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How to Eat for Mental Clarity
Many doctors do not recognize the term “brain fog.” It is not technically a medical diagnosis, but it is a common complaint I hear in the office. Although tough to describe, people will often complain of forgetfulness, slow thinking, difficulty focusing, words-finding, or clouded thoughts. They may call it “mommy brain” or “frequent senior moments” and have valid worries about Alzheimer’s disease. Short, transient bouts of “fog” related to a missed night of sleep or a physically taxing day may be normal, but when these symptoms are chronic, they are warning signs of brain inflammation and compromised health.
Addressing the root cause of these symptoms is important to restoring normal brain function. Addressing brain fog takes a comprehensive approach. Optimizing sleep, managing stress, balancing hormones, reducing sedating medications and controlling other illnesses like diabetes are all important. Diet is also an important tool to leverage. We can use our food choices to nourish our brain with important vitamins and minerals and turn on or off inflammation.
Here is what you need to know:
Many doctors do not recognize the term “brain fog.” It is not technically a medical diagnosis, but it is a common complaint I hear in the office. Although tough to describe, people will often complain of forgetfulness, slow thinking, difficulty focusing, words-finding, or clouded thoughts. They may call it “mommy brain” or “frequent senior moments” and have valid worries about Alzheimer’s disease. Short, transient bouts of “fog” related to a missed night of sleep or a physically taxing day may be normal, but when these symptoms are chronic, they are warning signs of brain inflammation and compromised health.
Addressing the root cause of these symptoms is important to restoring normal brain function. Addressing brain fog takes a comprehensive approach. Optimizing sleep, managing stress, balancing hormones, reducing sedating medications and controlling other illnesses like diabetes are all important. Diet is also an important tool to leverage. We can use our food choices to nourish our brain with important vitamins and minerals and turn on or off inflammation.
Here’s what you need to know:
Eat to nourish your brain. The health of our brain hinges in large part on what we eat. We need to consume several vitamins, minerals, fats, and antioxidants to feel our best. The only way to authentically do this is with real food. This means eating a balance of vegetables, well-sourced proteins, starchy tubers (translation: sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, plantains), fermented foods, nuts and seeds, fruit and plenty of healthy fats such as olive oil, avocado, and fatty fish (like salmon). What’s not on the plate is what most Americans are eating— sugar, refined carbs (i.e., bread, crackers, pasta, cookies, even seemingly healthy vegan baked goods and gluten-free replacement foods) and inflammatory oils, such as canola oil and fried foods.
Avoid foods that make you feel sad, foggy or tired. When we talk about eating real food, we often overlook the flip side, which is avoiding the foods that contribute to feeling poorly. This includes anything that takes our mood for a roller-coaster ride like sugar, alcohol, and caffeine and anything that inflames us like gluten, industrially processed vegetable oils, all processed foods, and dairy for some people.
As a society we prefer to add things to our diet or routine to improve our health. It may be easier to take a supplement or add a colorful superfood to the grocery list than to remove something from our diet—particularly when that something is tasty and cheap (and potentially addictive). While not popular, there is tremendous health gains to be had when we remove foods that are inflammatory or empty calories. For people struggling with brain fog I recommend completing an elimination diet for 30 days. Avoiding gluten, dairy, sugar and processed foods can give the gut and brain a reset and help you know if these foods are problematic.
Try time-restricted eating (also called intermittent fasting). Our brains are like hybrid cars. We can run on two fuel sources, glucose and ketones. When we are regularly eating, glucose is the primary fuel used by cells, including neurons. Fasting is defined by not consuming food for a long enough period of time to deplete the liver’s store of glucose. This prompts the liver to produce ketones which are essentially small pieces of fats that cells can use as an energy source. This metabolic switch— going from using glucose to using ketones as an energy source— happens after about 10 to 14 hours of not consuming food, depending on how active you are. In lab animals and we believe humans, fasting stimulates the production of a protein in nerve cells called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. This protein plays critical roles in learning, memory, and the generation of new nerve cells. BDNF also makes neurons more resistant to stress and is overall beneficial to the brain.
Need help getting started and adapting these strategies to your personal situation. Relish Health is here to help.
