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Boost Your Brainpower with these Superfoods!

What goes into your body plays an important role in your everyday life. Eating properly is the best way to ensure that you're living a healthy lifestyle and taking care of your body. It might be convenient to just throw a frozen dinner in the oven after a busy day or fun to live on pizza, but that diet will have detrimental effects on your physical and mental well-being.

Your brain is no exception. The brain is the body’s most powerful organ and is more complicated than a computer. The food you eat will affect your brain, so it’s important to aim for the right food. Here are some foods that will help increase your brainpower and cognition:

Fatty Fish

Omega-3 fatty acids are one of the best things you can feed your brain. Omega-3s help build membranes around the body’s cells, including the brain’s neurons. They also promote blood flow in the brain, which helps enhance cognition and other mental functions. You can get Omega-3s by eating fish such as salmon, tuna, sardines, and mackerel. Additionally you can take Omega-3 supplements, which are available at reputable health food stores.

Berries

Berries contain flavonoids – antioxidants which promote brain health by fighting inflammation and promoting communication between brain cells. Multiple studies have found that eating berries will promote cognitive functions such as memory and concentration.

One study from University of Reading and the Peninsula Medical School instructed participants to supplement their diet with blueberries for three months. Researchers noticed that, just after a few weeks, the participants had significantly improved their spatial memory.

Another study, this time from Harvard, researched senior female nurses who ate modest servings of blueberries and strawberries each week. The researchers discovered that the berries helped delay age-related memory decline by over two years.

Nuts

Much like fatty fish, nuts also contain hearty amounts of Omega-3s. A 2014 study published in the Journal of Nutrition, Health, and Aging showed that women who ate nuts over the course of several years had better memory and other cognitive functions when compared to those who didn’t eat nuts. In fact, women who ate at least five servings of nuts a week, prevented cognitive decline by two years when compared to those who didn’t eat nuts. 

Nuts also contain another essential property – vitamin E. Vitamin E helps support the brain against oxidative stress, which occurs frequently in older age. Therefore, eating nuts is especially important for people when they get older. Walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts, and sunflower seeds are all nutritious additions to any diet.

Avocado

Avocados contain potassium, fiber, multiple vitamins, and unsaturated fat. Unsaturated fat helps reduce blood pressure which, in turn, reduces the risk of heart problems and cognitive decline. 

Eggs

Eggs contain choline, an essential nutrient which benefits heart health and improves cognitive function, among other benefits. Egg yolks are among the best sources of choline along with fish, poultry, peanuts, and liver.

Eggs also contain several B vitamins. B12 helps regulate the brain’s blood sugar levels and improves mood. Folate, also known as folic acid or Vitamin B9, helps prevent memory loss. Seniors with dementia often have a folate deficiency.

Dark Chocolate

Dark chocolate contains several flavonoids that help boost memory and stave off age-related memory decline. A 2016 study in Appetite examined the impact of dark chocolate on cognitive function. Researchers conducted crossover studies on over 900 participants, all of whom participated in The Main-Syracuse Longitudinal Study. Over five years, participants monitored how much dark chocolate they ate and underwent various cognitive tests. Researchers discovered that those who ate dark chocolate performed better on cognitive tasks such as memory, spatial reasoning, and abstract thinking when compared to those who didn’t eat chocolate.

Broccoli

Broccoli contains glucosinolates, which, once broken down, help combat oxidative stress and diseases which may harm your brain. Broccoli also contains Vitamin C, a powerful antioxidant that fights off free radicals, and Vitamin K, which is also an antioxidant that helps improve memory.

Dark Leafy Greens

Kale, spinach, and Swiss chard all contain copious amounts of Vitamin E. Like the vitamins mentioned earlier, Vitamin E is an antioxidant that helps defend the brain against damage. It also reduces the risk of high blood pressure, heart disease, and cancer.

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NATUROPATHIC NUTRITIONAL MEDICINE​

Naturopathic Nutritional Medicine is an immensely powerful tool. It is consistent with and works well alongside modern biochemistry, which studies in detail the metabolism inside the cells. It looks at all the ways in which the nutrients interact with and support metabolic processes. Modern biochemistry makes it clear that the nutrients are all required together, not just as individual items. It addresses the balances between them and their actual availability inside the cells. It addresses the enzyme reactions that they support.

The joy of it all is that all this biochemical evidence is supportive of the working principles of the Naturopaths of the last few centuries, who have worked to support “The Life Force”. What is this “Life Force”? Insofar as it is a subtle force, as yet undetected by Science, it attracts the derision of the sceptics. But one can choose whether or not to regard this as a subtle force. If that does not fall within your belief system, then you can simply look at the energetic flux of chemical change within the cells and equate that with the Life Force.

The fact is that the healthy cell is characterised by an ebullient metabolism, a dynamic system of energetic processes fuelled by ATP (adenosine triphosphate, the “energy currency of the cell). The cell’s ability to manufacture and utilize ATP is determined by the integrity of its enzyme systems and its intracellular structures.

The whole strategy of Naturopathic Nutritional Medicine is aimed at normalizing and activating the cells’ own internal systems. If the cells, and therefore the body, are ailing and sluggish, it aims to return the cellular metabolism to normal, and so restore vitality and health. The orthodox nutritionist is seemingly fumbling and at a loss if asked to take any action towards restoring health. He knows not what to do. His training has certainly not informed him as to what to do unless it is a straightforward nutritional deficiency illness like scurvy or beri-beri. So, in most cases of ill health he or she is powerless.