No matter how old you are, it's never too late to start eating in a way that gives you the best possible chance of staving off dementia as you age and making sure that you feel focused and sharp every day.
As a nutritional psychiatrist, faculty member at Harvard Medical School and author of "This Is Your Brain>1. Added sugars
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The brain uses energy in the form of glucose, a form of sugar, to fuel cellular activities. However, a high-sugar diet can lead to excess glucose in the brain, which studies have linked to memory impairments and less plasticity of the hippocampus — the part of the brain controlling memory.
Consuming unhealthy processed foods like baked goods and soda, which are often loaded with refined and added sugars — often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup — floods the brain with too much glucose.
Although each body has different needs, the American Heart Association recommends that women consume no more than 25 grams of added sugar per day, and men stay under 36 grams added sugar per day. (To figure out if a packaged food contains added sugars, and how much, check the "added sugars" line in the Nutrition Facts panel.)
2. Fried foods
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French fries, tempura, samosas, fish and chips and chicken-fried steak. Is your mouth watering? I get it.
Still, when it comes to brain health, it pays to reduce the amount of fried foods you eat. In fact,>3. High-glycemic-load carbohydrates
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Even if high-carbohydrate foods — for example, bread, pasta, and anything else made from refined flour — don't taste sweet, your body still processes them in much the same way it does with sugar.
That means they can also raise your risk for depression. Don't panic, I'm not going to suggest eliminating carbs from your diet completely! But the quality of the carbs you eat matters.
In 2018, researchers sought to evaluate which particular carbohydrates, if any, had an association with depression. They administered a questionnaire called the "carbohydrate-quality index" to 15,546 participants.
"Better-quality" carbohydrates were defined as whole grains, foods high in fiber, and those ranked low>4. Alcohol
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I often encounter people in my practice who live stressful lives. The "work hard, play hard" mindset often leads to heavy drinking>5. Nitrates
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Used as a preservative and to enhance color in deli slices and cured meats like bacon, salami and sausage, nitrates may be connected with depression.
One recent study even suggests that nitrates can alter gut bacteria in such a way as to tip the scales toward bipolar disorder.
If you simply can't live without salami and sausages, seek out those containing buckwheat flour, which is used as a filler. Buckwheat flour contains important antioxidants that can counter some of the negative health effects of these meats.
