Diet for a happy brain - Part 1

---

Sometimes, it's easier to look at the wall instead of looking at each brick

- Sushil Dhokne

The ability to enjoy, perceive, sense and experience life is dictated by the firing rate and health of your brain. It is impossible for a person to become healthy mentally or physiologically without a healthy brain. It's impossible to experience the joy of life without a healthy brain. All the joy and happiness you can experience in your life can only be felt if your brain is capable of releasing the happy chemicals, the neurotransmitters responsible for the emotions. And only a healthy brain is capable of that

This blog is about focusing on the food we should have in our diet in order to maintain a healthy brain.

Protein:

Brain is made up of cells called Neurons and Glia. Neurons are responsible to help us sense and respond to our surrounding. They are the electric wires of our body which transmit electric impulses to all the organs and signal them to work normally, just like the electric wires at our house transmits current so the fan, television and light bulb works normally. The Glia are do not produce electric current but help in maintaining fluid balance (a balance of water and electrolytes such as sodium and potassium) in the brain. They also help in producing myelin, a coating over the neurons (think of this like the plastic insulation of electrical wires) and keep them protected. Both of these cells, in fact all the cells in the human body are made up of proteins. In fact, anything solid in the human body is made up of protein. Moreover, your brain releases chemicals called neurotransmitters in certain amounts. The right chemicals, in the right amount, make you feel certain certain emotions. Example, dopamine will make you feel happy now. Endorphins give you the high after a heavy workout, etc. All the happiness which you can feel in your life is possible only if these neurotransmitters are released at the right time in right quantities. And I will explain you how to do that in part 2. However, it's important to know that these neurotransmitters are made from Amino Acids. Amino acids are supplied from Protein.

So fill your diet with 1st class sources of protein to get your amino acids in the best absorbable form (bioavailable). Plant sources of proteins like sprouts, grains, legumes, and nuts come bound in fiber. Imagine the protein is wrapped in a ball of fiber. In order to access the protein, our intestine has to digest the fiber first. And we all know that a human gut is not equipped with the ability to digest fiber so the protein bound inside goes unused. Whatever little is absorbed is again 2nd class protein meaning it misses out on one or more essential amino acids. So keep it simple, stick to 1st class protein source like

1. Paneer (cottage cheese)

2. Eggs

3. Animal meat - chicken, mutton, red meat, etc. (which ever options you prefer)

4. Fish and other seafood like crabs, shrimps, oysters, etc.

5. Whey/casein supplements.

Fat:

Remember how we talked about neurons (electric wires) are protected protected with myelin sheath (the insulation). Well, you would be surprised to know that this myelin is made up of Fat, and not just any fat, it is made using cholesterol. There are an estimated 100 million neurons in our brain and each one is covered with a layer of cholesterol. It is so important for our brain that our body does not expect you to eat cholesterol in your diet. Your body makes it from fat. And if you don't eat fat, it makes fat from the nutrients you consume - carbohydrates. The perceived villain of heart disease turns out to be essential for brain function and lack of cholesterol will lead to brain damage, dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, Parkinson's Disease etc. (ref. here).

And since we're at cholesterol, here's a new piece of information for you. The brain is a VIP organ for our body and not everyone gets to see it. This VIP is protected by a blood brain barrier. The blood brain barrier is a semi-permeable membrane which allows only selective molecules which are floating in the blood to pass through and enter our brain. Our brain is enclosed in a highly protective environment and the carrier that supplies all the raw material required to maintain brain health - vitamins, minerals, fat and cholesterol - is LDL. LDL is also considered as bad cholesterol but without LDL, you lose brain health. Why would body produce a molecule that is bad for heart and extremely necessary for brain? (More on that in another blog)

Moreover, humans are the animals with the biggest brain. Meaning that if we take a ratio of our brain's weight to our body weight (brain to body weigh ratio), the number we get is the highest among all other animals. If we developed fully in utero, our heads would be too big to fit through the birth canal. Instead, we get born premature, with a nervous system that isn’t hooked up. The baby's brain develops as an infant using Ketones as the fuel for brain. Human babies are born with a 15% body fat, higher than any other species in the world. This body fat is then metabolized into ketones while the baby is only feeding on breastmilk. And it's the ketones which help in optimal development of the brain, when it's required the most. Imagine what will happen if you supply ketones to the brain everyday?