How to Eat for Mental Clarity
Many doctors do not recognize the term “brain fog.” It is not technically a medical diagnosis, but it is a common complaint I hear in the office. Although tough to describe, people will often complain of forgetfulness, slow thinking, difficulty focusing, words-finding, or clouded thoughts. They may call it “mommy brain” or “frequent senior moments” and have valid worries about Alzheimer’s disease. Short, transient bouts of “fog” related to a missed night of sleep or a physically taxing day may be normal, but when these symptoms are chronic, they are warning signs of brain inflammation and compromised health.
Addressing the root cause of these symptoms is important to restoring normal brain function. Addressing brain fog takes a comprehensive approach. Optimizing sleep, managing stress, balancing hormones, reducing sedating medications and controlling other illnesses like diabetes are all important. Diet is also an important tool to leverage. We can use our food choices to nourish our brain with important vitamins and minerals and turn on or off inflammation.
Here is what you need to know:
Many doctors do not recognize the term “brain fog.” It is not technically a medical diagnosis, but it is a common complaint I hear in the office. Although tough to describe, people will often complain of forgetfulness, slow thinking, difficulty focusing, words-finding, or clouded thoughts. They may call it “mommy brain” or “frequent senior moments” and have valid worries about Alzheimer’s disease. Short, transient bouts of “fog” related to a missed night of sleep or a physically taxing day may be normal, but when these symptoms are chronic, they are warning signs of brain inflammation and compromised health.
Addressing the root cause of these symptoms is important to restoring normal brain function. Addressing brain fog takes a comprehensive approach. Optimizing sleep, managing stress, balancing hormones, reducing sedating medications and controlling other illnesses like diabetes are all important. Diet is also an important tool to leverage. We can use our food choices to nourish our brain with important vitamins and minerals and turn on or off inflammation.
Here’s what you need to know:
Eat to nourish your brain. The health of our brain hinges in large part on what we eat. We need to consume several vitamins, minerals, fats, and antioxidants to feel our best. The only way to authentically do this is with real food. This means eating a balance of vegetables, well-sourced proteins, starchy tubers (translation: sweet potatoes, beets, carrots, plantains), fermented foods, nuts and seeds, fruit and plenty of healthy fats such as olive oil, avocado, and fatty fish (like salmon). What’s not on the plate is what most Americans are eating— sugar, refined carbs (i.e., bread, crackers, pasta, cookies, even seemingly healthy vegan baked goods and gluten-free replacement foods) and inflammatory oils, such as canola oil and fried foods.
Avoid foods that make you feel sad, foggy or tired. When we talk about eating real food, we often overlook the flip side, which is avoiding the foods that contribute to feeling poorly. This includes anything that takes our mood for a roller-coaster ride like sugar, alcohol, and caffeine and anything that inflames us like gluten, industrially processed vegetable oils, all processed foods, and dairy for some people.
As a society we prefer to add things to our diet or routine to improve our health. It may be easier to take a supplement or add a colorful superfood to the grocery list than to remove something from our diet—particularly when that something is tasty and cheap (and potentially addictive). While not popular, there is tremendous health gains to be had when we remove foods that are inflammatory or empty calories. For people struggling with brain fog I recommend completing an elimination diet for 30 days. Avoiding gluten, dairy, sugar and processed foods can give the gut and brain a reset and help you know if these foods are problematic.
Try time-restricted eating (also called intermittent fasting). Our brains are like hybrid cars. We can run on two fuel sources, glucose and ketones. When we are regularly eating, glucose is the primary fuel used by cells, including neurons. Fasting is defined by not consuming food for a long enough period of time to deplete the liver’s store of glucose. This prompts the liver to produce ketones which are essentially small pieces of fats that cells can use as an energy source. This metabolic switch— going from using glucose to using ketones as an energy source— happens after about 10 to 14 hours of not consuming food, depending on how active you are. In lab animals and we believe humans, fasting stimulates the production of a protein in nerve cells called brain-derived neurotrophic factor, or BDNF. This protein plays critical roles in learning, memory, and the generation of new nerve cells. BDNF also makes neurons more resistant to stress and is overall beneficial to the brain.
Need help getting started and adapting these strategies to your personal situation. Relish Health is here to help.
Fasting for Weight Control and Longevity
Fasting is a trendy topic in the wellness community but fasting is certainly nothing new. It has been a regular part of human society and culture for millennia. Historically, periods of feasting and fasting were associated with the natural rhythm of seasons, and alternated between times of plenty and times of scarcity. Additionally, many world religions have long recognized the importance of fasting for mental and physical purification and many people still incorporate regular periods of fasting today. Yet despite its deep root in human evolution and culture, many of us may associate fasting with deprivation and declining health. This is far from the truth; human culture has thrived for millennia with this ancient practice.
