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August 2, 2010 1 Comment

The Breakfast of Mental Champions

Like a good little mental fitness blog should, we’ve been researching in the field of mental health – finding the things we can all do to improve our mental health. Something we’ve uncovered is very encouraging – there’s far more than we ever thought possible, that can be done to improve one’s memory, mental health, while preventing dementia and Alzheimer’s.

One of the most effective, and easiest, changes we can make is at the breakfast table.

It’s alarming how many people skip breakfast and even more alarming how many think they are actually doing something good for their body when they do so.

Study after study shows that for optimum physical health, we need to eat a good breakfast.  I’m sure you’ve seen these studies before, yourself.  What you may not realize, however, is just how important a good breakfast is for your mental health.

Studies have found that eating breakfast may improve short-term memory as well as attention. Students who eat breakfast tend to perform significantly better than those who don’t.  By the same token, workers who fuel up with a healthy breakfast work circles around those who either skimp or skip breakfast entirely.

So what breakfast foods do the experts suggest are the most pivotal for your brain’s health?   To fully arm yourself with the healthiest brain foods and fuel your mind with the nutrients it craves, include high-fiber whole grains, dairy, and fruits.  Be sure not to overeat, however.  High calorie breakfasts can slow you down and make it hard to concentrate.

Sugar is one of your brain’s favorite fuel sources – not table sugar, but glucose, which your body metabolizes from the sugars and carbohydrates you eat. That’s why a glass of something sweet to drink can offer a short-term boost to memory, thinking processes, and, yes, even mental ability.  A glass of juice is, obviously, the best way to give your brain this sweet treat.

Then, of course, there’s my favorite part of morning (or noon, or night…): Coffee.  Caffeine can energize and help you focus and concentrate.Caffeine in foods such as coffee (and chocolate, another reason for loving life) give your body and mind a wake up call.  Of course, the effects aren’t long term – just long enough to help you wake up and begin functioning.

One of my favorite breakfast foods is oatmeal.  It’s unmistakably good for you and it’s so wonderfully filling that you don’t feel like you’re starving halfway between lunch and breakfast.  You can kick up the health benefits of oatmeal and make it as healthy for your brain as it is for you heart by adding nuts.  Nuts (and seeds for that matter) are good sources of the antioxidant vitamin E, which is associated with less cognitive decline as you age.

Another favorite  healthy food, dark chocolate, also has powerful antioxidant properties. And it contains natural stimulants like caffeine, which can enhance focus and concentration.  That’s why dark chocolate is a favorite mid-morning snack.

As we’ve said many times on Out of Bounds and Self Help Daily, what’s good for the heart seems to be good for the brain – and vice versa.  The heart and the brain each depend on blood flow and eating a diet high in whole grains and fruits can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, lower bad cholesterol, and prevent memory loss, dementia, and Alzheimer’s. When you reduce your chances of plaque buildup and enhance blood flow, you really fire up those brain cells!

Be sure to include whole grains in your breakfast meals as often as possible.

Further research shows that blueberries help protect the brain from oxidative stress and may reduce the effects of age-related conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

But that’s not all:  Studies also show that diets rich in blueberries significantly improved both the learning capacity and motor skills.

Obviously, adding blueberries to oatmeal, cereal, yogurt, and pancakes is an extremely healthy thing to do for your brain’s health. 

So, are you ready to start powering up each morning with a healthy breakfast?  Start off with 100% fruit juice, a whole grain cereal or oatmeal, blueberries, and a cup of coffee.

In addition to eating a well-balanced breakfast, mental health experts also advise:

  1. Get a good night’s sleep.
  2. Stay hydrated.
  3. Exercise to help sharpen thinking.
  4. Practice relaxation techniques.
  5. Eliminate as much stress from your life as possible.
  6. Stay physically active – remember, keep that blood circulation, for your heart AND brain.

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi

Filed Under: Brain Food, Brain Games, Mental Fitness, Must Reads Tagged: , , , ,
July 13, 2010 2 Comments

3 Things You Should Be Doing Now to Prevent Alzheimer’s

The harsh reality of Alzheimer’ Disease:

• 5.3 million Americans have it.

• Symptoms include memory loss and confusion.

