You don’t need a ton of supplements for brain health. When you include plenty of brains boosting foods, you can work at top speed and be healthy. Now, we want to preface that all fruits and vegetables will provide nutrition and are brain foods. It’s just some are little better than others. Remember, keep mixing things up so you get all your nutrition.

The best brain boosting foods never work on their own. They need the support of a good diet and wonderful healthy recipes. Below are some of our favorite recipes and foods. And more importantly, why we like each food!

Brain Boosting Snacks

Blueberries

They are so easy to eat, fresh or dried. They have a high amount of anthrocyanins and these are powerful antioxidants. Blueberries are also known to help stimulate the brain and improve your mood. As a finger-food, they are hard to beat nutritionally. Avoid ones that are coated in sugars or the fake yogurt shell. Stick to the real thing.

Pumpkin Seeds

Men take heed, if you want powerful, well-functioning testosterone, pumpkin seeds should be on your menu every day. They contain large amounts of zinc and this helps both masculine testosterone and brain health.

Pumpkin seeds are good for everyone because they support digestive health and provide healthy fats. Even women will benefit from the extra zinc.

Low Carb Pizza Crust

There is no better food for good moods. You want at least 75% or darker because it’s the amount of cocoa that determines the healthy benefits. The cocoa helps modulate our hormones, so depression, fatigue, and general moodiness don’t occur. Like in the Harry Potter books, dark chocolate can improve your mood in as little as 5 minutes!

Dark Chocolate - Pumpkin Slushy

Ingredients

Directions

All ingredients should be chilled before starting.

Add all ingredients to blender except ice. Mix well, but do not allow to foam. Add ice and blend until smooth.

Best Brain Foods for Studying

Tomato

Mix up your cooked and fresh tomatoes. Fresh tomatoes have tremendous amounts of the antioxidant vitamin C. Cooked tomatoes have the highest amount of lycopene, great for the eyes and health of our nerves. Both fresh and cooked, tomatoes improve the health and elasticity of our brain, meaning we can learn more and faster. Plus, tomatoes add sweetness to a dish without adding many sugars.

Marinara Sauce

Your mom wanted you to eat this for a reason. The vast amount of calcium and magnesium in broccoli is wonderful. Our brain loves these two nutrients because it means it can process data faster and protect what it already has from oxidative stress. Plus, eating broccoli can help ward off migraines and headaches. But, it won’t work for hangovers.

All nuts are rich in nutrients and play amazing roles in our health. From the omega-3s to zinc, eat your nuts! Just keep mixing them up. Every nut has a superstar nutrient. If you eat them all, you could actually do away with a multi-vitamin! Plus, for our brains, nuts are its candy of a healthy kind!

Dark Chocolate Almond Bark

Quality is more important than quantity. Yes, we need protein and the flesh of animals is the best. Beef is superior because of the near perfect protein alignment, high levels of absorbable iron, and ease of digestion. It provides long lasting satisfaction and aid in keeping our moods high.

Ingredients

Directions

In a blender, combine the red peppers, broth, vinegar, and oil and process until smooth.

Transfer mixture to a small saucepan and set over medium heat. Bring to a simmer, partially covered, and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the basil. Season sparingly with salt and pepper.

Smear onto 1 side of flattened steak, leaving 1” on one side. Roll up towards side with no sauce. Tie with cooking twine.

Bake, grill or broil until fully cooked. Remove twine and slice. Serve with remaining red pepper sauce.

Healthier Cheese Steak

Frankly, there isn’t anything this little herb can’t do. It actually was used at one time to secure world peace!

Sage is first and foremost a powerful anti-inflammatory. It reduces pain by taking away a cause of pain! Research in the Pharmacological Biochemical Behavior shows sage as a powerful memory enhancer. It works in similar ways to anti-Alzheimer’s drugs: acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, amyloid beta-protein inhibitors, and nerve protectorants.

Fettuccine with Brown Butter and Sage

Ingredients

Directions

Cook pasta as directed for al dente. Strain.