Fasting is a trendy topic in the wellness community but fasting is certainly nothing new. It has been a regular part of human society and culture for millennia. Historically, periods of feasting and fasting were associated with the natural rhythm of seasons, and alternated between times of plenty and times of scarcity. Additionally, many world religions have long recognized the importance of fasting for mental and physical purification and many people still incorporate regular periods of fasting today. Yet despite its deep root in human evolution and culture, many of us may associate fasting with deprivation and declining health. This is far from the truth; human culture has thrived for millennia with this ancient practice.
There are many benefits of adopting a lifestyle with periods of fasting. The power of fasting lies not in the mere reduction of calories, but the beneficial hormonal and biochemical changes that occur. Fasting has effects on many hormones including insulin, cortisol and hunger hormone, ghrelin. For years, epidemiological study of centenarians and groups that voluntarily eat less have strongly suggests that people could extend their average lifespan and live healthier. Unfortunately, despite the benefits, cutting calories indefinitely is challenging. Fasting offers a practical solution. There are several fasting strategies that are analogous to daily caloric restriction, such as time restricted feeding (often called intermittent fasting), alternate-day fasting or periodic prolonged fasting.
The list of fasting benefits is extensive:
Evidence shows that fasting may improve our cholesterol levels and reduce our risk of cardiovascular disease.
Fasting improves the way we metabolize glucose and how well our cells respond to insulin. This offers protection against obesity.
Fasting can improve our cognitive function and may improve mood.
Fasting significantly improves inflammatory markers in the blood and may reduce autoimmune diseases.
Fasting can activate stem cell-based rejuvenation.
Studies suggest that careful use of fasting can reverse type 2 diabetes.
Fasting can promote weight loss and decrease body fat, especially the visceral fat near our organs that is particularly risky to our health.
Some fasting regimens and time-restricted eating patterns can improve circadian rhythms that are important for body weight regulation, hormone balance, coordination and sleep.
Because over consumption of food is stressful for the body and brain, fasting from 12-40 hours can benefit overall health and even slow the aging process.
Fasting is powerful! It turns out that not only is what we eat important but also when we eat it. Excited to get started?
There are a number of fasting regimens and there really is no one best way to fast. Popular fasting strategies include:
Time-restricted eating means that a person eats all of their meals and snacks within a particular window of time each day. This timeframe can vary according to the person's preference. Typically, the eating window in time-restricted programs ranges from 6–12 hours a day.
Alternate day fasting is just as it sounds. You fast every other day. Calories are not restricted on the non-fasting days. The most common version of this diet actually involves a "modified" fasting where you can eat a limited number of calories on fasting days.
Prolonged fasting protocols vary widely, but typically involve fasts lasting longer than 24 hours occurring at intervals between several times a week to several times a year.
Where to start? It may be easier than you think.
At Relish Health I recommend that most people begin fasting by doing a 12-hour fast overnight. For example, if you eat dinner around 7pm you would then aim to eat breakfast around 7am. This process gives the body a 12-hour window of fasting that may allow some of the benefits listed above.
If a 12-hour fast goes well, you can try increasing the period to 16 hours. You can do this daily, or if you’re just getting started, I recommend 2-3 days per week. More intensive or prolonged fasting may be needed for people with specific goals like weight loss or diabetes reversal. I encourage you to talk to a professional familiar with fasting before attempting prolonged fasts. Schedule an appointment with Relish Health to discuss a plan customized to you.
For some people, just one night of fasting yields benefits like increased focus and metabolism, while others need a few weeks of 12-hour fasting windows to see results. Regardless of how long it takes, nearly all report waking up feeling physically lighter and mentally sharper.
A word of caution: while fasting has proven to be safe, there are select groups of individuals that should not fast. These include pregnant and nursing mothers, underweight individuals or people with a history of eating disorders. In each of these cases, fasting may lead to undernourishment during a time of high nutrient need or may lead to emotional or restrictive eating.
Life is meant to be celebrated. Feasting with friends and family is an important part of a happy and fulfilled life. Adding periods of fasting to your routine can give a deeper understanding of the feast and celebrations while honoring your health. Balance your feasting with periods of fasting to maintain a healthy rhythm of life.