• Half a million Americans in their 30s, 40s and 50s have Alzheimer’s or related dementia.

• It’s the seventh leading cause of death.

I don’t have to tell you how incredibly important it is to do everything within our power to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.   And I don’t have to tell you how vital it is that we all give as much money, time, energy, prayers, and efforts to Alzheimer’s research as well as to families who have been affected.

One of the main missions of Out of Bounds is to arm as many people as possible with the knowledge they need in order to prevent dementia, memory loss, Alzheimer’s, depression, anxiety, and a host of other diseases that can be down right horrific.

USA Today (one of a few periodicals I read every day) recently ran a fascinating article about Alzheimer’s prevention.  When I read the article, I couldn’t help getting excited – it’s always exciting to realize that so many people are throwing their money and brainpower behind the battle against Alzheimer’s.

Research has determined that three things (well within our control) can greatly lessen our chances of getting Alzheimer’s disease:

  1. Exercise
  2. Vitamin D.
  3. Tea

“These are encouraging,” says William Thies, chief medical and scientific officer of the Alzheimer’s Association. “These types of studies make people think, ‘Well gosh, maybe I can do something about this disease.’ “

Exercise to Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer’s

One of the studies is from the Framingham, Mass., cardiovascular risk study, in which researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, among others, tracked more than 1,200 elderly people over 20 years, 242 of whom developed dementia.

The researchers found that participants who had moderate to heavy levels of physical activity had about a 40% lower risk of developing any type of dementia. Those who reported the least amount of activity were 45% more likely to develop dementia compared with those who logged higher levels of activity. -   USA Today

Getting more activity is completely within our control.  It doesn’t matter how long your work days are, how many children you have, how old you are…  Basically you just can’t come up with a good enough excuse NOT to get more activity.

If, however, due to health reasons, you can’t take prolonged walks, exercise on a treadmill, or workout in some other organized manner – you can STILL increase the amount of activity you get each day.

  • If you watch a fair amount of television, use commercials as your cue to get up and move.  Do the twist, walk around the house, do squats – just move that body and keep it moving for as long as the commercial break lasts.  Do the same thing for each and every commercial break.
  • When you go to the store, take one or two laps around the entire store before you even put the first thing into your basket.
  • Even better than working out during commercials, work out during your favorite television show.  March/run in place, do sit ups, lift weights, and so on.  Grab an exercise book or log on to Prevention.com for exercise ideas.
  • Put the laundry up one item at a time.
  • Do all of your housework at once – a 30 minute to 60 minute session of housework can be quite a workout!

Needless to say, if at all possible, walk!  Take a nice, relaxing, brain pumping walk every day — use a treadmill when the weather isn’t conducive to an outside walk.

Drink Tea To Prevent Dementia and Alzheimer’s

Perhaps even more within our control than exercise, drinking tea has been found to help in Alzheimer’s prevention.  Great, great news for me – I have a cup of tea nearby me at all times!

In a study of more than 4,800 men and women ages 65 and older, participants were followed for up to 14 years. Tea drinkers had less mental decline than non-tea drinkers. Those who drank tea one to four times a week had average annual rates of decline 37% lower than people who didn’t drink tea.  (Source: USA Today)

Tea is full of antioxidants that your body loves – and now, apparently, we learn that our minds love tea as well.  Cool.  If you’re hooked on diet drinks or soft drinks, start asking yourself (before each sip), “What good is this doing my body or mind?”  Then ask, “What benefits would drinking tea instead give my body and mind.”  Then order tea!  Remember, if you’re on a decaf diet, you can order decaf tea – it doesn’t appear to be the caffeine that our brains love so dearly.

Vitamin D for Alzheimer’s Prevention

Finally, we come to another Alzheimer’s and Dementia prevention tip that’s completely within our control:  Getting enough Vitamin D.

British researchers looked at vitamin D’s effect on brain health. They examined data from 3,325 U.S. adults ages 65 and older from the NHANES III study. Vitamin D levels were measured by blood test, and cognitive tests were administered. Odds of cognitive impairment were about 42% higher in those deficient in vitamin D, and 394% higher in people severely deficient.

