Our health is our wealth and our brain is the main controller and key of good health. It controls our full body and makes its various functions properly like lungs breathing, keeping your heart beating, work done through movement of the body, thinking, feeling, etc. That’s why it’s a necessity to keep our brain in optimum healthy working condition. This can be achieved through various foods intake and maintaining a proper lifestyle. Here, we will discuss the foods which help us to supercharge or brain boosts and maintain the desired result. Though there is no strong scientific proof.
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1 – Essential Vitamins and Elements – Improves Concentration, Learning, Memory Capabilities – Supercharge Your Brain
There are some supplements and vitamins which may be suggested for its potential power to improve memory power and concentration. Below the list –
I. Omega-3 Fatty Acid – A strong anti-inflammatory – Brain Booster
We found Omega-3 fatty acids and polyunsaturated fatty acids mainly in various ALA containing plant-based oil sources (e.g. flaxseed oil, hemp oil, walnut, algal oil, Echium oil, edible seeds, Sacha Inchi oil, clary sage seed oil, etc). EPA and DHA containing animal-based foods are various fish especially cold water-based, fish oils, chickens, eggs, krill, and squid oils, etc.).
Fat occupies approx 60 percent of our brain and out of that approx 30 percent is Omega-3 type. This fatty acid helps to build our nerve cells and brain which makes it essential for concentration, learning, and memory. So, these foods increase our brain count, memory power, slows down age-related mental degradation and also directly help Alzheimer’s patients. If not getting enough omega-3s we may have to face learning impairments, as well as depression.
Some study shows that people who regularly intake fatty acid through their daily diet may develop more gray matter in their brains contain most of the nerve cells and is known for emotions, memory power, decision-making ability. So, fatty fish especially fatty acid is an excellent essential element for our brains overall health and improvement.
II. Vitamin B12 – Keeps the brain and nervous system healthy
Vitamin B12 is essential for growth in the size of the brain and fights against age-related brain-size degradation. Not only the size but vitamin B12 also helps to supercharge our brain and make it efficient to think analytically, concentrate, learn and higher the test scores. Daily eat Vitamin B contained foods to ensure your body fulfill its daily recommended dose. It also helps to synthesize brain chemicals and regulating sugar levels in the brain.
III. Vitamin E – Supercharge Your Brain
Vitamin E may not decrease the risk of developing Alzheimer’s, but it may slow its progression. According to the NHS, if you take vitamin E supplements, don’t take too much as this could be harmful. One can take vitamin E supplements amount of 540mg or less in a day is unlikely to cause any side effects.
2 – Fatty Fish – Famous Brain Food – Rich in Omega-3s
The Fatty Fish comes first as brain food for keeping our brain healthy and boosting memory and concentration. It is a very good source of protein, Omega-3 Fatty Acid, Vitamin B12, etc. These can help to produce dopamine and serotonin-like neurotransmitters which can control and boost our mood. Formation quality of our brain cells and nerves also depends on healthy fat available in our diet. By including fatty fish in our diet we can have fulfilled below essential elements required for our brain.
3 – Eggs – Improves Learning and Memory Abilities – Supercharge Your Brain
Eggs are a very good source of several nutrients required for our brain’s health, including protein, omega-3 fatty acids, vitamin B9 (folate), choline, vitamins B6, vitamin B12 etc.
Whole eggs (especially egg yolks) are one of the highest food sources of choline, a B complex-related nutrient that is an important micronutrient and a precursor of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that has a major role to regulate mood, improvement of quick learning, focused thinking, sharp memory and proper functioning and development of brain. Unfortunately, most of the people don’t get enough choline in their daily diet. Acetylcholine deficiency in the diet may cause you “senior moments” like experience.
Eggs are also high in amino acid (especially tryptophan) which needed to form neurotransmitter serotonin which regulates our mood and develops feelings of well-being and happiness. Vitamin B9 and vitamin B12 has the ability to reduce depression and bad moods. We can also slow down age-related mental degradation with an adequate folic acid intake.
4 – Dark Chocolate – Supercharge Your Brain, Concentration and Happy Feelings
Dark chocolate is the best type chocolates and most beneficial for our brain’s boosts and we also love to eat. Over 300 known chemical compounds available in dark chocolate some of them like flavonoids which are a group of antioxidant plant compounds, antioxidants, caffeine, tryptophan, the amino acid precursor of serotonin may have brain enhancing capabilities.
They can boosts the are of the brain helps us for concentration power, response time, problem-solving ability, learning capability, and memory. These compounds are beneficial for short-term memory loss for aged persons. It also slows down age-related mental downgrade and thus helps to protect from dementia.
