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There are many reasons to eat well, but one of them might be to boost your brain health.
From reducing your risk of dementia to supporting mental health, experts say there are good reasons to limit these foods and drinks if you’re not already doing so.
Check out these details — and the reasons for restricting this food and drink selection.
Fruit juices and other sugary drinks
It’s time to cut back on juices and sugar-sweetened drinks.
“Many people [drink] a tall glass of fruit juice with her breakfast without realizing how badly it affects her brain. Fruit juices have some beneficial nutrients, yet they’re sugary drinks that contain almost no fiber,” says Susan Kelly, registered dietitian with pacific-analytics.com, a diagnostic laboratory that performs various medical tests.
“Consumption of sugary beverages has been implicated in reducing total brain volume and hippocampal volume,” she continues.
Kelly adds that it’s best to eat whole fruit rather than consume it in beverage form. The British Heart Foundation says that blending fruit causes natural sugars “to be released from the fruit’s cell walls and become ‘free sugar'” – including added sugars such as honey and maple syrup.
Too much alcohol
Apparently, long-term happy hour drinking or dinner-with-vino rituals aren’t good for your noggin.
“Alcoholic beverages greatly affect how your brain communicates. For a person who drinks heavily, it becomes difficult to remember things and process new data while easily becoming depressed and confused,” says Kelly.
“To avoid such brain damage, women should drink no more than one glass of alcohol a day and men should stick to two glasses a day.”
Refined Sugar
Why are tasty treats like pastries, ice cream, yogurt, cookies, and candy bad for your brain? The answer lies in their refined sugar content.
“The gut contains beneficial bacteria known as the microbiota, which play a key role in maintaining the health of the body and mind. These health benefits also include mental health. This is known as the “gut-brain axis,” explains Trista K. Best, Registered Nutritionist with Balance One Supplements (balanceone.com).
She adds that it’s important to understand the enteric nervous system, which is a vast network of neurons lining your gut and carrying messages from the gut to the brain and back, to stay in tune with this “gut-brain axis.” be .
“Researchers have found that there is a direct line of communication between the brain and your enteric nervous system: this is what they call the gut-brain axis,” she says, referring to an article published in Integrative Medicine: A Clinician’s Journal.
“This line of communication works both ways, connecting the emotional and cognitive centers of the brain with peripheral gut function. This connection makes it crucial to keep the gut healthy and the microbiome balanced,” says Best, noting that sugar in the diet can lead to gut dysbiosis [an imbalance].
Refined grains
Like refined sugars, minimize your intake of refined grain products like white bread, pizza, burritos, white rice and white pasta to support a healthy and functioning brain.
“Refined grains increase inflammation and can worsen mental health,” says Sheetal DeCaria, an MD specializing in pain and mental health (revitalizemedcenter.com).
“Elevated levels of inflammation have been linked to mental health disorders, including depression and fatigue,” she continues, referring to 2019 research published in the journal Frontiers in Immunology.
Instead of refined grains, opt for whole grains like whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, barley, oatmeal, brown rice, and millet—to name a few.
Consuming too many calories
It may not be a specific food or food category, but according to experts, eating too many calories on a regular basis can potentially be bad news for brain health.
“In addition, overeating or consuming many calories in a shorter period of time is associated with an increased risk of memory problems and general cognitive impairment,” says Kelly.
“Overeating causes obesity, which contributes to diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease, which are thought to be additional causes of Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases.”
diet soft drinks
If you think diet soda is better for your brain, be warned.
“Studies have shown that even diet sodas, which some believe are healthier, have been linked to increased brain inflammation and an increased risk of depression,” says DeCaria.
The dual-certified integrative pain physician cites 2015 research published in the journal Missouri Medicine. And while more research is needed, there are plenty of other health reasons to give up diet sodas (it may decrease bone density, according to a 2020 study on high soda consumption and increased risk of bone fractures) — so maybe it could the case of his straw breaking the back of Diet Coke.
Flammable foods
Another type of food to avoid to boost brain health is the inflammation-causing snacks, according to Kelly.
“Junk, fried foods, sugary foods, and red meat are your brain’s enemies if you give them too much,” says Kelly.
