From avocadoes to zucchinis, diet is the new drug, as scientists discover that the benefits of foods go way beyond basic nutrition. It may be that your brain has the most to gain from what you eat.
By
Lauren Aaronson, published on July 01, 2005 - last reviewed on September 02, 2008
Nutrients provide the building blocks of neurotransmitters, the chemicals that carry messages between brain cells—messages like "Grow" or "Pssst, pass this on." Both glucose and vitamin B1, for instance, feed production of acetylcholine, a neurotransmitter that appears to play a large role in memory formation. Adequate amounts of B1, as well as the other B vitamins, are necessary for everyday brain health.
Still, upping levels of nutrients may boost specific neurotransmitters in your brain, abetting the cell-to-cell signaling that delivers, say, a memory to mind. "If I give you more choline [a fatlike essential nutrient related to the B vitamins, found in eggs, liver and soybeans], your brain cells will immediately make more acetylcholine," says Richard Wurtman, professor of neuropharmacology and director of the Clinical Research Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. In lab rats a surge in acetylcholine leads to memory improvements a month later. Normal human brain function requires adequate intake of choline, but it's not clear whether extra choline brings extra cognitive benefits—although, interestingly, Alzheimer's patients show drastically reduced acetylcholine levels.
Some familiar antioxidants may also boost learning by abetting the signaling that takes place inside brain cells and modulating the expression of genes, influencing the survival and growth of nerve cells. Blueberries appear to help rat brains from within, in ways that even surpass their antioxidant activity, says scientist Joseph of Tufts University.
Green tea may similarly protect neurons through related signaling mechanisms. Both edibles are still under investigation, since cell signaling ranks among the newest frontiers at the intersection between nutrition and neuroscience.
As hot as the frontier now is, it turns out that the idea that food may be our brain's best medicine isn't novel at all. Jo March, the oatmeal muse who altered my eating habits for life, got there well before the scientists. "Don't worry, my dear," she says in Jo's Boys. "That active brain of yours was starving for good food; it has plenty now."
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