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Brain Healthy Breakfast Smoothies

Here is quick, delicious, nutritious brain-healthy breakfast.

Benefits

  • Stable energy: you get all macronutrients in a glass which will provide stable energy and balance your blood sugar
  • Sharper focus: focus determines how efficiently you process information. By taking sugar and refined foods out of breakfast, you help reduce inflammation that contributes to brain fog
  • Better memory: when your brain is inflamed, it can affect your ability to form short-term memories and also connect to long-term member.
  • Better mood: Inflammation and fat dysregulation resulting from poor food choices tap into flight-fight and anxiety-driven centers of your brain. By providing your brain instead with stable and efficient source of energy from high-nutrient foods, it becomes easier to reduce anxiety and depression. Your neurotransmitters will be stable rather than firing in an chaotic, anxiety-producing pattern = promoting feelings of happiness and sense of peace
  • Reduce risk of cognitive decline: medical studies indicate nutrient deficiency (vitamins C,E, B12, B 6 and beta-carotene is linked to cognitive impairment. These breakfast smoothies pack in brain essential vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and healthy fats.
  • Stronger immune system:
  • Fast food: Fresh is best. You can store in a mason jar with a lid – or another airtight container – for 24 – 72 hours. This minimizes oxidation which breaks down nutrients and changes the color. Shake well before drinking

Basic formula

  • Liquid: Nut milks, oat milk, grass-fed whole dairy milk, kefir, coconut water, filtered water
  • Leafy greens: spinach, baby kale, mix of greens
  • Nature’s fats: seeds (chia, flaxseed, hemp seed, sesame, pumpkin, sunflower and/or nuts (almond, cashews, pecans, walnuts, nut butters)
  • Fruits: use organic if it’s on the Dirty Dozen list, go seasonal to increase the diversity of micronutrients, use shredded veggies (carrots, beets, zucchini) or pureed (beet pumpkin, sweet potato, butternut squash). Red/purple fruits are especially rich in brain-boosting phytochemicals
  • Spices: allspice, cocoa, cinnamon, ginger, tumeric (with a pinch of black pepper)
  • Sweeteners: Add bananas or dates. use nature’s sweeteners: honey, maple syrup, molasses or stevia

Starting combinations

Berry Almond Joy

  • 1 cup frozen berries for the fruit
  • 2 tablespoons coconut
  • 2 tablespoons almond butter

Chocolate Strawberry

  • 1 cup strawberries for the fruit
  • Add 2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa to the spices

Ginger Spice

  • 1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and grated
  • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
  • Pinch of black pepper (to activate tumeric)

Mango Lassi

  • 1 cup mango for the fruit
  • kefir for the liquid

Choose Better Fats to Boost Mental Health

What fats are you are eating? One of the best steps you can take to improve your mental fitness and protect your brain is to pay attention to the types of fats you are giving your body.

Your brain consumes about 20 percent of the calories you eat each day. To adequately function, it depends upon a dozen key nutrients — vitamins, minerals, fats and proteins that give your brain the building blocks it requires.

 

[su_expanding_quote_book alignment=”right” source_author=”Leslie Korn, MD” source_title=”Nutritional Essentials for Mental Health” full_quote=”To improve mood, focus and memory, eat good fats like butter, eggs, avocados, walnuts, and coconut oil, and eliminate all poor-quality fats and trans-fats like French fries and fats (particularly hydrogenated oils) added to canned and packaged foods. Fats from nature are medicine for your brain” short_quote=”To improve mood, focus and memory, eat plenty of good fats “]

Choose brain-healing fats 

  • Grass-fed butter has an ideal balance of omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. It contains vitamins A, D and E as well as iodine and selenium
  • Nuts and seeds – also rich in fiber, zinc, iron and essential vitamins. A small serving offers a nice mix of healthy fats, proteins and slow-burning carbohydrates
  • Nut butters
  • Coconut oil. Coconut is rich in fats, protein and has a full complement of B vitamins. Coconut oil is one of the healthiest and most medicinal of fats. In additional to the fat, coconuts contain iron, selenium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus and vitamins B1, B3, B5, C and Ka. Coconut lowers blood sugar, protects the liver and improves immune function.
  • Olive oil – improves brain and nervous system function
  • Sesame oil – has anti-depressant properties
  • Avocado oil – helps regulate blood sugar

Foods in their natural form are high in brain-healthy omega 3 fatty acids.

