So you are in your 20s…

Here are 6 reasons to care about your brain health

Tip #1: Eat Enough

Our first tip to maximize your long-term brain (and body) health is: eat enough! Your brain accounts for only about 2% of your body weight but uses roughly 20% of all the energy! Let’s pause for a moment…the health of your brain is hugely essential both now and in the future. And while the composition of what you eat matters, of course, the first step in optimizing your brain and body health is ensuring that you’re sufficiently fueling your body. Restriction does not serve you. Everything we do–thinking, digesting, talking, shampooing our hair, requires energy! To get a bit granular for a second, energy and oxygen are needed to provide mitochondria the fuel to power our bodies and brains (middle-school biology refresher: the mitochondria are the powerhouses of our cells!). With sufficient energy, our mitochondria can do their best and provide system-wide and lasting energy. And where does this energy come from? Food!
In your brain, energy provided by food gives mitochondria fuel to go make more energy that helps to generate action potentials (electrical signals for brain-body communication), modulate your metabolism, encourage blood flow, recycle and synthesize neurotransmitters, and improve synaptic plasticity (how our brains can improve communication, learning, and memory storage) (Ekstrand et al., 2021). Because our brain is the root of all our functions and feelings, providing our mind and body with sufficient energy helps us set the stage for vitality and longevity as we age.

Tip #2: Eat the Nourishing Stuff

Our second tip is to eat the good stuff! Various patterns of eating, including the Mediterranean, DASH, and MIND diets have demonstrated positive effects on both cognitive function and health. Indigenous patterns of eating across what is now known as the Americas, and patterns of the plate across the African diaspora and Asia are also beneficial for cognitive and brain health. While these patterns of eating vary slightly, their foundations are ultimately the same and include lots of ancient grains, fruits, starchy and non-starchy vegetables, herbs, spices, wild game, lean meats, and seafood. It is thought that the health-promoting effects of these eating patterns are due to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, promotion of diverse gut bacteria leading to improvements in the gut microbiota, and increased insulin sensitivity (among countless others).

Tip #3: Say Yes to Breakfast

Our third tip: eat after you sleep! Many argue that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and while we believe that every meal is important, research backs us and agrees that breakfast should be at the top of our list. It’s the first meal we have after our long, overnight fast (hence the name “break-fast”), so it’s crucial to supply our bodies with all the building blocks they need to set us up for a successful day ahead.
Consuming a nutrient-rich breakfast has been shown to impact various aspects of cognition, including processing speed, memory, recognition, and recall. A recent study in children and adolescents aged 4-18 years old discovered that the children who consumed breakfast had improved performance on cognition-based tasks using memory, executive function, and attention when compared to those who skipped breakfast (Adolphus et al., 2016). Another study demonstrated that adults who consumed breakfast had an advantage in memory and recall compared to those who did not (Galioto et al., 2016). And yet another recent study demonstrated that breakfast and exercise, when combined, improved short-term math performance and speed in children aged 14-19 (Kawabata et al., 2021)! Needless to say, breakfast may be precisely what you need to kickstart the day!

Tip #4: Drink the Nourishing Stuff

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the paramount importance of hydration – after all, water makes up roughly 60% of our adult bodies! Water is needed for pretty much every physiological process in our body. When we don’t have sufficient water in our system, our ability to maintain homeostasis( systemic balance) is tested. Dehydration can hugely hamper our ability to adapt when exposed to normal stressors that push our homeostatic ability (like exposure to the flu, physical exercise, or walking around in a hot environment). Severe dehydration can cause short-term memory deficits, mood disturbances, and altered visual perception (Masento et al., 2014). However, sufficient water can help improve cognition, reduce fatigue, improve mood, bolster gastrointestinal and renal function, decrease the occurrence and severity of headaches, improve skin health, and regulate body weight and composition (Liska et al., 2019).
The amount of water we should drink daily depends on countless factors, including our size, how much we sweat, where we live, and what kinds of food we typically eat. The standard amount of water we’re told to drink is roughly 8 glasses of water every day. But, recent research has shown that, for most of us, this blanket recommendation isn’t all that accurate (Yamada et al., 2022). We all sweat differently, eat differently, live in different places, and most of us get loads of water from our food (check out our list of fiber-rich fruits here)! Our advice – keep a water bottle on hand and drink when you’re thirsty! A good proxy indication of hydration status is the color of your pee – it should look more like lemonade than apple juice!

