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Featured Recipe: Mediterranean Fish Fillets

Anytime the body turns glucose into energy, free radicals are produced and oxidation (or damage) to tissue can occur. “The brain uses more energy than any other organ in the body, [thus] the brain is more susceptible to oxidative damage than any other organ in the body,” explains Fernando Gomez-Pinilla, Ph.D., who recently analyzed 160 studies on food’s effect on the brain. A professor of neurosurgery and physiological science at UCLA, Gomez-Pinilla published his meta-analysis this past July in Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

But hold off on buying that mega-antioxidant formula just yet: though some other studies have supported this work, not all are positive, and most experts advise avoiding antioxidant supplements until all the answers are in. Large doses of antioxidants can sometimes have a paradoxical, pro-oxidizing effect and cause cellular damage. However, the research is a strong argument for including more vitamin E-rich foods like walnuts, almonds, sunflower seeds and dark greens in your diet, along with plenty of citrus fruits, tomatoes, cantaloupe and other foods abundant in vitamin C.

Of course, one time-proven, antioxidant-rich way of eating doesn’t involve supplements at all: Mediterranean diets, famously protective against heart disease, may have promise in preventing Alzheimer’s disease as well. Recent studies suggest that people who most closely adhere to the dietary patterns long practiced in the countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea—plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, little meat, occasional fish and liberal olive oil—have significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease later in life. Researchers believe that the antioxidants, omega-3 fatty acids and other micronutrients this way of eating offers may work synergistically to reduce the risk.

Minding our minds

Unfortunately, the typical American diet is far from the brain-boosting ideal. Most Americans don’t eat fish multiple times a week, get nine servings of fruits and vegetables daily or regularly season their food with curry. Babies don’t always get their iron, kids eat candy for breakfast and processed foods fill our grocery-store shopping carts. “Our diet today is really very, very different from primitive man’s diet,” says David Smith. So different that it’s bad for our brain? “I think it might be,” he replies.

In addition to not eating enough of the good things, we tend to eat too much of the bad stuff: a number of recent studies show that eating too much cholesterol, trans fat and saturated fat increases risk of cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease. One just-out report found that when rats were fed a diet high in saturated fat and cholesterol for eight weeks, their performance on a battery of memory tests declined significantly. Another study suggests that eating 80 milligrams more cholesterol per day than you normally do (the amount in a four-ounce piece of steak) seems to make your brain work, temporarily, as if it were three years older. Even worse, disease and lifestyle issues that continue to plague us, such as high blood pressure, lack of physical activity and diabetes are all pushing us toward cognitive decline.

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