“Vitamin D is neuro-protective in a number of ways, including the protection of the brain’s blood supply and the clearance of toxins,” says author David Llewellyn of the University of Exeter Peninsula Medical School.

There is actually very little vitamin D found naturally in the foods we eat.  The best food sources of vitamin D are coldwater fish. In many countries, vitamin D is added to milk and other foods like breakfast cereals and margarine, contributing to our daily intake.

The best way to get vitamin D is from the sun.

While researching vitamin D, I found this on Real Age.com and thought it was pretty fascinating:

As indicated by the study of submarine personnel noted above, by far the best source of vitamin D is sunlight. However, current recommendations which stress sun avoidance and the use of sunblock may have the unintended effect of increasing the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency. Severe vitamin D deficiency was common in England in the 1800s due to coal smoke obscuring the sun. During that time, cod liver oil, which is high in vitamin D, became popular as a supplement for children to help prevent rickets. (Rickets is a disease caused by vitamin D deficiency in which developing bones soften and curve because they aren’t receiving enough calcium.)

Vitamin D deficiency is known to occur today in the elderly (who often receive less sun exposure) as well as in people who live in northern latitudes and don’t drink vitamin D-enriched milk. The consequences of this deficiency may be increased risk of hypertension, osteoporosis, and several forms of cancer. (Source: Real Age.com)

Use common sense when getting enough vitamin D.  Aim for a little sunlight daily if at all possible.   I’m not suggesting you burn or even simmer your skin – but I am suggesting that you seriously ask yourself if you’re getting enough sunlight and enough vitamin D.

While you’re thinking about it, take a walk around your yard – while, of course, sipping a tall glass of iced tea.

Your brain will love you for it!

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi

Filed Under: Brain Food, Mental Fitness, Must Reads, Prevent Alzheimer's Disease Tagged: ,
May 13, 2010 7 Comments

The Mediterranean Diet for Brain Health: Delicious!

I spend a great deal of time harping about healthy food on Out of Bounds. Truth be told, I can be found preaching the same sermon on Self Help Daily as well. The thing is… we are, to a very GREAT extent, the sum total of what we put into our mouths day in and day out.

Consider the following Mental Fitness and Brain Health facts:

A recent study found that those who eat three servings or more of vegetables daily have a slower rate of cognitive decline as they age. If you aren’t currently getting enough vegetables each and every day, do yourself a huge favor and start today.  Head off to the grocery store and fill your cart up with vegetables that appeal to you – fresh vegetables, if at all possible.  Look for and try different recipes – don’t settle for the same two or three vegetables over and over again.  Branch out!

Experts tell us that we should strive for as colorful a plate as possible.  So, throw on some green vegetables, orange vegetables, red vegetables, and so on. They aren’t just vital to your physical health, they’re vital to your mental fitness as well.

Research at Vanderbilt University shows that drinking fruit or vegetable juice (any type) three times weekly can reduce your odds of getting Alzheimer’s disease by up to 76%. Seventy-six percent!  We’d be total goobers to pass up such a delicious way to care for our brain.  (For my review of Ocean Spray juices, click the link.)

Make a promise to yourself today that you’ll start paying more attention to what you put into your mouth.  Hold each bite accountable for itself. Remember, what you feed your brain today determines how it’ll treat you tomorrow.

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi

Filed Under: Brain Food, Mental Fitness Tagged: , , , , ,
March 2, 2010 1 Comment

Improve Your Memory and Stay Sharp: One Crunch at a Time

People of all ages and all walks of life want a better memory.  Whether it’s a student trying to carry an A in biology, a salesman trying to stay on top of each customer as well as their preference, or a grandmother keeping track of 15 grandkid’s birthdays (good luck!) – all of us want our minds to function with machine-like capabilities.

As I harp on (and harp on, and harp on), we have to use our minds as often as possible, stretching them in ways they weren’t expecting.  We have to read better books, challenge ourselves, learn new things, and never get “comfortable” with our knowledge.  We should work puzzles, play board games, and learn different physical and mental activities.

I also do a fair amount of harping on the other necessities of brain fitness and health:  Getting plenty of rest and relaxation, getting a good night’s sleep each night, and eating plenty of vegetables, fruit, and fish.  If you ever wonder how much fruit and vegetables you should eat each day, go with this sure-fire calculation – about twice as much as you’re eating now!

