If you're lucky enough, eating is something you do every day. If you're like most of us lucky ones, it might be something you do too often every day.
But for something you do so often, are you getting the most out of your eating, for both your body and mind?
Doctors, nutritionists, fitness instructors, and your mom are constantly preaching:
"You are what you eat."
"An apple a day keeps the doctor away."
"Eat your fruits and veggies."
Undoubtedly …
… diet is consistently cited as one of the more important aspect to weight loss and overall good health. What you eat can make you healthy, happy, and well-functioning, or throw you into a death-spiral of obesity, disease, and disability.
It should come as no surprise that diet also affects mental health. In fact, there is mounting evidence that specific types and classes of food can have beneficial – or detrimental – effects on memory.
Recently, for example, coconut oil has come into question.
The question is…
Is it possible to change your diet to maintain, and even achieve new and better levels of memory and information retention?
We are all salivating for a definitive answer, but for the most part, the jury is still out. Much of the research surrounding food and memory are in preliminary stages and tested on animal subjects. Not to dismiss the abilities of a lab rat, but making the connection between a rat and a human is dubious.
However, we aren't entirely left in the dark. In fact, there is exciting new research pointing to real and impressive associations between food and memory.
This post (don't forget to listen to the podcast version too) will dive into this salad bowl of findings and scoop out foods to help with memory conservation and retention.
All you're left with is the easy – and delicious – part of figuring out how to incorporate these foods into your meals.
So, let's dig in.
The Ugly Nut That Should Get More Attention
They look like brains, are hard to crack, and have a slight bitter flavor. Walnuts taste as unique as they look, and cracking them open has been a strength test for bodybuilders everywhere.
Beyond their use as a party trick, these funny-looking nuts have some evidence pointing to their ability to improve memory.
It's not due to their pretty appearance. Walnuts contain the highest source of antioxidants among their nut brothers and sisters (Vinson and Cai 134). Perhaps due to their impressive antioxidant profile, walnuts have garnered research specifically on their abilities to improve memory.
A recently published, cross-sectional American study was conducted analyzing the association of walnuts to several forms of cognitive function (Arab and Ang 284). The study included participants from a variety of ethnicities, age groups, and genders. It surveyed over 20,000 people about their dietary habits and had them take various cognitive tests. These tests included reaction time, numerical processing, and recall.
This is perhaps the largest walnut to cognitive function study ever done on the US population, and boasts impressive results.
The study showed strong associations between higher walnut consumption and progressively better scores on each cognitive test, including the memory recall test (Arab and Ang 284).
In other words, the more walnuts they ate per day, the better their memory became. These results applied to all of the age groups studied, ranging between the ages of 25-59.
The study concludes with an (albeit serious and scientific) ode to walnuts.
"These significant, positive associations between walnut consumption and cognitive functions amo
Published on 9 years, 11 months ago
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