only your cardiovascular health, but also your brain health. So, again, check the labels right. Avoid those specific ingredients, partially or fully hydrogenated oils. Try to find something similar, right, that maybe you're able to afford, or find something different.

Speaker 1:

The next one is alcohol. Now, moderate consumption can be part of a healthy plan. A healthy diet right the American recommendations, right, or the USDA recommendations is to limit one drink, one alcoholic drink right a day for women and two for men. If you don't drink, please don't start drinking to try to meet that guideline. It is just for people that drink, right. Excessive intake of alcohol has been linked to cognitive decline Right, so it does affect your brain function because it's you know, it just goes into the brain.

Speaker 1:

So, with alcohol, right, this is something that can be definitely a sensitive topic or something that, you know, we kind of have to further explore. But again, the main thing here is that and this is for all types of alcohol across the board, right, even for wine, so, because of the levels of alcohol in the specific drink. So the idea is that if we don't drink consistently, that's perfect. You don't have to start If drinking is something that you do on a consistent basis, right, and you're like you know what? I'm a female, I drink more than two drinks every time I go out, or if I'm a male and I drink 12 beers or something like that, which I've had. Clients say that we have to really understand, right, okay, what it essentially. What is the end goal here? Right, in trying to further be aware of, maybe, the possible reasons why that is happening. But also, right, how is this benefiting me? Right, and let me just break it to you here Alcohol doesn't do anything for you on a nutrition standpoint, on a health standpoint, right, it actually affects your entire body in such a negative way, right, not only your brain function, but also your liver, and so your liver is the one that takes the hardest hit.

Speaker 1:

And so if you already have, for example let's just deviate here for a moment If you already have fatty liver disease, right, or metabolic liver disease or something along those lines I know it changed to mash Adding alcohol, right, it's not helping your liver at all because your liver has it's the number one organ to trying to detoxify, you know, your body and trying to get rid of alcohol. Pretty much everything, every other function slows down to try to get rid of it. It's a toxin, and so you really have to think about those things? Right, because it does affect your brain function. It does affect your cognitive abilities, you know, hence why people you know are not well when they're drinking. But long-term, right, it does affect your brain function long-term, and so you know some tips there. Again, if this is something that you really want to work on and it's not something that you've been able to do, there's so many support groups out there. There's therapists that work, you know, specifically with individuals, you know with addiction or that struggle with a specific, you know, intake or alcohol, alcoholism. You're not alone there, right? It's just a matter of knowing what you want and asking for the support.

Speaker 1:

So let's pivot here for a moment. Let's talk about some practical meal ideas for our brain health. So I'm going to give you some examples here, just as a quick guide. Again, make sure that you work with your dietician to have a more individualized plan, but these are just some general ideas.

Speaker 1:

So, for example, for breakfast, you know, you can have an avocado toast with whole grain bread, topped with a poached egg and a side of berries. If you don't do animal products, avocado toast with crumble, tofu on a whole grain bread, right, and some asideido berries. Or you can do avocado toast with a whole grain, right, your berries and a glass of soy milk For lunch, right. You can have spinach and salmon salad with walnuts, olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette, right. Or you can do a tofu stir-fry with top with, like walnuts, right and some of these, some of these vinaigrette uh, osama vinaigrette. For a snack, you can have one ounce of almonds and dark chocolate. My goodness, who doesn't want to try something like that? Right, that sounds really delicious, um, or you know, a handful of pumpkin seeds, right and berries. We haven't had your berries. This is also another idea.

Speaker 1:

For dinner, you can have grilled chicken or tofu, right with some sauteed broccoli, bell peppers and quinoa. So here you have your vitamin C, right, and you also have your quinoa as your whole grain with some B vitamins. For dessert, you can have a wheat yogurt right with a drizzle of honey and sprinkle some flax seeds again. If you don't do animal products, there is a brand out there called kite heel. You know, just just as a disclaimer, I don't get any monetary benefits, but I do eat it often and I do enjoy it. It can give you it's a greek style kite heel yogurt that gives you about 15, 17 grams of protein, right. You can drizzle it with, or you can add a little bit of agave nectar, or you can add some cinnamon and then sprinkle some flax seeds or some chia seeds right, even some nuts, if you want to, and you have a really delicious dessert, or like another snack, if you want to to, and you have a really delicious dessert, or like another snack, if you want to.

Speaker 1:

So, again, this is just some quick ideas, right, to get your brain thinking about some of these foods that we talked about that help the brain and for our brain health. So let's recap here, my friend, the key takeaways here is that we have to prioritize our food first, right, let's make sure that we're getting our omega-3s from our food, our antioxidants, our B vitamins. We try to limit refined sugars, right. Try to avoid trans fats and just overall, right. I don't want you to feel so overwhelmed about it. Or, if you're not working with a dietician which you should be working with a dietician if you're trying to improve your nutrition and your health just think of it.

Speaker 1:

How can I make this plate that I'm eating more balanced, right? How can I add more of these brain foods, right per se? Or how can I add more nourishment to this meal? Right? As opposed to like what can I eliminate? Right? If we think about elimination, sometimes that brings more anxiety and we're like I don't want to do that. Right, but think of it as like, how can I add more nourishment to this meal? If you want to start with something more generalized, right, you can look into the Mediterranean diet or the Mediterranean plant way of eating, and that can give you an overall guideline too, and that's where you can start adding more of these brain health foods. So I definitely encourage you, my listeners, to try to incorporate one brain healthy food into your meals.

Speaker 1:

Right, I know the week is almost well. Actually, this podcast episode will air on Monday, so try to do that sometime this week. Right, share your experience with me on social media. Nutrition underscore with underscore Leonila L-E-O-N-I-L-A. Or if you have a superfood not a superfood a brain food that you enjoy, right, share it with me. And I created, as always, right?

Speaker 1:

If you don't know, if you're a new listener, I encourage you to go to like different episodes and then find one that you feel like you're. You know you can relate the most or whatnot, but in most of my episodes I link a free resource that you can use right, either recapping what we're talking about today or giving you some other ideas to add some of these nutrients into your daily life for free, right, take a look. If you find one that you enjoy, just you know, go, go ahead and get your free resource. So this one is not the exception.

Speaker 1:

In the show notes you can find, um, just you know, some of these foods that we talked about in more of a handout form that you can have and then you can follow and just reference back, take it to the store when you go grocery shopping and share it with a friend or whatnot. So that is it, my friend. Again, thank you so much for tuning into the Simple Nutrition Insights Podcast. Remember that every bite you take can be a step toward a healthier brain. Until next time, take care and stay fueled. Bye-bye, my friend.