Tip #5: Get Moving!

Let’s move into our fifth tip (get it? Pun intended). You may have heard the phrase “motion is lotion.” This rhyme speaks to the fact that we, as humans, are wired to be physical – motion promotes the circulation of various fluids throughout your joints, which can help reduce stiffness and improve strength and flexibility. In essence, our bodies perform their best when they’re moving and exercising. Also, movement works wonders for our brains! Regular, intentional movement modified for individual ability slows neural depreciation and potentially delays degenerative maladies like multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease. Exercise can provide natural antidepressant effects, significantly modulate mood, and instill a sense of overall well-being (Di Liegro et al., 2019). While the exact exercise prescriptions are still in the air, our recommendation is to find the type of movement that works for your body, wallet, and schedule – after all, the best movement is the one you enjoy doing!

Tip #6: Get Snoozing!

After all these tips, you may feel a little tired. And that’s perfect and okay – our final tip is to sleep (more!). Sleep is when our brain and body slow down, recover, grow, and learn. During rest, our bodies can strengthen our immune system, repair torn muscles, consolidate memory and information, clean up neural circuitry, modulate our hormones, regulate our metabolic processes, improve muscular coordination, and regulate our mood upon waking. While sleep is paramount throughout our entire life cycles, it’s especially crucial at times of high growth and learning (like your 20s)! Aside from regulating growth and repair, sleep is crucial at this stage to improve our cognitive abilities. For example, many studies suggest that sleeping shortly after learning can encourage overnight consolidation, which helps us remember what we learned (Mason et al., 2021). Most of us need between 7-9 hours of sleep each night to feel our best!

Thank you to Oliver Oliver Gonzalez-Yoakum, Dietetic Intern who rotated through Maya Feller Nutrition, for his research and contributions to this article.

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References

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Di Liegro, C. M., Schiera, G., Proia, P., & Di Liegro, I. (2019). Physical Activity and Brain Health. Genes, 10(9), 720. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes10090720

Ekstrand, B., Scheers, N., Rasmussen, M. K., Young, J. F., Ross, A. B., & Landberg, R. (2021). Brain foods – the role of diet in brain performance and health. Nutrition reviews, 79(6), 693–708. https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuaa091

Galioto, R., & Spitznagel, M. B. (2016). The Effects of Breakfast and Breakfast Composition on Cognition in Adults. Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.), 7(3), 576S–89S. https://doi.org/10.3945/an.115.010231

Liska, D., Mah, E., Brisbois, T., Barrios, P. L., Baker, L. B., & Spriet, L. L. (2019). Narrative Review of Hydration and Selected Health Outcomes in the General Population. Nutrients, 11(1), 70. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11010070

Masento, N. A., Golightly, M., Field, D. T., Butler, L. T., & van Reekum, C. M. (2014). Effects of hydration status on cognitive performance and mood. The British journal of nutrition, 111(10), 1841–1852. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114513004455

Mason, G. M., Lokhandwala, S., Riggins, T., & Spencer, R. M. C. (2021). Sleep and human cognitive development. Sleep medicine reviews, 57, 101472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.smrv.2021.101472

Melzer, T. M., Manosso, L. M., Yau, S. Y., Gil-Mohapel, J., & Brocardo, P. S. (2021). In Pursuit of Healthy Aging: Effects of Nutrition on Brain Function. International journal of molecular sciences, 22(9), 5026. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms22095026

Puri, S., Shaheen, M., & Grover, B. (2023). Nutrition and cognitive health: A life course approach. Frontiers in public health, 11, 1023907. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2023.1023907

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