Everybody believes in one thing, that you have to eat good food to keep your bones and muscles healthy. Since we think through our brains, we forget for the most part that there is a skull and inside it there is a also a lump of convoluted muscle called brain present, by saying bones and muscles. Some take steroids to get the muscles going. But we all know that will dull our brains. Likewise some will drink or eat localized or concentrated food to target the muscle or bone we want to be healthy ( you know how we eat carrots for good eye sight..right!). There are foods available in our planet for every organ which we want it to be healthy. Likewise, there are foods available for nourishing the brain.
But why exactly we want to do that?
You forget where you left your car or house keys. Everything your professor or your boss is saying goes in one ear and out the other. It happens to the best of us. Stress, age and life as a whole can lead to loss of concentration, forgetfulness and more serious memory loss, but adding a few good things to your diet can strengthen your thinking cap.
To understand that I’l have to say something about how food works.
It is always safe to say that one thing you’ll do today is eat some food. Food is pretty important to all of the animal kingdom. But what is food by the way? What is in the food that it so important? What happens to the food once you eat it? How does it fuel your body? There will be a lot of questions once you get down that lane. So, we will just stick to the basics.
Think about some of the foods you ate this morning– bread, idli, dosa, chapathi, cereals, milk or some might eat burgers. All these things contain seven basic components or nutrients.
- Carbohydrates
- Fats
- Proteins
- Vitamins
- Minerals
- Fiber
- Water
Your body’s goal is to digest these things and break it down to the smallest of the small components, so that they get to the targeted organ through the blood, which is flowing all over the body (even to the brain).
Let me give you an example. Now lets see how a vitamin tablet works?
Now when you take a pill or a tablet orally, it goes down through the food pipe to the stomach. The stomach and the intestines contain small openings present on them. Now, when the tablet reaches the stomach or the intestines it starts to dissolve or break down because of the enzymes present in them. Once it does that they go through the small openings out ( just like how a sponge which cleans the kitchen sink works..but the openings will not be that large) and reach the liver.
In the liver, these molecules gets further broken down by the liver enzymes and again the sponge like working takes place here and the molecules reach the respective organs. Now, how do they do that? Are they really smart molecules, that they know where to reach? The quick answer is they don’t. After they pop out of the liver they are taken every organ possibly known to human beings. So, if someone wants their bones to get the vitamins, the molecules are taken by the blood and pumped to every body part as well as the bones. After reaching there, the bone cells absorb the molecules again by the sponge like working and order is restored.
This is how your every organ gets the fuel required.
Now, by working like this wherever the molecules go the same process takes place, but these are wanted molecules only for the bones. right!!. For other organs these are unwanted and they might do something there. Hence the word side effects was invented. Now, we might withhold the side effects if it happens in other organs , but not the brain. Also it is believed that brain is an exception to targeted medicines. That it has a Blood-Brain barrier which makes it difficult for the harmful toxins to get pass this barrier.
Hence the best bet to nourish the brain is not targeted pills , but to healthy foods. Below are the top nine best foods to keep your brain going.
- Whole grains – They release glucose into the brain slowly, keeping you active for a long time.
- Oily fish – They are not only for good brain function, but also for joints and heart.
- Blue berries – Research done on blue berries shows us that they delay the short term memory loss.
- Tomatoes – The lycopene present in the tomatoes are good for patients having Alzheimer’s.
- Blackcurrants – Increased mental agility.
- Pumpkin seeds – Just a handful of pumpkin seeds a day is all you need to get your recommended daily amount of zinc, vital for enhancing memory and thinking skills.
- Broccoli – They enhance cognitive function and improve brainpower.
- Sage – It has long had a reputation for improving memory.
- All Nuts – Nuts are a great source of vitamin E, which prevents cognitve decline in elderlies.
These natural foods, though are not completely targeted to the brain, most of the nutrients are particularly required for a active brain.
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