Eating dark chocolate not just make us happier but also have many good impacts on our brain’s health. Neuroprotective flavonoids stimulate blood flow to our brain, promote plasticity and brain cells to live longer. Dark chocolate is also rich in mineral magnesium which helps up to recover stress element and its anandamide, a neurotransmitter called the “bliss molecule” content binds to the same receptors as a psychoactive component THC (tetrahydrocannabinol).
Dark chocolate has a little (not excess) amount of caffeine which encourages attention ability, good mood, and memory. It also promotes the production of endorphins which boosts feelings of euphoria. It also contains phenylethylamine (may be called love drug), a psychoactive compound that gives us buzz feelings as we are in love.
5 – Coffee – Keeps Alert and Active
Coffee is full of caffeine and antioxidants makes it a very good drink for our body. If you start your day with a cup of coffee it will help you many ways all day long. The components in coffee will help your brain in many ways –
I. Feel good mood
It will boost the secretion of serotonin ( a neurotransmitter) which recovers a bad mood and improves a good feeling makes you happier than before.
II. Keeps you Alert and Active – Supercharge Your Brain
Caffeine in coffee is very good to keep your brain alert and active through blocking chemical messenger adenosine that makes you sleepy.
III. Improves concentration
Some study found that whenever we drink coffee our concentration and learning efficiency is improved due to its antioxidants content and also get a small amount of prevention against Alzheimer’s.
6 – Turmeric – Spice for Anti-Alzheimer
We know that deep-yellow spice turmeric is one of the most essential things available in our kitchen and also have great benefits for our health. Whenever we think for the brain’s boosts along with other great foods turmeric also comes in our mind The main ingredient of turmeric is Curcumin which is a very strong anti-inflammatory and antioxidant compound that has the ability to directly enter the brain through crossing the blood-brain barrier and benefit its cells and provide various brain benefits:
I. Helps in Depression
Turmeric helps in the reduction of depression and improves mood through boosting dopamine and serotonin.
II. Provides benefit on memory
Turmeric’s Curcumin may help us to improve memory especially for people with Alzheimer’s through reducing brain’s information and breaking up the amyloid plaques that are a hallmark of this disease.
III. Promotes for New Brain Cells – Supercharge Your Brain
Curcumin along with turmeric’s another substance called Turmerone stimulated brain-derived neurotrophic factor and promote generation for new brain cells (neurons) and boosts the brain to repair itself and also delay age-related mental declination.
7 – Nuts & Walnuts – One of the Top Brain Boosters
Some research says that just munching some nuts especially walnuts can improve potential heart health. Though all nuts are good for health, walnuts are more efficient as it has more omega-3 fatty acids content. Nuts are full of antioxidants, healthy fats, vitamins and essential minerals which helps us to improve cognitive health and can prevent neurodegenerative diseases.
A healthy heart flows oxygen to every part of our body and thus it also improves mental alertness, learning and provides us a sharp memory. The vitamin E in the nuts can also help ward off Alzheimer’s through the extraction of beta-amyloid proteins and shields cell membranes and protect from free radical damage.
8 – Pumpkin Seeds – Nutrient Powerhouse
Pumpkin seed or Pepita is a powerful antioxidant and is the edible seed of a pumpkin or certain other cultivars of squash. We know Pumpkin seeds as nutritional powerhouses wrapped up in a very small package with a wide variety of nutrients like B-Vitamins, copper, iron, magnesium, zinc. It boosts immunity and metabolism and also protects our body and brain cells from free radical damage and maintains the brain’s good health.
I. Copper
Copper controls nerve signals and protects our brain from neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s.
II. Iron
Iron deficiency in our body can develop impaired brain function and brain fog.
III. Magnesium
Magnesium is an essential element for our brain’s health. It directly links to learning and memory. Magnesium deficiency can cause many diseases like migraines, depression, neurological disorders, epilepsy, etc.
IV. Zinc
Like copper, zinc is also an important element for nerve signaling. Low level of Zinc can cause Alzheimer’s disease, depression, neurological disorders, Parkinson’s disease, etc.
9 – Sea Vegetables – Ignored Super foods for Brain
We generally ignore various sea vegetables but they are highly nutritious superfood available in our list. Sea vegetables contain 50+ types of essential elements which are beneficial for human health especially for boosting our brain cells. These ignored sea vegetables are a significant source of B vitamins, iodine, tyrosine, minerals, choline, taurine, inositol, etc. Peoples who regularly take sea vegetables are found most energized brain cells.
