You probably know that what you eat effects many things in your body but are you aware of how much it effects your brain?
There is building research that eating a diet which is balanced and includes whole grains, lean meats especially fish, fruit, low fat dairy, fruits and vegetables improves overall health and wellbeing. These food groups are also important for your brain and good news is you don’t need to wait months to experience the benefits of including them in your diet.
When you eat fruits and vegetables the effects on your brain are suggested to be almost immediate to improve your mood. Eating seafood especially the fatty sources like salmon can improve your brain’s health in many. The nutrients within seafood which include omega-3 fatty acids support your brain to function optimally.
Eating seafood has also been suggested as a method to improve symptoms of depression. Regardless if you suffer from depression or not make sure you are eating 2-3 servings of 100g of fish serving a week and you will be doing good things for your grey matter.
In contrast a highly fatty diet from the unhealthy fat sources negatively effects your brain. The part of your brain which stores memory and influences your mood is called the temporal lobe is especially impacted. When you eat a diet which is high in processed foods a part of the temporal lobe called the hippocampus is hit hard. What happens is the proteins which promote the new cells called neurons in your brain are inhibited from forming and can also affect the way your brain processes information. There negative effects can start happening as soon as a week after following a diet mostly consisting of these ‘sometimes foods’.
Take home message: Enjoy your ‘sometimes food’ as just that, sometimes or once a week. A balanced diet is one were you are not restricted to enjoy and taste the foods you love but be mindful of the after effects on your body.
References:
1. Kalyan-Masih, P., Vega-Torres, J. D., Miles, C., Haddad, E., Rainsbury, S., Baghchechi, M., … Figueroa, J. D. (2016). Western High-Fat Diet Consumption during Adolescence Increases Susceptibility to Traumatic Stress while Selectively Disrupting Hippocampal and Ventricular Volumes. eNeuro, 3(5), ENEURO.0125–16.2016. http://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0125-16.2016.
2. Appleton, K. M., Sallis, H. M., Perry, R., Ness, A. R., & Churchill, R. (2015). Omega-3 fatty acids for depression in adults. The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (11), CD004692. Advance online publication. http://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD004692.pub4
3. Quirk, S. E., Williams, L. J., O’Neil, A., Pasco, J. A., Jacka, F. N., Housden, S., … Brennan, S. L. (2013). The association between diet quality, dietary patterns and depression in adults: a systematic review. BMC Psychiatry, 13, 175. http://doi.org/10.1186/1471-244X-13-175