Meanwhile, melt butter in heavy large pan. Add sage and cook lightly until sage smell is strong and leaves wilt slightly. Butter will take on a brown color.

Reserve sage leaves.

Add broth to brown butter. Stir immediately.

Add pasta and 5 tbsn cheese to butter mixture. Toss to coat. Add more broth if too dry or sticky.

Garnish with fried sage leaves and additional cheese.

Bone Broth

A long time staple of country kitchens, research is showing bone broth to contain more nutrients than nearly all supplements out there. And it’s not exactly the bone. It’s the fat and gelatin! So, if you make it, don’t scrape it off. That fat layer is powerful and healthy!

One of the reasons for its goodness, is that nearly every nutrient in bone broth is at 90% or better absorption. Yes, we get more out of the broth than the food. The gelatin is a hydrophilic colloid, which means it likes liquids, including digestive juices, increases your ability to digest. Also, for unknown reasons, it also inhibits nearly all cold and flu bacteria and viruses.

The sheer number of nutrients you are able to absorb gives your brain a boost and gives you long-lasting energy.

Bone Broth

Ingredients

Directions

Place all ingredients except garlic in large stock pot. Cover with water.

Simmer on low heat for 18-24 hours or until bones are soft and/or brittle. *Do not allow bones to break or shatter. Finding bone shards in a dark, rich broth is difficult.

Strain and use. You can also freeze broth for up to 3 months.

The antioxidants lunularin, a dihydrostilbenoids, as well as bergapten and psoralen, furanocoumarins, protects our blood vessels from oxidative damage. This is important in the brain, especially when we boost our blood flow there by studying.

Celery is potentially cancer preventative. It works well with other foods and is an easy snack when you add positive things, like walnut butter or an apple.

Celery-Apple-Spinach Wrap

These are here for the amazing amounts of omega-3 fatty acids *. All of the fatty acids help to restore and create nerves in our brains. They are extremely protective against damage and when you have enough of them, you are able to form long-term memories faster.

Sardines make an easy snack (after you get over the smell), so you can have them anytime. Mixing them with a few salty nuts, you can really supercharge your brain. Also, if you are cooking at home, adding a few sardines to a large pot of spaghetti sauce really livens the flavor and increases the nutrients.

Worst Brain Foods

You have the best, now here’s the worst. Just assume anything from a vending machine is not a good brain food. They all contain something from the three bad foods below. If you really want to boost your health, skip the sugary foods.

Soy

It’s in nearly all packaged foods, but it’s not healthy for you. Not only is soy directly linked to over 12 different cancers, it contains large amounts of goiterogenic (thyroid destroying) compounds that are not destroyed in the cooking process. Only proper fermentation destroys the goiterogenic compounds, although not completely.

Only in the US, do people normally use unfermented soy. That is perhaps why the incidence of thyroid disease and cancer are multitudes higher than anywhere else in the world, including Asia, where fermented soy is consumed regularly.

If you depress or disrupt the thyroid, your ability to produce energy is stunted. Repeated use of soy can cause permanent low levels of energy.

Even the heart association withdrew their support of soy when they realized there was not a single study published that showed soy can help lower heart disease as was promoted for years. It turns out, that was merely used because the soy industry donated over 10 million dollars.

Wheat

Again, wheat is only found in processed foods. 96% of wheat is genetically modified (GMO) in the US and every single non-organic bread product tested showed evidence of containing pesticide residue. Yes, the cereal and bread in your grocery stores most likely contain pesticides. These pesticides are known for causing brain issues, including ADHD.

Wheat is also high in sugars, so while they will give you a quick high, they also will cause a severe sugar drop. This can make you tired and cranky, and possibly run to get another snack.

Corn

Again, nearly 90% of all corn in the US is GMO and corn products have pesticide residues.

But, corn itself isn’t bad. It is a grain, not a vegetable, so don’t fool yourself. Corn these days have very little in the way of vitamins or minerals. It has been bred for its sugars and sweetness. That means the bitters that are what creates healthy have been bred out.

Since corn only provides sugars, it can cause excessive sugar highs and lows. You’ll get exhausted eating corn!

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