Many plant-based foods provide the essential high-quality fats, proteins/amino acids, vitamins, and minerals that your brain, like any organ, needs to function optimally. But which living-cuisine selections offer brain-boosting nutrients?
Blueberries, dark leafy greens, broccoli, and avocados are dense in essential phytonutrients that feed your brain in small caloric packages. They also provide the enzymes necessary for efficient digestion. Because the brain utilizes only 25 percent of calories consumed, enzymes are critical in getting the most from those sources.
Apples, melons, and apricots along with broccoli, mushrooms, and spinach offer low-glycemic complex carbohydrates. By slowly breaking down into simple sugars, they trigger a steady stream of energy rather than a surge followed by a plunge. That’s important for maintaining balanced neurotransmitter levels. Other complex carbohydrates can be found in a variety of nuts, seeds, and whole grains.
Nuts, seeds, cacao, maca root, green tea, avocados, and leafy green vegetables are great sources for non-animal protein and omega-3 fatty acids. “Good” or “healthy” omega-3 fatty acids keep blood vessels in your brain free of blockages while balancing sugar and dopamine levels and stimulating serotonin production. A diet replete in omega-3 fatty acids can ward off depression. It can be a positive mood-changer. In short, your brain needs fat to function!
Advice from the Chef
To boost your brain:
- Keep your brain in mind by choosing healthy fats that fuel development and optimal functioning.
- Incorporate superfood treats such as Moxie Bars into your daily menu. These little squares will help power you mentally through the day.
- Use grains sparingly. When choosing them, gravitate to options such as quinoa, which is technically a seed, to maximize the whole-grain nutritional value.
- Enjoy green smoothies instead of juice. By replacing a banana with greens and avocado, you’ll get the additional fat and chlorophyll necessary to power your brain while slowing down the sugar effects of other fruit.
- Put raw cacao in your next smoothie. Use it to help unleash your creativity and feel-good emotions.
- Add the superingredient E3Live to coconut yogurt in the morning. This intense green will help stimulate focus and turbocharge your brain.
Affirmations for Brain Health
Author Louise Hay put it best when she wrote: “The glass is both half-full and half-empty depending on how you choose to look at it. There are literally billions of thoughts you can choose to think.” My challenge: Select the thoughts that move you forward. Use positive affirmations to bolster your new dietary path, and change—for the better—the way you perceive, deal with, or take on life.
- To counter anxiety: “I love and approve of myself. I trust the process of life. I am safe.”
- To stay on track with your diet: “I know that eating these new foods will be good for my mental well-being.”
Moxie Bars
These healthy bars packing brain-nourishing berries and nuts can be enjoyed as an afternoon snack or a breakfast bar.
(Makes nine 2 × 2-inch bars)
2 cups walnuts
½ cup coconut shreds
¼ cup yacon syrup or 3 drops liquid stevia
2 tablespoons Warrior Food or other plant-based protein supplement
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups blueberries
- Place the walnuts in a food processor and process until finely ground, like the consistency of nut meal. Add the coconut shreds, yacon syrup, Warrior Food, and salt and process until the ingredients come together to form a dough.
- Remove the dough and press evenly into a 6 × 6-inch (or an 8 × 8-inch) glass dish.
- Place the blueberries in the food processor and pulse until chopped. Do not puree. Spread the berries evenly over the crust.
- Cover and refrigerate the bars until ready to enjoy. (They can also be enjoyed immediately!)
Note: Moxie Bars keep for up to a week in the refrigerator.
Blueberry no-bake coconut cookies
Blueberry No-Bake Coconut Cookies
Who thinks of cookies for the brain? (I do!) These are a delicious way to rev your mind and body, whether they’re a snack for breakfast or a dessert to top off any other meal. With an extra kick of ginger, they’re a fun way to spice up your meal plan.
(Makes 12 cookies)
2/3 cup dates
2 tablespoons coconut butter
1 cup coconut flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 cups coconut flakes or raw desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons maca root
1/3 cup hemp seeds
16 ounces blueberries
- In a food processor fitted with the S-blade, process the dates into a paste.
- Add the coconut butter, followed by the coconut flour, sea salt, and coconut flakes. Process into a dough-like mixture.
- Add the maca root and hemp seeds; pulse.
- Add the blueberries and pulse again briefly.
- Scoop out 2-inch balls and place into paper candy cups.
- Refrigerate and enjoy throughout the week as a breakfast snack or dessert.
These recipes are excerpted from Jenny Ross’ Healing with Raw Foods, published by Hay House. hayhouse.com
Jenny Ross is the owner and executive chef at the living foods restaurant group 118 Degrees in Costa Mesa. She is the author of books including Healing with Raw Foods and Raw Basics and can be found online at jennyrosslivingfoods.com and 118degrees.com.