Skip to content

Top Navigation

Cooking Light Cooking Light
  • Recipes
  • Holidays
  • Cooking 101
  • Healthy Living
  • Shop
  • News
  • Good.Food.Fast
  • CL Diet

Profile Menu

Your Account

Account

  • Register/Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Email Preferences
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
Login
Logout
Pin FB

Explore Cooking Light

Cooking Light Cooking Light
  • Explore

    Explore

    • 31-Day Healthy Meal Plan

      Our 31-day calendar of meals and tips shows you how to cook more and love it with fun, family-friendly meals that come together quickly and deliciously. Read More Next
    • Dinner Tonight: Quick and Healthy Menus in 45 Minutes (or Less)

      Hundreds of delicious recipes, paired with simple sides, that can be on your table in 45 minutes or less. Read More Next
    • Our Favorite Healthy Air Fryer Recipes

      Who ever said that chicken wings, doughnuts, and pizza couldn't be healthy? Read More Next
  • Recipes

    Recipes

    See all Recipes
    • Breakfast & Brunch
    • Lunch
    • Dinner
    • Drinks
    • Recipe Makeovers
    • Quick & Healthy
    • Diabetic
    • Gluten-Free
    • Vegetarian
    • Cooking Light Live
  • Holidays

    Holidays

    See all Holidays
    • New Year, New You
    • Super Bowl
    • Valentines
    • Easter
    • Halloween
    • Thanksgiving
    • Christmas
  • Cooking 101

    Cooking 101

    See all Cooking 101
    • Essential Ingredients
    • Cooking Techniques
    • Meet the Chef
    • Cooking Resources
    • Budget Friendly
    • Smart Choices
  • Healthy Living

    Healthy Living

    See all Healthy Living
    • Weight-Loss
    • Health
    • Fitness
    • Home
    • Travel
    • Nutrition 101
  • Shop
  • News
  • Good.Food.Fast
  • CL Diet

Profile Menu

Your Account

Account

  • Register/Join Now
  • Newsletters
  • Email Preferences
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
Login
Logout
Sweepstakes

Follow us

CookingLight diet CookingLight diet
  1. Home Chevron Right
  2. Eating Smart Chevron Right
  3. Foods to Boost Your Mind

Foods to Boost Your Mind

August 19, 2010
Skip gallery slides
Pin
Credit: Photo: DAJ/Getty Images
New research reveals eating these 10 foods can keep your mind sharp. By: Karen Ansel, MS, RD
Start Slideshow

1 of 11

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Brain Foods

Just like the right diet can prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, or cancer, health experts are finding that certain foods may boost your mind. Although there is no current treatment proven to cure Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, there are foods that play a positive role in overall mind health. The Alzheimer’s Association refers to a “brain-healthy diet” as “one that reduces the risk of heart disease and diabetes, encourages good blood flow to the brain, and is low in fat and cholesterol.” Stay on top of your mental ball game with these 10 foods.

Grilled Salmon with Chorizo and Fingerlings incorporates three of our top mind-boosting foods: salmon, spinach, and extra virgin olive oil.

1 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 11

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Blackberries

Whether it’s a new dance or a foreign language, the older you get the harder it is to learn new things. The reason? In order to process new information our brain cells need to “talk” to each another. Yet, as we age those cells become inflamed making it harder for them to communicate with one another. Blackberries can get the conversation flowing again. They provide potent antioxidants known as polyphenols that zap inflammation and encourage communication between neurons, improving our ability to soak up new information according to a 2009 Tufts University study.

2 of 11

3 of 11

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Coffee

If you’re trying to kick your java habit you might want to reconsider. A recent Finnish study of 1,400 longtime coffee drinkers reveals that people who sipped between three to five cups of coffee a day in their 40s and 50s reduced their odds of developing Alzheimer’s disease by 65% compared to those who downed fewer than two cups a day. Researchers believe that coffee’s caffeine and ample antioxidants are the keys to its protective affects.

3 of 11

Advertisement

4 of 11

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Apples

Here’s a new reason to munch on an apple a day: Apples are a leading source of quercetin, an antioxidant plant chemical that keeps your mental juices flowing by protecting your brain cells. According to researchers at Cornell University, quercetin defends your brain cells from free radical attacks which can damage the outer lining of delicate neurons and eventually lead to cognitive decline. To get the most quercetin bang for your buck, be sure to eat your apples with their skins on since that’s where you’ll find most of their quercetin.

4 of 11

5 of 11

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Chocolate

You’ve heard the good news that chocolate can lower your blood pressure. Now researchers have discovered it can also keep your mind sharp. A 2009 Journal of Nutrition study found that eating as little as one-third of an ounce of chocolate a day (the size of about two Hershey’s kisses) helps protect against age-related memory loss. They credit polyphenols in cocoa with increasing blood flow to the brain.

See More: Lightened Chocolate Desserts

5 of 11

6 of 11

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Cinnamon

Beta-amyloid plaques are one of the trademarks of Alzheimer’s disease. The other is tangles in the brain made of tau proteins that can cause brain cells to die. Emerging research from the University of California at Santa Barbara reveals that two compounds in cinnamon - proanthocyanidins and cinnamaldehyde - may inactivate these tau proteins. While this research is still in its infancy, a sprinkle of cinnamon on your oatmeal or yogurt certainly couldn’t hurt.