Eliminate industrialized fats

Hydrogenated, highly processed fats are toxic and interfere with the essential roles fatty acids have in the body.

  • Corn oil, cottonseed, soybean, canola, sunflower, and vegetable oils
  • Margarine and butter substitutes

If you consume dairy

  • Choose whole milk and milk products (kefir, yogurt, cheeses, butter) from pasture-raised cows. Natural milk is a complete protein, is high in enzymes and contains brain essential vitamins B6 and B12 and fat-soluble vitamins A and D.
  • Goat milk products are also a nutritious option. Goat milk has more nutrients because of the rich and varied diet of the goats and is more digestible.

References

  1. Korn, Leslie. (2016). Nutrition Essentials for Mental Health: A complete guide to the food-mood connection. New York, NY: W.W. Norton and Company
  2. Brogan, Kelly, MD. A Mind of Your Own: The truth about depression and how women can heal their bodies to reclaim their lives. (2016). New York, NY: Harper Collins

Recipes

Brain Healthy Breakfast Smoothies

Here is quick, delicious, nutritious brain-healthy breakfast.

Benefits

  • Stable energy: you get all macronutrients in a glass which will provide stable energy and balance your blood sugar
  • Sharper focus: focus determines how efficiently you process information. By taking sugar and refined foods out of breakfast, you help reduce inflammation that contributes to brain fog
  • Better memory: when your brain is inflamed, it can affect your ability to form short-term memories and also connect to long-term member.
  • Better mood: Inflammation and fat dysregulation resulting from poor food choices tap into flight-fight and anxiety-driven centers of your brain. By providing your brain instead with stable and efficient source of energy from high-nutrient foods, it becomes easier to reduce anxiety and depression. Your neurotransmitters will be stable rather than firing in an chaotic, anxiety-producing pattern = promoting feelings of happiness and sense of peace
  • Reduce risk of cognitive decline: medical studies indicate nutrient deficiency (vitamins C,E, B12, B 6 and beta-carotene is linked to cognitive impairment. These breakfast smoothies pack in brain essential vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals and healthy fats.
  • Stronger immune system:
  • Fast food: Fresh is best. You can store in a mason jar with a lid – or another airtight container – for 24 – 72 hours. This minimizes oxidation which breaks down nutrients and changes the color. Shake well before drinking

Basic formula

  • Liquid: Nut milks, oat milk, grass-fed whole dairy milk, kefir, coconut water, filtered water
  • Leafy greens: spinach, baby kale, mix of greens
  • Nature’s fats: seeds (chia, flaxseed, hemp seed, sesame, pumpkin, sunflower and/or nuts (almond, cashews, pecans, walnuts, nut butters)
  • Fruits: use organic if it’s on the Dirty Dozen list, go seasonal to increase the diversity of micronutrients, use shredded veggies (carrots, beets, zucchini) or pureed (beet pumpkin, sweet potato, butternut squash). Red/purple fruits are especially rich in brain-boosting phytochemicals
  • Spices: allspice, cocoa, cinnamon, ginger, tumeric (with a pinch of black pepper)
  • Sweeteners: Add bananas or dates. use nature’s sweeteners: honey, maple syrup, molasses or stevia

Starting combinations

Berry Almond Joy

  • 1 cup frozen berries for the fruit
  • 2 tablespoons coconut
  • 2 tablespoons almond butter

Chocolate Strawberry

  • 1 cup strawberries for the fruit
  • Add 2 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa to the spices

Ginger Spice

  • 1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and grated
  • 1/4 teaspoon turmeric
  • Pinch of black pepper (to activate tumeric)

Mango Lassi

  • 1 cup mango for the fruit
  • kefir for the liquid