Food for the brain

Food for the brain reduces the risk of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

1. Bernard Preston
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2. Pathophysiology of atherosclerosis
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3. Food for the brain

By Bernard Preston

Few things terrorise us more than the sneaking suspicion that we are losing it. You can no longer remember people's names and then you find that, unable to find the sugar, you had put in the fridge or microwave instead instead of its usual spot on the shelf.

In my own particular case it is the inability to recognise some common item that I am hunting for, only to find it right under my nose. Yesterday it was the butter on the dining room table; with the lid on, I missed it at first glance.

A few months ago I went soaring for the first time at an unfamiliar airfield. I got in a panic when I could not locate the landing strip that was right off the left wing. Sadly, it was time to quit before the horrible accident.

You will have your own little scares. Is this the normal part of aging, or is the first sign of dementia? I decided to do some homework to find out what the literature had to say about food for the brain.

Here is the checklist that I drew up.

A critic could readily shoot holes in this little list; there are many gaps, in particular minerals that are essential in the chemical processes that use this food for the brain.

And where are the legumes, nuts and seeds? We just need to eat from a very broad spectrum of foods to get the nutrients our bodies and brains need.

Homocysteine

Homocysteine is a highly toxic break down product of protein metabolism that is strongly associated with damaging effects on the brain and heart cells.

The body normally breaks it down immediately but many of the above desirable food substances are required for the process.

Nitrate

Hypertension is strongly associated with dementia, probably due to the reduced blood flow to the brain. Foods such as beets that are rich in nitrates boost nitric oxide levels which relaxes the arterioles that supply the nerve cells.

Exercise

Whilst not food for the brain, exercise contributes by keeping our blood sugar down and helping make sure that these desirable substances actually reach that nerve tissue where it is so vitally needed.

Food for the brain

Food for the brain helps make sure we don't lose our marbles by preventing the build up of toxic compounds like homocysteine and damaging free radicals.

Health nut neurosis

A serious psychological disease lurks if you become obsessed with trying to get all these foods for your brain.

Notice a few simple rules.

1. Enjoy plenty of coloured fruits and vegetables.
2. Avoid refined products which I'm reluctant to call food.
3. Certain oils and fats are vital, like fatty fish, avocados and olives.
4. Sugar and refined flour are conspicuously absent.

Try to follow those simple rules and you can avoid health nut neurosis.

General well-being

It is no coincidence but these are the very foods that minimise the risk of hypertension, heart disease, type-2 diabetes and obesity that are so strongly associated with dementia.

Much of it has to do with the well-being of our blood vessels; those lifestyle factors that damage our arteries are little different to those that cause havoc with our brains.

At the heart of it, the chronically raised blood glucose of obesity and the inflammation of blood vessels caused by smoking and the very devils that destroy our marbles.

Inflammation

Inflammation of the tissues of the body, including the brain, have at their heart what is known as oxidative-stress. Compounds like homocysteine are not disposed of as fast as they should and their is a build up of free radicals which damage both our genes and organs.

These free radicals that cause inflammation are neutralised by the antioxidants, phytochemicals and vitamins in our diet. If we are not consuming them on a daily basis, especially as we get older when everything starts to happen more slowly, then slowly there is neuron damage and the consequent dementia is inevitable.

The second brain

The colon is being called the second brain because of the host of neurotransmitters that are produced by the healthy gut. Astonishingly there are 2kg of friendly bacteria, viruses and yeasts in the happy colon.

Probiotics like kefir help restore these bugs.

But antibiotics and the soup of toxic chemicals that we consume play havoc with this microbiome, as it is known.

Food for the brain is not only what we consume, but also that which we should avoid.

Top of the list are the non-caloric artificial sweeteners (NAS) that alter both the composition and function of the micriobiome, and driving the development of glucose intolerance and raised blood glucose.

Take home

The take home from of all of this is that it is a complex subject to which researchers are adding daily to the literature.

The best we can do is to eat food for the brain as often as possible, especially many coloured foods, and avoid chemicals like saccharin and aspartane that are far more deleterious than the sugar we are avoiding.

Enjoying our food is important, but the tongue can be trained to like beets and kale, berries and lemons and herbs like parsley and basil.

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