Diets for the Brain
BULLET PROOF DIET: 10 STEPS
Eliminate sugar. Sugar comes in many hidden forms, including fruit juice, sports drinks – even sauces and salad dressings. Even naturally-derived sweeteners like honey, maple syrup, and agave can mess with your blood sugar and make you fat.
Replace sugar with the right fats. Replacing sweeteners with healthy fats like grass-fed butter, ghee, Brain Octane Oil, XCT Oil, cocoa butter, and coconut oil reduces cravings and gives you more energy. Avoid bad fats like corn, soy, and canola oil and unstable polyunsaturated fats like walnut, flax, and peanut oil.
Switch to grass-fed meat and wild caught seafood. The quality of your food matters. Choose pastured, grass-fed meat like beef, lamb, and bison. Pastured eggs, pork, chicken, turkey, and duck also make good clean sources of protein. Eat significant amounts of fish and other seafood, but make sure your fish is wild – never farmed!
Remove grains and gluten. Wheat is a particularly important grain to avoid because of the many negative effects of gluten, a protein found in wheat and other grains. But this category also includes corn, oats, barley, and other cereal grains.
Eliminate all synthetic additives, colorings, and flavorings. This includes aspartame, MSG, dyes, and artificial flavorings.
Eliminate legumes such as peanuts, beans, and lentils. If you must have beans, soak, sprout (or ferment), and cook them yourself.
Remove all processed, homogenized, and pasteurized dairy. Most dairy products contain casein and lactose, two compounds that cause inflammation and digestive distress in many people. Grass-fed butter has much lower levels of casein and lactose because of the churning process, which removes the buttermilk from the butterfat. Most people feel a lot better removing milk, cheese, and other dairy products entirely, but if you want to keep some dairy products, opt for full-fat, raw dairy from grass-fed cows.
Switch to organic fruits and vegetables. This is more important for some plants than others.
Cook your food gently, if at all. Smoking, frying, and grilling can damage the proteins in your meat and produce carcinogens that adhere to the surface. Best to cook your food slow and low, at or under about 320°F. Do not use microwaves or fry your food.
Limit fruit consumption to 1-2 servings per day. Fruits are not vegetables. Favor low fructose-containing fruits like berries and lemons over higher sugar fruits like watermelon and apples.
from the Bullet Proof Blog
ELIMINATION DIET
An elimination diet involves temporarily removing potentially inflammatory foods from the diet in order to identify food sensitivities and allergies. We suggest working with a dietitian, neurologist or a practitioner trained Chinese medicine. The steps for an elimination diet typically involve:
Removing common inflammatory foods such gluten, night shades, red meat, dairy, raw foods, etc and processed foods from the diet for a period of 3-4 weeks.
Monitoring symptoms to see if there is any improvement.
Reintroducing eliminated foods one at a time, allowing several days in between each reintroduction, and monitoring symptoms for any reactions.
Identifying any food sensitivities or allergies that may be contributing to neurological symptoms and making targeted dietary changes.
By identifying and eliminating potentially problematic foods, individuals can reduce inflammation and promote healing in the gut-brain axis, leading to improvements in brain function.
FOODS FOR BRAIN HEALTH
Lions mane mushroom
● Lion’s mane protects and regenerates the brain and the nervous system. It improves cognitive functioning, memory and the ability to focus. It improves mood and helps relieve symptoms of anxiety and depression. It supports the immune system. It repairs the gut. Lion’s mane fights inflammation. Consume this mushroom in stir-fries, with eggs, on steak etc. Substitute white or crimini mushrooms in your regular recipes with lion’s mane and get some extra benefits for your brain.
Blueberries
● Blueberries are beneficial for cognitive functioning, memory and neuronal health. They are a great source of antioxidants. They have anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic, cardioprotective qualities. Chemopreventive (anti-cancer) properties. Contain resveratrol- an antioxidant with neuroprotective qualities (protects the neurons in the brain). Reduces inflammation and vasodilation helping with swelling and edema. They are also neuroprotective and reduce neuronal damage, death and dysfunction.