6 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

7 of 11

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Spinach

This leafy green is packed with nutrients that prevent dementia like folate, vitamin E, and vitamin K. Just one-half cup of cooked spinach packs a third of the folate and five times the amount of vitamin K you need in a day. Maybe that’s why a 2006 Neurology study reveals that eating three servings of leafy green, yellow and cruciferous vegetables a day can delay cognitive decline by 40%. Of these three, leafy greens were found to be the most protective. Try your spinach drizzled with a little olive oil. Its healthy fats boost absorption of fat-soluble vitamins E and K.

7 of 11

8 of 11

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

You may not have heard of them before but ADDLs (or amyloid B-derived diffusible ligands) are Alzheimer’s-inducing proteins that are toxic to the brain. In the initial stages of the disease they attach to brain cells rendering them unable to communicate with one another and eventually leading to memory loss. Extra virgin olive oil may be a potent foe against ADDLs according to research conducted at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, PA last year. It’s rich in oleocanthal, a compound that disables dangerous ADDLs.

See More: Editors' Guide to Oils

8 of 11

9 of 11

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Salmon

This swimmer isn’t just good for your ticker, it’s good for your grey matter too. Salmon is a top source of DHA, the predominant omega-3 fat in your brain, believed to protect against Alzheimer’s disease, an illness that affects over five million Americans. It’s also nature’s number one source of hard-to-get vitamin D, a nutrient recently shown to ward off cognitive decline. A study published in the July 2010 issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine reveals that older people who are vitamin D deficient are 40% more likely to suffer from age-related memory loss.

See More: Top-Rated Salmon Recipes

9 of 11

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

10 of 11

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Turmeric

Turmeric, a cousin of ginger, is one of the principal spices in curry powder. Turmeric is especially rich in curcumin, a compound believed to inhibit Alzheimer’s disease in multiple ways according to experts at the University of California Los Angeles Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Not only does it block the formation of beta amyloid plaques, it also fights inflammation and lowers artery-clogging cholesterol which can reduce blood flow to your brain.

10 of 11

11 of 11

Pin
Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message

Concord Grape Juice

Credit: Photo: DAJ/Getty Images
Alzheimer’s researchers like to say what’s good for your heart is good for your brain. Now they’re finding that the same heart-healthy polyphenols in red wine and Concord grape juice can give your brain a boost. When researchers at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine gave 12 older adults with declining memory a daily drink of Concord grape juice or a placebo drink for three months, they found that the volunteers who drank the grape juice significantly improved their spatial memory and verbal learning skills. Researchers believe that – just like blackberries - grape juice polyphenols improve communication between brain cells.

11 of 11

Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook
Advertisement
Skip slide summaries

Everything in This Slideshow

Advertisement

View All

1 of 11 Brain Foods
2 of 11 Blackberries
3 of 11 Coffee
4 of 11 Apples
5 of 11 Chocolate
6 of 11 Cinnamon
7 of 11 Spinach
8 of 11 Extra Virgin Olive Oil
9 of 11 Salmon
10 of 11 Turmeric
11 of 11 Concord Grape Juice

Share options

Facebook Tweet Mail Email iphone Send Text Message
Cooking Light

Magazines & More

Learn More

  • Cooking Light Diet this link opens in a new tab
  • Customer Service this link opens in a new tab
  • Advertise
  • Content Licensing
  • Sitemap

Connect

Follow Us
Subscribe to Our Newsletter
Other Meredith Sites

Other Meredith Sites

  • 4 Your Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Allrecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • All People Quilt this link opens in a new tab
  • Better Homes & Gardens this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Insights this link opens in a new tab
  • Bizrate Surveys this link opens in a new tab
  • Daily Paws this link opens in a new tab
  • EatingWell this link opens in a new tab
  • Eat This, Not That this link opens in a new tab
  • Entertainment Weekly this link opens in a new tab
  • Food & Wine this link opens in a new tab
  • Health this link opens in a new tab
  • Hello Giggles this link opens in a new tab
  • Instyle this link opens in a new tab
  • Martha Stewart this link opens in a new tab
  • Midwest Living this link opens in a new tab
  • More this link opens in a new tab
  • MyRecipes this link opens in a new tab
  • MyWedding this link opens in a new tab
  • My Food and Family this link opens in a new tab
  • MyLife this link opens in a new tab
  • Parenting this link opens in a new tab
  • Parents this link opens in a new tab
  • People this link opens in a new tab
  • People en Español this link opens in a new tab
  • Rachael Ray Magazine this link opens in a new tab
  • Real Simple this link opens in a new tab
  • Ser Padres this link opens in a new tab
  • Shape this link opens in a new tab
  • Siempre Mujer this link opens in a new tab
  • Southern Living this link opens in a new tab
  • SwearBy this link opens in a new tab
  • Travel & Leisure this link opens in a new tab
Cooking Light is part of the Allrecipes Food Group. © Copyright 2021 Meredith Corporation. All Rights Reserved. Cooking Light may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
© Copyright . All rights reserved. Printed from https://www.cookinglight.com

View image

Foods to Boost Your Mind
this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.