How Does Food Affect Our Brain

Eating is one of the necessities and great pleasures in life. In fact the average person spends a staggering over 32,000 hours on eating in their lifetime. That's nearly four years of non-stop eating. So to help us understand how the food we eat affects our brains, we're going to ask a nutritional neuroscientist Dr. Delia McKay. Welcome Delia, great to have you with us today. So eating and the brain, what's the relationship? Well the food that we eat becomes compounds that the brain uses for energy and to make neurotransmitters and impact the structure of the actual neuron. But first the food has to go into our gut or our stomach. You know the gut is made up of the stomach, the intestines, large intestine called the colon and our bowels. But we collectively call it the gut. The challenge is that if the gut is not really working well, then we don't get those nutrients and what we need into our bloodstream across that very delicate gut lining. And what determines the health of our gut is the bacteria that we have in our gut. Stress affects how the gut responds to the food that we eat and even how much we sleep affects the gut. So it's really important to make sure that the food that we're eating is firstly of a very good quality like these superfoods, but that they also get digested really well. Because you see we aren't what we eat, that's a myth. We are what we absorb. Delia you've mentioned the importance of food. So what are the best foods for the brain? Well Gary let's take the food around us as an example. You know we have flax seeds here, we have hemp seeds, we have chia seeds. These are seeds that contain critically important, in fact we call them essential nutrients because our body cannot make them, we have to get them from our diet. And the brain uses up vast quantities of these special fats to be able to function optimally. You know then we've got grains, legumes, great fiber, great protein, pumpkin seeds full of zinc, important for the brain. Here we've got berries full of antioxidants, look how colorful they are. The brain is continuously making energy and that energy unfortunately results in free radicals. But antioxidants come along and tell free radicals not to cause any harm, they donate electrons. We have nuts here, fantastic also protein, good fats. Behind me you know there's fantastic pumpkin, we've got broccoli, we've got sweet potatoes, we've got ordinary potatoes, carrots, all colorful foods, many of them, most of them. And they provide a stable consistent supply of carbohydrates to keep our blood glucose stable. Then we've got vitamins and minerals that come in our citrus. Do you know that the brain and the adrenal glands use up 15 times more vitamin C than any other tissue in the body. So we need loads of those especially in our stressed world. We've got tomatoes full of lycopene. You know these are all the foods that nature provides, they're superfoods and they provide fiber, they've got loads of nutrients, they provide what the brain needs, being the greediest organ that we own and running 24-7 using chemicals and electricity to give us our life. So these kinds of foods provide all those raw materials and they keep our gut healthy and as we discussed we need a healthy gut to be able to get the best nutrients into our brain. Delia you've mentioned the importance of superfoods, natural plant based foods. What foods are harmful for the brain? You know exactly the opposite of these foods. So that's highly processed, refined foods, full of refined sugar, full of damaged fats, full of preservatives, full of additives, full of compounds that the brain doesn't know what to do with and are actually toxic to the body and the brain. The challenge is that most people have become accustomed to those kinds of foods and they don't understand the harm that is being caused to the body and the brain. The challenge is that the brain is the most sensitive organ that we own and it unfortunately gets damaged by all of these compounds, not just the lack of energy and the lack of vitamins and minerals, the lack of nutrients, the lack of good fats, it gets damaged by many of the compounds that are in those foods, that are in those foods to preserve them and make them taste better, that make them look colourful. So those foods are actually toxic and they are being produced, we call them factory foods and we should avoid them at all costs if you want a healthy brain and a healthy body. Let's be practical, what are some of these foods, what are we talking about? Fast foods, soft drinks, give us some examples. Crisps, you know foods that are in packets that crinkle and that are brightly coloured. Any kind of food like that is not actually a food, it's only palatable, it doesn't contain anything good. The other challenge is of course the foods that are marketed as healthy, so you know supposedly healthy protein bars, there's generally nothing healthy about them and then of course we have soft drinks that are aimed at people who want to lose weight with artificial sweeteners that actually make you put on more weight over time. So these are insidious marketing myths that are perpetuated in our society by people who do not understand that those foods are toxic on every single level. You know we become addicted to them, our taste buds change and they undermine every single cellular function that we need. So to avoid them is what you need to do if you care about your body and if you care about your really sophisticated, really precious, really amazing brain. So instead of supporting the big multinationals who produce these highly processed and refined foods, support yourself and eat the natural plant-based foods that are available to us. And if we can support our local farmers even better because they're growing this food and you know then we eat it in season and we eat it as it's been picked so it's full of exactly what we need for a healthy body and brain. Delia, you've shared some vitally important information with us today. Thank you so very much. This is life-changing information. If you would like to know more about the best foods for your brain and God's original diet then I'd like to recommend the free gift we have for you today. It's the popular booklet, Do You Have the Guts to Be Healthy and Happy? Just go to our Incredible Journey website tij.tv or scan the QR code on the screen to request your free e-copy now.