Eating for a Healthy Brain

So, the first priority for getting the highest brain j performance is to consume sufficient amounts of protein each day. Insights are cognitively taxing to the human brain, so it makes sense that fueling our neurotransmitters with high-octane fuel —protein —is essential for high-powered thinking. Next come antioxidants from foods like blueberries, Matcha green tea, and walnuts, which stave off cognitive cell damage. We need healthy cells in order to burn new circuitry, and as we establ...

 Cross-Species Milk

Our notions of mother's milk come from what we see, and for most of us the milk we see is cow's milk, a brilliant white liquid. But milk from other species looks quite different—kangaroo milk, for example, is pink. But whatever the hue, breast milk is species-specific; that is, the composition is finely tuned to the particular growth and maturational needs and digestive system of the young of each species.^ ^ For example, cow's milk is higher in volatile fatty acids than human milk, and hum...

 Make Your Plate Colorful

“Make your plate colorful,” she had advised, and the late-summer bounty makes that easy: into the cart go red tomatoes (full of beneficial carotenoids), orange yams (rich in vitamin A), and green spinach (lots of calcium and iron). Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables of different colors, Michels had explained, ensures that you’re getting a full complement of micronutrients. Now I add a couple of avocados, full of B vitamins, plus potassium; a few bunches of broccoli, rich in ribof...