Also, to name some sources of healthy fat, consider

1. Food cooked in ghee or butter

2. Omega 3 supplements

3. Fatty fish

4. Animal fat like lard, tallow, bacon fat etc

5. Egg yolk

Other micro nutrients:

You can't talk about brain health without mentioning vitamin D. It is considered a vitamin but it's functions are more like a hormone. Deficiency of vitamin D results in memory problems, dementia. Vitamin D acts at the genetic level to trigger genes (imagine vitamin D as a machine operator who can turn on some switches) which promote brain development. Vitamin D helps in clearing beta Amyloid. An increase of beta amyloid results in Alzheimer's disease. Vitamin D helps in maintaining health of blood vessels in the brain thus helping to maintain proper blood supply and preventing the chances of a stroke. There are many such associations of Vitamin D and brain health which are currently being studied (ref. here). So just go out in the sun for 20-30 minutes everyday.

The B-complex vitamins help in manufacturing neurotransmitters (more on these later) which result in proper functioning of the brain. Some neurotransmitters are helpful in maintaining calm. Others to help you feel happy, and some to make you feel excited. All the 'feels' are a result of certain amount of neurotransmitters being released in the brain. All made from amino acids, with the help of B vitamins. B vitamins also help in producing energy - especially a molecule called Acetyl CoA (Acetyl coenzyme-A) which your body can convert to ketones in the right hormonal condition. Remember I explained you how Ketones are helpful for the brain? They are also the cleanest source of fuel which produce least oxidative stress. A combination of various B vitamins also help in maintaining nerve health and reduce inflammation.

Minerals like zinc, magnesium, copper, chromium, etc. have antioxidant properties and are required in various steps for producing energy. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10), ALA (alpha lipoic acid) and NAC (N-Acetyl Cysteine) are important nutrients which have superb antioxidant properties which prevents the brain from oxidative stress. Also, brain is made up of 60% fat, and 20% of the entire cholesterol in the body is found in brain. Imagine something an organ that weighs a merely 1.3-1.4 kg needs 20% of total body's cholesterol. Cholesterol is also the most potent antioxidant in the body (ref. here and the studies that follow). Don't fear it.

The best bioavailable sources of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants are -

1. Animal protein

2. Liver

3. Brain

4. Vitamin, mineral and antioxidant supplements

5. Whey protein supplement

Inefficient sources of vitamins are -

1. Grains

2. Fruits

3. Vegetables

4. Milk (only because the quantity of nutrients are less)

Plants are inefficient sources of these nutrients as they are again bound in fiber and some of them are in different form and need to be converted to usable form in the human body. For example, carrots are a good source of Beta carotene (Vitamin A) which is a good antioxidant and Vitamin A is needed for good eye heath. However, we need Vitamin A in the form of Retinoic Acid and Retinal for maintaining eye health and conversion of Beta carotene to those 2 forms is barely 1/12th in best cases. By that calculation, you would need to eat 1.1 kg of carrots per day. You up for it?

Salt:

A brain which is addicted to something - a drug, gluten or sugar, gets altered to continuously crave for the substance. The substance of abuse when consumed, damages the neurons and leads to brain damage. Sodium depletion has been found to cross-sensitize with amphetamine, a drug also known to cross-sensitize with cocaine. Cross-sensitization is a phenomenon that generally only occurs between drugs of abuse, in which the use of one drug leads to enhanced effects (and increased abuse potential) of the other. In this case, sodium depletion itself is acting like a substance of abuse, increasing the reward and abuse potential of other substances of abuse. By making the brain's addictive pathways more sensitive, salt restriction likely also makes people more susceptible to dangerous, addictive drugs and food addiction.

To put it simply, if your body is depleted of salt (sodium), there is a high chance that you might develop an addiction. So eat more salt. If you ask me the best source of sodium, it's salt.

Moreover, sodium is also responsible to maintain viscosity of the blood by maintaining proper fluid balance. Too much salt, and blood becomes more free flowing and it's difficult to maintain correct blood pressure. Too less sodium, and blood becomes thicker and you heart has to pump harder to transfer nutrients to the brain as it sits at the top. But our kidney's are well equipped with tools required for maintaining optimal viscosity of the blood. So, if you have a healthy kidney function, having too much salt won't be a problem. Salt your food as per your taste preference and your brain will work absolutely fine.

Include these nutrients in your diet. This is as simple as I can make it. We had a look at every brick responsible for maintaining a healthy brain. I can elaborate more but it almost feels redundant at this point. The food I mentioned above are the raw materials required to build a healthy brain, just like the individual bricks of a wall. And it should not take a lot of thinking to understand that a brick wall is made up of bricks. So let's just do that. Supply the bricks, the raw materials required to build and maintain a healthy brain, and let our habits take of the building process.

Part 1 of this blog was all about nutrients you should include in your diet. Part 2 will be about habits and things to avoid for a happy brain. Until then -

Eat Good, Stay Strong, Live Free

Cheers,

Sushil Dhokne