Boosting Your Brain Power through Diet and Nutrition (II)

Mandy Lau, HK BioTek Nutritionist

Last time we looked at two ways to power up our performance. This time two more tips are discussed.

Adding Powerful Brain Boosters

Many scientific reports highlight the benefits of consuming flavonoids to enhance and preserve the brain. Approximately 6,000 flavonoids are naturally found in food and herbs, providing a broad spectrum of brain boosters. Dietary flavonoids have a number of neuroprotective effects within the brain, such as the protecting brain cell against toxins, suppressing neuroinflammation, and promoting memory, learning and cognitive performance. Flavonoids are also strong antioxidants that could neutralize harmful free radicals and slow down the aging and degenerative process.

Sources of common dietary flavonoids:

Common Flavonoids

Minimizing Toxins

Toxins, which could be absorbed externally or produced internally, create a burden on the body’s detox function and depletes essential nutrients. Some environmental toxins, like parabens and phthalates, are hormone disruptors that cause neurological damage. Therefore, minimizing the production of toxins could further enhance body functions.

Tips to minimize the exposure to external toxins:

• Choose organic, free-range foods to lower the intake of residual pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, etc.

• Avoid processed foods that contain dozens of additives, such as artificial colouring, flavouring, preservatives, etc.

• Avoid over-reliance of non-prescribed drugs.

• Choose personal care products (such as shampoo, lotion, cleansing products) and cosmetics without too many preservatives (like parabens and phthalates) and heavy metals.

• Reduce the use of plastic products

Your Brain Food

There is no single universal diet that fits everyone’s appetite and nutritional requirement. After reading the article, you might gain some insight and learn some principles so that you could tailor your diet through mixing and matching different brain food strategically. Take action to alternate your diet and you would be surprised to see the effects!