We may spend a lot of time thinking about the health of our hearts, bones, skin, and even our intestines—with good cause. They are critical to our general health and wellbeing. But how often do you think about how to nourish our body’s most important organ—the human brain? The brain is the seat of our consciousness. It governs our capacity to think, learn, reason, and remember; it’s also the control center for virtually every other bodily process that we have. And, not surprisingly, it’s an organ that requires excellent nutrition to function at top capacity.
Most of us probably spend more time thinking about whether our food contains enough fiber for our GI tracts than we do about whether we’re getting enough B vitamins for our brain cells.
Keeping the brain healthy and well-nourished is a task that should be high on our to-do list. There’s a lot of evidence to suggest that what we do for the brain now can have a big impact on how it functions in the years—and decades—to come. Eating well in the present, along with other healthy lifestyle choices we make today, can keep the brain hopping along well now and stave off age-related problems in the future, like cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease.
When you feel mentally sluggish, foggy, unable to concentrate, and just plain tired, there is a good chance that what you have or haven’t eaten is to blame. It is all too easy to be deficient in some of the nutrients the brain needs to work at top capacity, especially if we are dieting, or under stress, or eating on the go. These deficiencies can affect us mentally, leading to a number of cognitive problems and even to states like anxiety and depression.
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