Brain Diets Experts Swear By

The word "diet" is often misinterpreted. Increasingly used as a set of hard-and-fast rules that promise quick weight loss or increased muscle within in a week or instant flawless skin, the original definition is much less extreme – and it's the one we'll ride with in this article.

Let's look at "diet" as simply the food you tend to eat on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. The chances are you're already doing many things right. Sure, there's always room for improvement, but faced with endless advice coming at us from all sides, we tend to stall – without being aware of the rather small additions or subtractions we could make to really benefit us in the long-run.

In this article, you can look forward to no extremes or instant guaranteed anything, simply the kind of good practice that will see you and your loved ones enjoy lasting health benefits for years to come.

Keep Sugar on the Low

Sugar is everywhere. Despite the regular advice spouted by magazines and diet professionals to go 100% sugar-free, it's virtually impossible to sustain. And straining oneself to live by such an ideal is far more likely to impact negatively on the brain and body through stress than if you just enjoy a little sugar from time to time. Having said that, cutting down is definitely beneficial – take a look at this TedEx short to see exactly how sugar over-activates the brain's reward system, which can lead to loss of control and the dreaded brain fog.

Possibly one of the most striking examples of how low sugar diets actually help to prevent adverse effects on the brain is in Jane Hawking's moving account of nursing acclaimed intellectual Stephen Hawking, and how cutting down on sugar and convenience food has arguably helped slow the deterioration of nerve cells in his brain. The evidence speaks for itself: Hawking – who was predicted to live just two years after his diagnosis of ALS in his early twenties, is still alive and well at 74 years of age.

So how best to cut down on sugar without cutting it out entirely? One very doable practice is not capping every meal with something sweet. Although a difficult habit to break, saying no to desserts and sugary snacks will noticeably improve your mental alertness: not only will you notice an improved ability to form ideas and make decisions, avoiding sugar will improve the appearance of your skin and make your body feel much more agile. Say goodbye to waking up like the weight of the world is upon your head.

Flex the Mind with Flax

It's easy to assume that people are born smart, but the power that diet exercises upon an individual's intellect is unprecedented. A recent NHS study revealed that poor eating habits inflict severe harm on a child's ability to learn, specifically that diets high in sugar, fats and processed foods correspond to much lower IQ by the age of eight.

But the story doesn't end at childhood – what we eat as adults also influences our brain capacity. So what do those who rely on their intellectual stamina do – is there anything they're eating that's different to the everyman? Poker player Lee Davy explores how many players are eating their way to success, citing Andrew Lichtenberger's dietary tips in his book The Yoga of Poker and Martin Jacobson's praise of healthy eating in his documentary 10 for 10. Their separate tips and tricks all agree on two points: firstly, that eating unhealthily is one of the biggest impediments to players reaching their full potential, and secondly, the best diet is one that is kind to the liver.

Aside from regularly eating foods high in zinc and iron such as leafy greens, salmon and berries, many believe the real secret behind fantastic liver health lies in the fine brown seeds from the flax plant. Flax seeds when crushed and sprinkled over foods give the body a dose of omega-3 fatty acids which, aside from strengthen the liver, are proven to boost brain function. A 2015 study indicates that omega-3 found in flax is one of the most effective preventives of cerebral degeneration and the onset of Alzheimer's disease.

Eat Slow and Light

With most supermarket and restaurant foods configured to make you want to eat more of them, the potential to overeat is enormous. However, eating too quickly to know whether we're full and consuming more food than is necessary has a harmful effect. Our body contains a finite amount of blood and energy, meaning that overeating puts undue pressure the organs and detracts resources that could otherwise go to the brain. If you've experienced a food coma, this is overindulgence in action.

Eating slowly is one practice worth learning for the long-term – it is the first step to really understanding your body and listening to its needs rather than being duped by your senses. This practice goes hand in hand with enjoying a little of everything, including the so-called "bad food." In reality no such a thing exists: processed, fatty and sugary foods only become harmful when you're eating them on a regular basis. There's also been a trend toward renouncing meat among intellectuals since time immemorial – Einstein himself was a committed vegan – but being too strict on yourself will only cause more harm than good in the end. And even Einstein himself admitted to enjoying meat on infrequent occasions when his body craved it.

Whether you are looking to eat more foods to boost your concentration for exams, work, or simply keep your brain ticking over in optimal health, these dietary considerations aim to complement the good that you are already doing, rather than being a call to make drastic changes. After all, our main adversary is not food, but lifestyle namely being in a hurry and choosing convenience over care. If we can find some way to apply the brakes to a life led at breakneck speed, many of the best dietary lessons for improving our brains, body and overall health are ones we can figure out with just a little advice – and most probably, on our own.