10 – Oranges
Taking oranges on a regular basis is undoubtedly a very good practice. This food can fulfill our daily requirements of recommended vitamin C. We all know the benefits of vitamin C for our healthy life. Moreover, it is also a key factor and helps and prevents mental declination and Alzheimer’s disease.
Like oranges, other vitamin C rich foods are lemons, guava, strawberries, bell peppers, tomatoes, kiwi, etc that acts as a powerful antioxidant that fights against free radicals and protects our brain cells from damage.
11 – Green Leafy Vegetables – Especially Kale
Green leafy vegetables are loaded with vitamins A and K and also very much beneficial for health and our brain boosting. Among them, spinach, swiss chard, romaine lettuce, kale are very special. Study says regular intake of leafy green vegetables can protect us from dementia and slower the mental deterioration. It also protects from inflammation and makes our bones stronger.
Kale is considered as a most like a nutrient-dense vegetable and this nutrition bomb enriched in extreme antioxidants e.g. beta carotene, flavonoids, and polyphenols. One serving Kale has the more or less same amount of vitamin c compared to oranges.
12 – Fermented Foods
Though sounds awful but its most fascinating when we come to know that our intestinal bacterias have powerful and unexpected influence over our brain. These bacterias produce over 30 neurotransmitters e.g. acetylcholine, dopamine, norepinephrine, serotonin, and GABA. These neurotransmitters influence our health, mood, and even the kinds of decisions we take.
Generally intestine has balanced good and bad bacterias but it can be varied depending on the foods we take and whenever we are in stress, take medications. The community of microbial science mentions gut as the “second brain” or the “backup brain.”
13 – Green Tea – Supercharge Your Brain
Like coffee green tea is also a brain-healthy beverage and has caffeine which boosts our brain cells to function actively. In addition to green tea has more ingredients that coffee which improves alertness, focus, memory, and performance. Besides brain improvement, its antioxidant property protects the brain and L-theanine element helps us to relax.
14 – Avocados – The Most Perfect Brain Food
According to most brain experts, avocados are the creamy berries and nutrient-rich perfect fruit. Avocados are mainly carbohydrates, rich in vitamin C, E, K, B-Complex, 3/4th of monounsaturated fats which we can found in olive oil. Monounsaturated fats improve memory and learning through the production of acetylcholine. Avocados also help in the absorption of fat-soluble vitamins and its high tyrosine content helps us to keep motivated and focused, improves blood flow and protects from inflammation.
15 – Coconut Oil – Boosts Your Brain
Coconut oil, one of the most versatile agents available for us especially when we talk about benefits for a healthy brain. Its anti-inflammatory property helps in memory loss and ability to kill bad bacterias in the gut. Coconut oil bypasses glucose metabolism and it’s high MCT content broken down into ketones and feed our brain directly and thus is considered as brain food.
16 – Extra Virgin Olive Oil – Keeps Brain and Heart Healthy
Daily 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil intake have a very good effect on our heart, healthy brain-memory, and other cognitive functions. It contains monounsaturated fats, over 30 phenolic compounds, a significant amount of vitamins E, vitamin K, Oleocanthal (an anti-inflammatory agent), polyphenols (powerful antioxidants).
17 – Broccoli – Supercharge Your Brain
A high amount of fiber, choline, vitamin C, vitamin K enriched broccoli are one of the most brain booster food. It helps to keep memory sharp, prevents Alzheimer’s diseases, boosts our brain cells.
18 – Rosemary Oil – Brain Booster
Rosemary oil has its main ingredient carnosic acid and posses a variety of health benefits. It protects from neurodegeneration fighting against free radicals, Alzheimer’s, strokes and the normal aging process. Also, its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties keep our eyesight powerful.
19 – Berries – Especially Blueberries – Full of Antioxidant
All types of berries e.g. blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, blackberries, etc. are known for their powerful antioxidant property. They are loaded with various vitamins, fiber content, phytonutrients. Especially blueberries are highly enriched with gallic acid. Its potent antioxidant content flavonoids protect our brain cells from declination, improves cognitive skills like learning, decision making, memory. It improves mental fatigue, brain fog, bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression, schizophrenia-like mood disorders and protects from chronic inflammation.
20 – Celery – Supercharge Your Brain
Celery is low in calorie but has a high amount of minerals, vitamins, antioxidants, and polysaccharides which acts as a natural anti-inflammatory content. Celery helps with alleviating symptoms related to joint pain and IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome).
21 – Beet – One of Top Brain Booster
Beets are well known for blood production and blood purification through eliminating toxins using its antioxidant and cancer protecting property. Beets can boosts up our brain’s work performance by increasing blood flow to brain cells. Not only brain boosts it also help boost energy and performance during tough workouts.