Is Food Medicine for the Brain?

In the current era, it’s easy to access an abundance of wellness information with one click. Artificial intelligence, social media, the internet, and podcasts offer plentiful educational resources and a variety of perspectives on wellness topics.

In this video blog, we’ll explore why too much information may make it hard to find accurate sources. I’ll also discuss some of the undeniable evidence that food can be medicine for the mind-body and guide you on what to avoid for better brain health.

I’ve made an intention to skip dietary controversies (carnivore vs. vegan, keto vs. carbs, etc.) and focus instead on understanding how food affects the brain based on biochemistry and biology. I’ll also highlight how the food supply influences nutritional content.

We’ll cover:

  • How the modern-day focus on lifestyle medicine is gaining momentum and why that’s important
  • The factors that make it so hard to find accurate health information
  • How the brain is impacted by nutrition
  • What foods to avoid for better cognitive power
  • A note on food insecurity

Thankfully, one does not have to be restrictive and obsessive about food for our brain to function optimally. We just need to take some simple steps to avoid harmful substances on our plate while adding in (vs. taking away) foods that form the foundational building blocks for our brain to function optimally.

As always, all the referenced links and resources will be available in this accompanying article.

In an upcoming video, we’ll sum everything up by highlighting some top foods to fuel metabolic brain health.

So, let’s get started.

 

The Modern-Day Focus on Lifestyle and Health

We are in a transition regarding our healthcare in America. There is much more focus on the influence of lifestyle and environmental factors on our wellness. A lot of this has to do with what is currently going on in the White House.

Recently, the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) Commission released its MAHA report on what is fueling chronic childhood diseases. They cited a range of contributing factors. These included poor diet, accumulation of environmental toxins, insufficient physical activity, chronic stress, and overmedicalization.

The report raised both praise and concerns. Some supporters became critical, claiming it did not go far enough in finding all the causes. Other outright opponents and allies questioned citations and scientific rigor.

Regardless of the hot debate of specific content, many Americans do agree in the broad sense that we need to make our country healthier. This welcome unification is refreshingly supported across our divided country’s political lines.

Although food and nutrition aren’t sole contributors to our health, they are getting a lot of emphasis within our puzzle pieces of wellness due to this report. With the knowledge that diet has an impact on health outcomes, many are still confused with all the contradictory messages on what to eat to make them healthier. This is due to the extreme, polar opposite advice of various dietary experts and influencers and conflicting research.

So, let’s talk more about why it is so hard to decipher accurate health information and put it into practice.

 

Conflicting Studies, Contradictory Claims, Misinformation, Oh My!

The many conflicting opinions, contrary research findings, and diet culture’s takeover of healthcare makes it difficult to determine how to eat and live for optimal health.

It can become a part-time job to try to find accurate information when sorting through:

  • the misinformation (many are opinion articles, not citing objective sources for their content)
  • intentional and unintentional biases in researcher’s study findings* (e.g., funding, confounding variables, etc.)
  • incomplete and inaccurate data reporting from attention-grabbing headlines
  • misleading and cheery-picked claims from experts and the news

*Note: Even good studies run the risk of various biases and unaccounted for confounders.

Thankfully, if we focus on how our brain uses food and what is the basic nutrition for the brain, leaving out dietary diatribes, it is not so hard to figure out what is best to fuel our brains and bodies.

 

How Food Feeds the Brain

Based on the science of nutrigenomics and years of epidemiological research, it’s become undeniable that dietary interventions impact our physical, cognitive, and brain health.

An article in Nutrition Review discusses “food on the brain” and gives several examples of how nutrition impacts brain function in five distinct ways. The authors state (parenthesis and bold emphasis mine):

  • The performance of the human brain is based on an interplay between the inherited genotype and external environmental factors, including diet. (nature-nurture is linked)
  • Food and nutrition, essential in maintenance of brain performance, also aid in prevention and treatment of mental disorders.
  • Both the overall composition of the human diet and specific dietary components have been shown to have an impact on brain function in various experimental models and epidemiological studies.
  • This narrative review provides an overview of the role of diet in 5 key areas of brain function related to mental health and performance, including: (1) brain development, (2) signaling networks and neurotransmitters in the brain, (3) cognition and memory, (4) the balance between protein formation and degradation (aiding proper removal of cellular debris and offering building blocks for cellular metabolism), and (5) deteriorative effects due to chronic inflammatory processes (providing antioxidants and nutrients to assist cellular function).
  • Finally, the role of diet in epigenetic regulation of brain physiology is discussed.

Another area that influences mental health and our brain’s processes is the gut-brain interaction. This link describes how our microbiome, the residential belly bugs living in our guts, communicate with, and provide feedback to, our brain. This is through the metabolites and various compounds it produces and signaling via the vagus nerve. It is now known that the microbiome can be shaped by our diet and lifestyle.

These key concepts provide us with a basic understanding of how food impacts our brain. Now, we still are left with what to feed it. However, to optimize what we put in our body we have to first know what can prevent nutritional interventions from being utilized effectively.

