“You are what you eat” was a quote that got my attention while taking a look at shelf of books in a library. It was the first time that in Albania people started to talk about the importance of food and how to eat healthier. At that time we didn’t have any information on healthy food and how to create a healthy lifestyle. Nowadays it’s normal to talk about healthy food but at that time people would start laughing at you if you complained about food.

But why is food so important for our wellbeing?

Eating healthy food is important not only for having a healthy and fit body but also for having a healthy brain. Yes, it is time to talk about the effects of the food we consume on our brain and its performance. Everything gets difficult for us if our brains underperform. Our brain controls every aspect of our life – our health, career, relationships and our level of happiness. Despite our genetic inheritance traits (which is said to have 30% influence in our brain’s performance), the rest (70%) is up to us – which means that we decide and create our brain’s health and performance at a rate of 70%.

Dr. Daniel Siegal, renowned psychiatrist at the UCLA, USA, has defined 3 factors as the main elements that affect our mental health:

1. Brain and our nerve system
2. Mind
3. Relations that help the minds to communicate with each-other

In this blog post, I want to analyze the important role that food plays in having a healthy brain.

Food does not serve only for pleasure! It is time to become aware of the importance of eating healthy food. Food and the way we eat are important factors in our physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health.

Think for a moment that our brain works during the entire time 24/7, even when we are at sleep. During a normal body activity, about 80% of the brain is engaged with motor movements; the rest is engaged with metabolic movements and only 1.6 billion neurons (which make only 2% of all neurons) are engaged in  circles of conscious thinking: logical/rational thinking and decision making process (known as the Executive Network).

Only 2% of our neurons is involved in the conscious thinking activity and it is this small percentage that we use to make decisions about the food we eat.

According to Mendoza (Institute of Cellular and Integrative neuroscience), our eating behavior is regulated by circles in the brain that interact with each other to balance the psychological regulation of hunger and satiety. Apart from the quality of food, another important element is the time when we eat (if we eat meals at the right time, this can improve our metabolic process and neurological diseases).

Given that it is working during the entire time, our brain needs supply from the food we eat, especially its components (vitamins, minerals, proteins, etc.). What we consume affects directly in the brain’s structure and functions and as a result it affects the way we feel, how we make decisions and our results. If an expensive car needs high quality fuel, our brain too needs food rich in vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and other elements that feed the brain and protect it from free radicals.

Some of the good foods for our brains which are rich in Omega 3,6,9, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants, are:

It is very important to measure everything that we consume. We can’t consume more than our body needs, just because the food is healthy.

Always remember: Diet means “a way of living”.