Regarding brain foods, it’s so true that you are what you eat. Concerning brain health, not only is that true, but how you age regarding brain functions is based on the foods that you eat and if you add things to your diet that hurt brain cells and their functions. The brain foods that become friends of the brain regarding dementia and especially Alzheimer’s disease are inflammation fighters. These inflammations are not necessarily from infections but basically refer to how our entire bodies react to objects that are perceived as foreign bodies.
In brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease, there are usually two proteins found called the Tau and Amyloid proteins. They become tangles and eventually turn into plaques. The human response is these plaques are seen by the body’s mechanisms to be foreign bodies that need to be killed off resulting in good cells being destroyed along with the bad cells. The brain becomes injured and cognitive functions such as memory, the ability to learn, and task functions are forever gone. As the disease advances, the patient no longer has the ability to perform even the easiest of tasks. Right now there are about five million people dying the slow death of Alzheimer’s disease. In twenty to forty years that number will greatly increase as baby boomers will have reached an age when Alzheimer’s diagnoses numbers will increase rapidly.
The question becomes how do we keep our brains healthier for longer periods of time? While research indicates that we can fight brain inflammations with brain foods, we can also increase the flow of blood to the brain as well as improve the health of brain cells and neurotransmitters. Research is telling us that this should begin in childhood and be maintained throughout life.
“Senility” is one of the greatest feared words among older people. The ideas of losing one’s mind and having to be cared for by others is worrisome. Unfortunately, some degree of memory loss is normal as we age. We are all born with billions of brain cells…
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For instance, yogurt can be fed to children who are not lactose intolerant. The reason is that yogurt is filled with amino acids such as tyrosine. It helps produce neurotransmitters as well as dopamine. These help to sustain memory of the brain in centers like the hippocampus.
Walnuts are filled with omega-3 fatty acids which promote all cognitive functions and reduce depression. Along with walnuts, are eggs which also have that fatty acid, but contain choline which the brain uses to also manufacture neurotransmitters and add wild caught Alaskan Salmon to the menu of omega-3 fatty acids and you have increases in attention span, concentration, and motivation. These brain foods help to prevent aging of the brain.
Turkey is another of the great brain foods which is often overlooked as it’s thought of as part of the Thanksgiving Day holiday feast which is loaded with a lot of dishes that are enhanced with sugar and butter. Turkey is actually rich in anti-oxidants which can fight free radicals in the brain.
Oranges and tomatoes are great brain foods. Oranges are a great source of anti-oxidants and contain high amounts of vitamin C as well as folic acids which help the brain regarding cognitive function. Tomatoes are another of the brain foods which fight off cancer and have high amounts of anti-oxidants.
We can refer to these foods and many others such as blueberries, coffee, dark chocolate, whole grains, and many other seeds and nuts as part of the great menu of brain foods for our health.