Olive oil
● Olive oil has anti-inflammatory properties, which are integral for optimal brain health. Olive oil is a great source of vitamin E and omega-3 fatty acids. It also helps with the regulation of blood sugar, specifically after eating.
Walnuts
● Contain a number of neuroprotective compounds, including vitamin E, folate, melatonin, omega-3 fats and antioxidants. They are also a source of antioxidants which have been shown to decrease stress that occurs in aging as well as enhance cognitive and motor functioning in aging.
Bone broth
● Preclinical studies using bone broth to treat TBI recovery have shown efficacy in terms of blood-brain barrier preservation and neurogenesis. Decreases inflammation. Provides necessary nutrients to aid in proper digestion and gut health
Fatty fish
● The omega-3 fatty acids found in certain fish help brain injury recovery. Omega-3’s are important to rebuild brain and nerve cells. Omega-3’s play a huge role in preserving the brain’s plasticity. The best fish to consume for this purpose are salmon, trout and sardines
Dark leafy greens
● Dark leafy greens support the body’s detoxification system and can help regulate detox at a genetic level. They are high in vitamin K, A, C, manganese, copper, B6, calcium and fiber. They are high in antioxidants, anti-inflammatory compounds, omega-3 fatty acids.
Cacao
● Cacao releases bliss chemicals such as PEA, dopamine and serotonin in the brain- making you feel happy, in love and increasing the ability to concentrate. It is a great source of antioxidants. It helps to awaken intuition by decalcifying the pineal gland. Cacao provides essential nutrients that are for optimal health (especially that of the heart) by providing magnesium and other minerals for the body. Cacao is a great source of tryptophan which is a powerful mood-enhancing nutrient, through the production of serotonin. Cacao also increases the feelings of joy through the increase effectiveness of norepinephrine.
Hemp seeds
● Hemp seeds are a complete protein! This means they contain all the amino acids (these are important for many bodily functions, like healing wounds, repairing tissue as well as the removal of waste in the body) your body needs, including the ones your body cannot make by itself. Vitamin A, B complex, D, E, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Manganese, Phosphorus, Potassium, Zinc. Contains 50% of daily recommended amount of Magnesium. Magnesium is essential for calming your nervous system (important for tissue repair) and it helps with over 300 biochemical pathways in your body. Most of us are deficient, so get as much as you can! Contains GLA (gamma linolenic acid) is a fatty acid that helps regulate hormones. It also fends off rheumatoid arthritis, ADHD, high blood pressure and other health concerns. They have the ideal ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. They don’t contain phytic acid, which is what other nuts and seeds contain. So it is not required to soak!
Chia seeds
● Chia seeds are rich in omega-3’s, fiber, protein, calcium, phosphorus and zinc. They are high in linoleic and alpha-linolenic (ALA- an antioxidant) acids.
Turmeric
● Anti-inflammatory. Reduces plaque build-up. Helps with liver health. Can also help support cholesterol levels. Helps with inflammatory diseases and cardiovascular diseases. Helps suppress symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis and type 2 diabetes
- Haylee LaCroix, Holistic Nutritionist
Patient Reviews
Eliminating sugar, gluten and the night shades from my diet changed my recovery. It helped my pain level and sensitivities to triggers. I highly recommend eliminated trigger foods and slowly reintroducing them to see if they cause issues for you. Inflammation will always cause a delay in recovery for any injury and will trigger migraines.
I’m allergic to Gluten, but always ‘got by’. However, Gluten causes inflammation and with a brain injury it was throwing fuel on a fire. Dr. Cook also explained to me that through my injury I did damage to my blood-brain barrier and it has holes in it now. So anything that I ate or was exposed to could now travel directly into my brain. I lost that natural barrier that protects the brain from pathogens or harmful things in the body. So when I ate gluten it literally attacked my brain, caused me to be extremely foggy headed and have feelings of a minor concussion. By removing Gluten I’ve eliminated a major factor that negatively affected my brain. Organic I eat as much organic food as I can. I try to eat according to the bulletproof diet or Amen Clinic diet. We are made up of what we eat so eating nutrient rich foods that are organic will give your body a huge advantage.