 

What Not to Eat for Brain Health: Are You Chomping on Chemicals and Additives?

The MAHA report pointed out that some of the damage to our health is coming from our food supply. Specifically, it is through:

  • the cumulative, harmful chemical exposures in our environment through herbicides, pesticides and insecticides
  • chemicals and additives, which have not been adequately studied for safety and have been shown to have negative impacts on children’s (and adults’) brains and health

This has revived the controversy surrounding the role of eating organic foods vs. conventional ones for overall health. Although research regarding the superiority of nutritional content of organic foods may not be as top notch as hoped, what is NOT in it maybe even more critical. The fact is organic foods have less chemicals and toxins.

Any time we take in chemicals, they create additional strain on our systems to remove them. This can can cause inflammation in the brain and body. Furthermore, the nutrients we need to support brain health also help our body to process and handle these burdens via biotransformation. Unfortunately, many struggle with nutrient deficiencies related to the current manufacturing practices of our food system and other bodily and mental stressors. (source, source, source, source) Therefore, with toxic overload, rather than nutrients going to the brain, they are sidelined to help damage control.

This means for enhancing nutrient density, it is often helpful to avoid substances that can counteract the benefits of nourishing foods and nutritional intake. Here are some of my suggestions for lowering our chemical input to raise the benefits of our nourishment from my Keeping It Green Series:

  • Choose organic whenever possible. This will ensure the least amount of chemicals in your food. If finances are an issue, you can prioritize by avoiding the “Dirty Dozen,” the top twelve produce items highest in pesticides. This list changes yearly and is published by the Environmental Working Group (EWG). (Please note I am aware of the socioeconomic issues with this and more is noted below.)
  • Consume low mercury fish, as mercury is a neurotoxin. The best choices for receiving the benefits of seafood while having a low risk of harm include sardines, anchovies, and small varieties of salmon.
  • Use glass over plastic to avoid BPA and other plasticizers leaching into food. This is especially important if you use a microwave.
  • Add-in delicious and medicinal foods into your diet to enhance detoxification. Choose your favorite cruciferous vegetables, such as broccoli and cauliflower, which have compounds in them that enhance liver detoxification, aid in hormone balance, assist with heart health, and provide phytonutrients and fibers to feed hungry and happy gut bugs. Eating these fiber-rich food also decreases levels of POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants).
  • Sweat to reduce heavy metals and toxins that may accumulate from consumption. This can be through a sauna or movement.
  • Consider the need for chelators and nutritional supplements to help relieve total body burden. These serve to bind toxins and aid in the release of them through the elimination pathways. Check with your doctor.
  • Use essential oils in cooking for their antioxidant protection and for promoting detoxification. A toothpick to one drop is the amount that is best in most recipes. (Quality counts!)

 

A Quick Note on Food Insecurity

One area that’s often ignored as those are touting healthier foods and eating “clean” is socioeconomics. Organic, regenerative, and wholesome foods can be hard to obtain in certain regional areas and difficult to afford by those in lower socioeconomic classes. Furthermore, food insecurity itself is a health risk and can negatively impact the brain and microbiome.

For these reasons, we must remember that access to nutrient-dense foods for the brain and body health is more than an individual choice. We can take action in the following ways:

  • Those who can afford it can purchase higher quality foods to bring the prices down (supply and demand).
  • We can advocate to our reps for public health policies to subsidize healthy foods.
  • We can stop moralizing food and judging others harshly if they aren’t eating as “healthy” as we think they should.
  • We can acknowledge that access, lifestyle, and many other factors influence people’s food choices, and that food is only a factor in overall wellness.

 

Summing Up on the Role of Nutrition on the Brain

It is undeniable that food influences our physical and brain health. The recent focus on lifestyle factors that have an impact on our wellness has fueled many to pay more attention to their diet. However, with all the conflicting data and information, it’s hard to know where to start if one wants to optimize cognitive function.

One of the best ways to start to eat for your brain is to understand how food impacts it and avoid things that can harm it and rob it of nutrition. This means doing our best to not consume foods with high amounts of pesticides, herbicides, and other chemicals. We also should keep in mind food insecurity and the socioeconomics of healthy eating.

I hope you found this information helpful.

I’d love to hear what you learned about sorting through health information and eating for your brain.

In an upcoming video, we’ll sum it all up with some top foods for metabolic brain health.

Thank you so much for taking the time to learn how to nurture your mind, body, heart, and soul.

Sending you many blessings.

 

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Disclaimer: This material is for information purposes only and is not intended to diagnose, treat, or prescribe for any illness. You should check with your doctor regarding implementing any new strategies into your wellness regime. These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. (Affiliation link.)

This information is applicable ONLY for therapeutic quality essential oils. This information DOES NOT apply to essential oils that have not been tested for purity and standardized constituents. There is no quality control in the United States, and oils labeled as “100% pure” need only to contain 5% of the actual oil. The rest of the bottle can be filled with fillers and sometimes toxic ingredients that can irritate the skin. The studies are not based solely on a specific brand of an essential oil, unless stated. Please read the full study for more information.

Thanks Pixabay and Canva.