11 Foods That Supercharge Your Brain to Boost Memory
Every bite of food you eat is a choice that either depletes or nourishes your brain.
Brain function can maintained in a few ways: mental exercises, diet, and luck. A nourishing, balanced diet helps the brain stay healthy and avoid diseases, like Alzheimer’s. Besides this, a good diet decreases the risk of heart disease, hypertension, and diabetes. Read on for some foods that boost your brain function.
Foods that supercharge your brain
1. Fruits and Vegetables
These foods are rich in powerful antioxidants that help protect the brain from damage caused by free radicals. Research shows that a diet rich in antioxidants can slow age-dependent cognitive decline. In particular, certain fruits and vegetables have been associated with brain-boosting properties, including blueberries, bananas, apricots, cantaloupe, mangoes, watermelon, and leafy green vegetables such as kale, broccoli, spinach, chard, romaine lettuce, and arugula.
2. Omega-3 Rich Foods
These include wild-caught fish, walnuts, and flaxseed, which are excellent sources of omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3 fats, particularly docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) are important for healthy brain function and working memory. Fatty fish like salmon, tuna, trout, mackerel, halibut, herring, and sardines are believed to lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Non-fish sources of omega-3 fats include ground flaxseed, flaxseed oil, walnuts, winter squash, and various kinds of beans.
3. Eggs
Eggs are an excellent source of choline, a nutrient that the body uses to make acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter involved in memory. Boiled eggs are healthier than fried eggs, and easier to pack in your lunch. Choline is also found in spirulina (a magic algae), wheatgerm, and lecithin.
4. Strawberries
Not to be outdone in the berry department, strawberries are also excellent for the brain. A 2012 Harvard study found that women who ate at least one cup of strawberries and blueberries per week experienced a two and half year delay in mental decline compared to women who rarely consumed them.
5. Carbohydrates
Your brain needs carbohydrates to fuel its performance, but it is important to choose the type of carbs that can give you long-lasting energy. While simple carbs can give you a quick boost in energy, complex carbs such as whole-wheat bread, oatmeal, brown rice, high-fiber cereal, whole beans, and lentils give you longer lasting energy.
6. Blackcurrants
They might be small but blackcurrants are packed full of Vitamin C, which is thought to have the power to increase mental agility and protect against age-related brain degeneration including dementia and Alzheimer’s.
7. Nuts
Nuts, like almonds, are superfoods that are good sources of vitamin E, an antioxidant that may lower your risk for age-related cognitive decline. Nuts are also rich in amino acids and essential oils, which help improve focus and concentration. Walnut oil also supports heart health, and keeps joints limber.
8. Green Tea
Green tea contains powerful antioxidants called polyphenols that protect against brain damage, slow brain aging, and enhance memory and mental alertness.
9. Broccoli
A study found that vitamin K, can enhance cognitive function and improve brainpower and broccoli is full of it! Researchers found that broccoli is also high in glucosinolates, which can slow the breakdown of the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, which we need for the central nervous system to perform properly and keep our memories sharp.
10. Whole grains
Like all our organs and tissues, the brain needs energy to work. A steady supply of glucose in the bloodstream up to the brain is the best way to concentrate and think clearly all day. Whole grains with a low glucose index (GI) release the sugar slowly and steadily into the bloodstream, feeding the brain continually. Wheatbran, brown pasta, brown rice, flaxseed and other granary breads, brown cereals—all these are great brain foods.
11. Blueberries
A recent study at Tufts University found that eating blueberries helps retain short-term memory. Blueberries grow wild all over the world, and are delicious—no reason not to eat them.
