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Smart choices for brain food

Your brain is a big eater – fuel it right

When I was a kid, brain food was big. Mothers used to coax cod liver oil pills down unsuspecting youngsters’ throats, touting them as "brain food."

Not half as bad as what my own mother went through as a kid: spoonfuls of stinky cod liver oil from a cobalt blue bottle with a fisherman in oilskins and sou’wester on the label, a huge cod fish slung over one shoulder. It was routinely taken over the slop pail in case any poor child erupted forth with a liquid rejection of the stuff.

While mom says that the cod liver oil of her childhood was touted more for cold protection than brain optimization, there’s no doubt that all things fish were marketed lock, stock and barrel as brain food in the mid-50s. There was even a dorky ad on the one and only channel we got in Edmonton for Captain Bottomjammer’s or somebody or other’s fish sticks and other fishy products. A nerdy little girl in round horn-rimmed glasses and bad braids grinned inanely at the camera, telling you how delicious it all was, not to mention good for you and your brain. I hated her guts.

All this brain food business came rushing back when I saw an advert the other day from health guru Andrew Weill. While it wasn’t touting brain food, per se, it was highlighting foods that may be good for maintaining a healthy mind.

Personally, I’ve always thought a big sugar rush was the best thing I could do for my brain when I hit a slump. But Dr. Weill suggests that more and more evidence points to chronic low-grade inflammation as a contributor to a host of diseases, including Alzheimer’s. The good news is that diet can be helpful in prevention of same, with the emphasis on foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids.

Tops on the list: brain food, a.k.a. fish. Careful to avoid mercury-contaminated or otherwise questionable fish sources, Dr. Weill favours wild salmon and sardines. Freshly ground flaxseed and walnuts are also good sources.

Other foods to keep the old brain – and other bodily parts – from getting inflamed include: fresh, organic fruits and vegetables; extra-virgin olive oil instead of polyunsaturated vegetable oils like sunflower, corn and safflower oils; and naturally anti-inflammatory spices like turmeric, ginger and red pepper.

Why the big fuss over fish?

Life in cold water endows fish and sea creatures with fats high in unusual, highly saturated omega-3 fatty acids. We humans can’t make these special fatty acids very easily from other fatty acids, so diet is our main source.

Scientific evidence shows that omega-3s are pretty beneficial to our metabolism. But the biggest direct benefit: they’re essential to the development and function of the brain and retina. Think of how smart and capable Inuit people are – and how well they can see with all that white light bouncing off the snow. As well, research shows that a diet high in omega-3s also seems to be beneficial to our central nervous system. Feeling wound up and out of control? Try a little sushi or a tuna sandwich.

And, as Dr. Weill suggests, omega-3s are great for limiting the body’s natural impulse to respond to injuries by generating an inflammation. Such inflammations, if chronic, can damage your arteries and contribute to cancer and heart disease. (Ergo gum disease being bad for your heart, so floss, kids.) Omega-3s also reduce the body’s ability to form blood clots, so they lower your chances of having a stroke. And they reduce the type of blood cholesterol that damages your arteries.

Talk about a miracle food. So go get a fish. A fresh sea-going fish. One that hasn’t been farmed, because farmed fish are lower in omega-3s.

As for freshwater fish, they don’t eat oceanic plankton, either directly or indirectly at any level of the food chain, so they don’t deliver a lot of omega-3s. But they do have other health benefits, so don’t totally give up on them.

Choline: the new brain fuel

Recent research suggests that besides omega-3s, the newest new age brain food might be choline. Besides looking good as protection against heart disease, choline plays a key role in relaying signals between nerve cells, including those in the brain.

Unfortunately, most foods rich in choline are animal products, especially ones high in fat. Egg yolks are a prime source, but so is milk and soy lecithin, and, with the news out about choline benefits, food manufacturers are adding it as a supplement, so read your labels.

While studies are preliminary, some scientists are investigating indications that extra choline boosts brainpower for adults.

But the real excitement centres around studies that extra choline given to pregnant women can offer babies life-long benefits when it comes to brainpower. Studies of rats indicate that choline enrichment for babies in the womb can alter brain development in ways that facilitates learning later in life. One study at Duke University indicated that prenatal choline may even guard the brain against toxins and disease, as well as senility and other neurodegenerative changes.

One ironic downside: People born with a metabolism disorder called trimethylaminurea, smell like rotting fish when they eat foods high in choline.

More brain boosters

Never mind omega-3s and choline – follow these easy tips and you will nicely feed your brain:

1. Eat breakfast. Breakfast eaters remember more, react quicker, make fewer mistakes and are more alert and more creative throughout the day than people who skip breakfast. The brain is a very active tissue and uses 20 to 30 per cent of calories you eat each day. Some recommend a breakfast high in carbohydrates to jump-start your brain. Personally, I reach for the porridge, especially oatmeal.

2. Eat a light lunch low in carbs. While brekkie is the time to go for carbs, experts say a lunch high in carbs will make you feel sleepy and take the edge off your brainpower.

3. Go for the fruits and veggies 5-8 times a day. Fresh, organic fruits and vegetables add tons of antioxidants and other good things to your diet.

4. Avoid low calorie diets. Low calorie diets may affect memory, attention, and reaction time.

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning freelance writer who still can’t bring herself to eat the dark flesh on fish that contains the most omega-3s.