Get Fit Slowly

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We all know that food affects our body. In many ways, we really are what we eat. But did you know that your diet also affects your mind? The Economist recently profiled the work of Fernando Gómez-Pinilla, “a fish-loving professor of neurosurgery and physiological science” at UCLA who has recently reviewed the research on this subject:

[He] believes that appropriate changes to a person’s diet can enhance his cognitive abilities, protect his brain from damage and counteract the effects of aging. Dr Gómez-Pinilla has been studying the effects of food on the brain for years, and has now completed a review, just published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience, that has analyzed more than 160 studies of food’s effect on the brain. Some foods, he concludes, are like pharmaceutical compounds; their effects are so profound that the mental health of entire countries may be linked to them.

I’ve observed in the past that certain foods or certain meals affect my mental ability. Some foods turn my mind to mush. Others promote alertness. For example, I love pancakes and maple syrup, but when I have this kind of breakfast, I generally suffer from a “brain cloud” the rest of the day. I save pancakes for a rare treat.

Here are three important brain-related nutrients and some foods that provide them:

• Folic acid can help those between 50- and 70-years-old fight “the cognitive decline that accompanies aging”. Insufficient folate is also associated with depression. The moral? Eat your spinach and drink your orange juice!
• Antioxidants, such as Vitamin E, also help fight the effects of aging. In fact, Vitamin E has been linked with better memory in old age. (You can find Vitamin E in vegetable oils, nuts, and leafy greens.) Berries are another good source of antioxidants.
• Omega-3 fatty acids also help the brain stay healthy. These can be found in walnuts and kiwi fruit, but especially in oily fish, like salmon. Omega-3s don’t just help your mind stay sharp — they also help to stave off mental illness. “There is a strong negative correlation between the extent to which a country consumes fish and its levels of clinical depression,” write the authors.

Finally, the article notes, it’s important not to overeat. Gluttony actually undoes some of the good done by antioxidants.

[The Economist: Food for thought]