Your brain is an amazing organ.
An adult brain is on average only about 2% of body weight, but uses about 20% of the body’s oxygen and calories. Talk about an overachiever! So it makes sense that a big percentage of the food that you eat is broken down into tiny bits and sent to the brain to be used by those 80 billion brain cells that are busy making you … you!
Does it matter what you eat to send up there? Of course it does. The foods you eat literally become the building blocks of the cells in your brain. Want to have a better brain? Eat better foods.
Today, I want to tell you about just one of those good food choices. Let’s make it simple: Nuts!
First, back to the brain.
Did you notice that all of us from time to time forget things? “Wait… where did I put my keys?” “Ooohh, I know you but I’m embarrassed to tell you that your name has escaped me.” Or even, “Why did I just walk in this room??”
Sometimes it’s not really about being “forgetful” or memory loss so much as it is having too much to think about at any given time, juggling too many plates at the same time, competing with the possibility of being mindful and attentive in the moment.
And we also know that some age-related memory decline is very common. But have you noticed that even among the very old, there is quite a bit of difference from person to person in mental sharpness and memory? While all the reasons for those differences are not yet completely clear, there are some known strategies to keep the mind sharp and the memory strong. One of which is to eat more nuts!
A few years ago I was attending the Nutrition and Health Conference in Arizona and heard a very interesting lecture about the research on nutrition and memory. Fran Grodstein, ScD, a professor at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard, highlighted the value of nuts. Her research has shown that at five or more servings per week, nuts protect against cognitive decline in the elderly! I knew there was a reason that walnut half looked like a brain!
That’s all I’m going to ask you to remember this week. Just nuts. Just a handful, five or more times per week (being respectful of the people around you who might have nut allergy).
See you next time!
Robert Pendergrast is a columnist for The Augusta Press. Reach him at producers@theaugustapress.com