Here’s something fascinating that I read recently, there’s a certain little 6 calorie vegetable that is especially good for your memory:  Celery!

Celery is a top source of luteolin, a high-powered flavonoid.  Apparently, these compounds may help cool off destructive inflammation in the brain’s memory center.

Over time, this brain inflammation  interferes with our memory.  But there’s more.  The brain inflammation also intensifies and magnifies feelings of depression, accelerates dementia, and may even play a role in the development of Alzheimer’s disease.   According to Real Age.com, new studies suggest that luteolin (found in celery) may mute the nerve signals that tell immune cells in the brain to release inflammatory chemicals called cytokines.

You can eat celery stalks as a snack, blend celery into smoothies, or sprinkle chopped celery onto salads for extra crunch. No celery lurking about in the back of your fridge? No problem.

Luteolin can also be found in green peppers, chili peppers, spinach, lettuce, chamomile tea, and thyme. However, the best source of luteolin is in celery.

How about a Super Memory Salad?  Combine green peppers, cucumbers, chili peppers, spinach, and lettuce.  Throw in a little thyme for good measure and, by all means, serve it with a tall glass of iced chamomile tea.  Your heart will love it as much as your brain does!

Other ways to enjoy celery:

  • Spread pimento cheese in the ditch of a stalk of celery
  • Chop celery into pasta salads
  • Chop celery into just about every kind of soup imaginable
  • Add chopped celery to omelets
  • Dip celery into hummus
  • Dip celery into ranch dressing
  • Cover celery with peanut butter and sprinkle with sunflower seeds

Filed Under: Brain Food, Mental Fitness
February 19, 2010 3 Comments

The Mediterranean Diet: Why Your Brain Craves This Food

We all know that following a Mediterranean diet is healthy for our hearts and can lead to a trimmer body.  As if that’s not enough reason enough to eat more Mediterranean food,  a Mediterranean diet can also help prevent brain damage linked to memory problems and strokes.

A study which was  presented at the American Academy of Neurology’s 62nd Annual Meeting, showed that people who followed a Mediterranean-like diet were less likely to suffer brain tissue damage.

The diets of 712 people were studied and scrutinized.  They were separated into groups that were based on how closely participants followed the diet. MRI brain scans showed that those following the Mediterranean diet the closest were 36 percent less likely to have areas of tissue damage than those following the diet the least closely.  That’s huge.

Experts point out that these findings beautifully back up and support previous research which taught us that the Mediterranean diet could be associated with a lower risk of Alzheimer’s disease and lengthen the lives of people with Alzheimer’s.

The Mediterranean diet has been proven (not just suggested… proven) to help prevent heart disease, hypertension, diabetes, heart attacks and, now, apparently brain disease.  This type of eating should be adopted, today and every day for the rest of our lives.

Just what is a Mediterranean Diet?

A Mediterranean diet involves a very high intake of vegetables, legumes, fruits, cereals, fish and monounsaturated fatty acids.

The foods that a Mediterranean diet discourages: Saturated fatty acids, dairy, meat and poultry.  A lot of it comes down to eating foods that are as close to their natural state as possible – more fresh produce and lots of it.  Look for fresh ways to cook asparagus, artichokes, and broccoli.  Add tomatoes, peppers,onions, and cucumbers to salads, soups, and pasta dishes. Replace meat with combinations of vegetables.

For more information on the benefits of the Mediterranean diet as well as a ton of recipe ideas and a more detailed description of the foods in the Mediterranean diet, please click the following link:  How to Follow a Mediterranean Diet.

Make each moment count double,

~ Joi

Filed Under: Brain Food, Mental Fitness, Motivational Tagged: , ,
January 11, 2010 3 Comments

Why Your Brain Needs a Steady Diet of Purple!

It’s a good thing grapes, blueberries, and blackberries are so delicious – our brains absolutely crave these foods. Not only are they great for your heart, they’re outstanding for your brain. As we often read, what’s great for one is generally great for the other – and, let’s face it, a healthy mind and heart are what we’re all after!