I am on an anti-inflammatory diet and try to avoid sugar, gluten, and carbs. This diet reduced the foggy feeling in morning and my neck wasn’t as tight (use to always feel like some thing was gripping it). Pasta is a big one for me, after eating it my neck would be extremely stiff the neck day. Overall, I am in happier mood with less headaches and reduced noise/light sensitivity.
Why is going gluten-free so important for brain healing? Gluten has a molecular make-up very similar to cerebellar tissue. The cerebellum is the region of the brain dedicated to balance. When a body makes antibodies to react to gluten, these antibodies can attack both particles of gluten and your cerebellum. This is an autoimmune reaction that destroys your brain. The structure of gluten also has “molecular mimicry” to synapsin. What’s this? Synapsin dictates the release of neurotransmitters, which allow brain cells to talk to each other. If these are under attack, your brain is obviously not going to operate as well. But what if I don’t have Celiac’s Disease? Doesn’t matter- inflammation of the brain can still occur. Also, gluten ataxia can occur. Ataxia is a word describing a lack of motor control, and this can affect your movements even if you are not consciously aware. Another negative of consuming wheat is that wheat germ can cross the blood-brain barrier. It can then attach to myelin, which will block the normal path of growth factors. This prevents the brain’s natural ability to repair itself, both from TBI damage and everyday damage. Dairy is one of the two most inflammatory foods for our brains. Coconut, on the other hand, is anti-inflammatory and therefore helps ease the symptoms of brain damage.
For your brain to recover you do not want any inflammation in the body. I am currently in school to become a Holistic Nutritionist. My diet has been my main cure the last 7 years. I have gotten rid of migraines and other post concussive symptoms. I recommend watching Terry Whals, Ted Talk on Mitochondria and her book is a great start! I will be starting a Youtube channel soon to go over my diet and supplements for brain and concussion recovery.
The Chinese have an upper hand when it comes to medicine, they have been practicing it for 3000 years. And they’re good at it. Why? Because they listen. They actually touch the patient and everything is centered around your energy levels. Nutrition is the key element in Chinese medicine and it should be a key factor in your recovery. Now, I’m into learning and especially about nutrition. I thought I was really knowledgeable in the area. Enter Chinese Medicine and my good friend Lisa Ahlström, Doctor of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine MTOM, DAOM, when she checked my energy levels and gut, she wondered how I could be alive. They were that low. I had been shoveling down, smoothies, salads and a ton of raw food down my throat like there was no tomorrow. While believing I was one healthy son of a gun. WRONG! Apparently, raw food doesn’t suit me at all and sucks a ton of energy out of me. I have now avoided raw and cold food for 6 months and I’m feeling like a champion. It took me around 4 weeks to feel the effects. And Lisa’s acupuncture is God sent! Lisa works in the Helsinki area.
For my diet I now only eat: Fish ( salmon), Turkey, Nuts ( any and all types), Fruit ( any and all types), Vegetable ( any and all types ), Loads of water! About two cups of coffee ( to help with the fatigue) ( one when I first wake up and one by 3 pm. Because that’s when my personal fatigue starts), Pedialyte, Homemade Fruit and vegetable shakes
I avoid: Chicken, Red meat, Soda, Sugary drinks, High sodium foods, Chips, Cheese ( I love it but every time I eat it I get sluggish and fatigue faster) and any greasy foods I tend to stay away from as well ( I feel sluggish and fatigue faster as well).
Diet is huge. I have to stay clear of addictive foods, they make me sleepy. Addictive foods were a coping mechanism which helped me survive. When I was a kid, I would use sugar to escape from the aienxty of trauma and that was a relaxing way to settle my hyper active self down. By eating several sweets I created a crash cycle. I went to a naturopath and found what foods I was allergic to. This has helped a lot in my recovery.