Cognitive Nutrition: Six Healthy Foods that Improve Our Memory and Brain Function

Our eating habits impact our physical and mental health, since our brain and its cognitive functions, such as memory, need quality nutrition for proper performance and thus avoid future diseases.

A balanced diet, rich in good fats, proteins, and minerals, is the key to preserving memory, improving performance, and even reducing the possibility of Alzheimer’s disease.

Undoubtedly, food is a fundamental factor for all human beings since proper nutrition contributes to a person’s growth and integral development. In short, healthy diets include the vitamins and minerals that our bodies need for proper functioning and to maintain good health. In addition, it provides us with enough calories to give us the energy we need to face our day-to-day life.

While it is true that our whole-body benefits from balanced and healthy nutrition, specifically, the brain, as the organ in charge of operating and controlling the entire organism, requires certain foods that improve specific functions, such as memory.

The brain and nutrition

Indeed, nutrition guarantees the brain’s health since any type of nutritional deficiency can impact the functioning of nerve cells or neurons and prevent the generation of new brain connections. It should be noted that the brain represents 2% of our body weight and needs at least 20% of the energy provided by food to perform its functions correctly.

Also, several types of research have shown that a balanced diet, rich in good fats, proteins, and minerals, can be the key to preserving memory, improving performance, and even reducing the possibility of suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. In addition, it has been proven that carbohydrate deficiency decreases memory performance and cognitive capacity in general.

Such food is also helpful for students because their brain is constantly experiencing mental stress. It’s needed a lot of valuable things to help it to cope it. If you are a student, you can experiment and intensely eat foods from our list for a month. You will find it easier to do some of your study assignments, and you may not even need to look for a free essay writer service because you will want to do different assignments yourself instead of looking for help.

What foods improve memory?

Clearly, as we have seen previously, what we eat every day affects not only our physical health but also our cognitive functions. In this sense, we can consider the intake of certain foods that will help us improve our memory and prevent the development of neurodegenerative diseases in the long term.

Avocado

Photo by Foodie Factor

It is one of the healthiest fruits that help improve cognitive functions since it has a high content of monounsaturated fats that help boost neuronal activity. It also contains folic acid, which helps maintain and create new cells, and vitamin K, which is very important in preventing blood clots in the brain.

Dark chocolate

Dark chocolate
Photo by Lisa Fotios

Cocoa is rich in flavonoids, with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects that are excellent for neurogenesis and the growth of blood vessels in various brain areas related to cognitive functions such as memory and learning. It also has a high percentage of antioxidants, which are essential for the proper functioning of our brains


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Green leafy vegetables

Thanks to their high content of antioxidants including vitamins C, E, and A, this food group helps slow cognitive decline. Likewise, research from the University of Montreal in Canada revealed that consuming broccoli – rich in vitamin K – has good results in Alzheimer’s treatments.


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Blueberry

Blueberry
Photo by Orlando Rey

It is a fruit that contains flavonoids and antioxidants, which positively affect cellular communication, thus producing an increase in neuronal plasticity and reducing the possibility of suffering from a neurodegenerative disease that directly impacts memory and other cognitive functions.


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Turmeric

It is a food with multiple benefits for the brain since, thanks to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant power, it favors memory improvement, promotes the growth of new brain cells, and increases the secretion of dopamine and serotonin.


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Coffee

Caffeine blocks a substance in the brain called adenosine. Beyond preventing the person from entering a state of drowsiness, studies suggest that it can increase the brain’s capacity to process and store information. Likewise, it is a good source of antioxidants, which is why its consumption is related to reducing the risk of cognitive deterioration.


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Thank you for reading this article! We wish you good brain function and a healthy diet!


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