Concord grapes, blueberries, and blackberries each get their gorgeous, rich color from polyphenols. Polyphenols are compounds that reduce heart disease risk and protect against Alzheimer’s disease. Polyphenols help keep blood vessels and arteries flexible and healthy. “What’s good for your coronary arteries is also good for your brain’s blood vessels,” says Robert Krikorian, PhD, director of the Cognitive Disorders Center at the University of Cincinnati.

For those of us interested in the field of mental fitness and brain health, we have all the more reason to sound the purple food trumpet: Adding dark grapes to your diet can actually help to improve brain function. Also, researchers have found that eating 1 or more cups of blueberries every day can improve communication between brain cells, enhancing your memory.

So if you’re looking for foods that support brain health and function, be sure to put plenty of purple on your plate and in your glass.

Filed Under: Brain Food, Mental Fitness
December 30, 2009 2 Comments

Reasons to Watch Your Weight – From Your Brain’s Perspective

We all know the physical reasons to watch our weight:  Diabetes, heart disease, cholesterol, respiratory problems, and even cancer have all been linked to weight related problems.

Experts now tell us that there’s yet another reason to keep our weight where it needs to be.

If you are a healthy weight, your mind is more youthful than if you are carrying extra weight.  In a recent UCLA study, overweight people were found to have 4 percent less brain tissue than normal-weight adults.  If this were broken down into brain age, their minds are about 8 years older than the minds of people who are in their normal weight range.

One possible cause is the fact that high calorie, high fat diets clog arteries in the brain, restrict blood flow, and cause cells to shrink.

Makes you want to have a salad for lunch, doesn’t it? Someone call Panera Bread and tell them to have my salad and green tea waiting for me!

Filed Under: Brain Food, Inspiration, Mental Fitness, Motivational Tagged: , ,
November 21, 2009 1 Comment

Protect your Brain’s Health in a Berry Nutty Tasty Way

Berries and walnuts are good for your brain

If you love berries, grape juice, and walnuts, you already have an upper hand when it comes to protecting the health of your brain.  If you aren’t already wild about them, it’s time to fall in love!

The polyphenols in walnuts and berries help quiet the inflammation and oxidative stressin the brain.  These are the vile evils that can injure the brain and lead to memory problems.

Potent Brain Protection and Prevent Memory Loss

Just how powerful are the polyphenols in berries, grape juice, and walnuts?  Get this:  They are so potent that research suggests they might even help reverse cognitive decline once it occurs. According to Real Age.com (with Drs. Oz and Roizen), in a study of older adults with mild dementia, the individuals performed better on memory tests after Concord grape juice was added to their diets.

Take Steps to Prevent Mental Decline

Below are some tasty ways to make sure you get enough of these polyphenols.

  • Pick a time of the day to automatically have a glass of grape juice – use a particular time or event to signal the ritual.  For example, have a glass as you wash dishes, check your e-mail, take a bath, or read the paper.
  • Add berries and nuts to your breakfast cereal.
  • Add nuts and berries to your tossed salad.
  • Put some walnuts in the bottom of a clear bowl.  Pour vanilla yogurt over the walnuts, then pile on different colors of berries.  Gorgeous and delicious.
  • Keep a candy dish filled with walnuts near your computer. Nosh on them throughout the day.
  • Add berries and walnuts to your oatmeal.  I’ve gotten to the point where if my oatmeal doesn’t have blueberries on top of it, I walk the other way!

Make each moment count double!
~ Joi

Filed Under: Brain Food, Mental Fitness Tagged: , , , ,
June 6, 2009 2 Comments

Go Nuts! Your Brain Will Thank You

Walnuts

For your brain’s sake, you should begin loading up on peanuts, brazil nuts, and walnuts. Toss them in salads, yogurt, oatmeal, etc. Or, go with my favorite system – straight into the mouth.

Each of these delicious nuts are high in protein – but more importantly, they contain omega 3 fatty acids. Omega 3 fatty acids are known to be important to a healthy brain.

So, go nuts!

Make each moment count double,
~ Joi
———————————————-
DID YOU KNOW?
The Sun’s diameter is about 870,000 miles wide, 109 times the size of earth. You could actually fit 1.3 million Earths inside the Sun!

Filed Under: Brain Food, Mental Fitness, Must Reads Tagged: , , ,
February 20, 2009 Leave a Comment

The Enemy Known as Saturated Fat

Saturated fat is the main dietary cause of high blood cholesterol. Saturated fat is found mostly in foods from animals and some plants. Foods from animals include beef, beef fat, veal, lamb, pork, lard, poultry fat, butter, cream, milk, cheeses and other dairy products made from whole and 2 percent milk. All of these foods also contain dietary cholesterol. Foods from plants that contain saturated fat include coconut, coconut oil, palm oil and palm kernel oil (often called tropical oils), and cocoa butter. - American Heart.org

I suppose that, even though we don’t always show it, we do know that saturated fats are bad for our hearts. Do you ever wonder what it would take for us to finally “get it,” and to “get it” to the point of giving our daily diet a complete overhaul?

I’m afraid I already know the answer – it would take a doctor’s serious, concerned expression as he/she told us that we have high blood pressure, heart disease, or something else incredibly fun and exciting. THEN the light bulb would go off and we’d say, “Wow. I need to start eating right. My life is more important that any burger, steak, fries…whatever.”

How about it, let’s start making changes before it gets to that point. Then, maybe we’ll never have to hear the words come out of our doctor’s mouth in the first place.

As if heart health wasn’t enough, here’s a fact that might just push you into action: Those who eat more saturated fat double their risk of Alzheimer’s Disease. DOUBLE. So, if you currently have a 40 percent chance of getting Alzheimer’s Disease, if you keep consuming a lot of saturated fats, you can shoot your percentage of getting Alzheimer’s Disease all the way up to 80 percent!

Time for action? Time for action.

Make a concentrated effort to remove as much saturated fat from your diet as possible.

  • Read labels.
  • A grilled chicken breast without skin contains a third less saturated fat than with skin, so ditch the skin – it’s kind of nasty anyway.
  • Look for healthier butter and margarine spreads – and go as lightly as possible.  I love butter more than anyone in the world loves butter, but even I have found that you can use less without missing it.  I don’t even butter my popcorn anymore.  Also, cornbread and biscuits are just as delicious with fruit preserves.  Especially blackberry!
  • Grill, bake, steam, boil or poach foods rather than frying them.  Grilled or steamed fish, with the right seasonings, is even better than fried and grilled chicken beats fried chicken any day of the week. (As a matter of fact, I’d give anything right this minute for some of my husband’s marinated grilled chicken and pineapple slices.)
  • We can mess up a perfectly healthy salad by throwing fatty dressings on top.  I like to experiment with different flavors rather than allowing the dressing to steal the show.  The next time you make a salad, try tossing in a little fresh cilantro, as much diced jalapeno as you can tolerate, and some green onion.  When you put it onto your plate, simply spritz it with a little fresh lime and lemon juice.  It doesn’t take much, but it’s wonderfully fresh and delicious.
  • It may seem drastic (especially to those of you who see Hamburglar when you look into the mirror!), but cut way back on the number of hamburgers you eat.  Experiment with healthier alternatives (Subway, Penn Station, Quiznos) and healthier choices (grilled chicken,grilled fish, salads, etc.)  Pick a day of the month as your “Burger Day,” if you have to and treat yourself to a burger only on that day.
  • It’s worth mentioning again, so I’m going to mention it again – read the labels when shopping and choose the healthier foods.  Every little bit count because every little bit adds up.

When you start to feel weak, reciting the following will strengthen your resolve:  Those who eat more saturated fat double their risk of Alzheimer’s.

Make each moment healthy!
~ Joi

DID YOU KNOW?
Learn more about Penguins!

  • Penguins mate for life.
  • Penguins can walk faster than humans.  Well, actually it’s more of a waddle…
  • Penguins are very social birds and live together in colonies called rookeries.
  • Penguins communicate with one another through body language.
  • Penguins pick up stones and store them in their crop. This helps them to float when they are in water.
  • When a mother penguin loses a chick, she steals another mother’s chick!
  • There are 17 species of penguins with the Emperor and Adelie penguins being the largest

Penguins

Protect Penguins!

QUOTE
Happiness is not created by what happens to us, but by our attitudes toward each happening. – Walter Heily

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