Optimize Your Brain: The Science of Smarter Eating | Dr. Drew Ramsey | Big Think

Optimize Your Brain: The Science of Smarter Eating

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Like the rest of the human body, our brain depends on good nutrition. In fact, it’s where everything starts and from where everything flows. Lack of certain vitamins can lead to drops of mood, cognitive ability and physical functionality. For these reasons, when getting a psychiatric evaluation it makes sense to call a nutrition intervention to make sure slumps in vitamin and nutrition levels aren’t the cause of common mental diagnoses such as depression and anxiety.

Drew Ramsey, MD and author of Eat Complete and co-author of 50 Shades of Kale, wants to make sure people know about the links between wellbeing and nutrition. A well-balanced diet is firmly linked to a person’s wellbeing. Without enough iron, as he points out, a person will feel sluggish, cloudy, and at the bottom of their game.

Most of us don’t consider every vitamin when we think up our meals. We may know that fish is a good source of protein, but we’ll stick to what we know, choosing to get our protein from steak or poultry of tofu. What a person might overlook is that fish such as salmon and tuna, and especially the smaller, oilier, and more sustainable fish like sardines and anchovies, are not just good sources of protein, but also a major haul of omega-3 fatty acids that are a critical brain booster. Omega-3 are long-chained acids, and a type called DHA is actually what brain cells are made of. So raise a sardine on toast in the air and say cheers to a more robust brain.

Armed with more workable knowledge of which foods will do what, your wellbeing could improve across all facets. You’ll feel more energetic, have more cognitive clarity, your blood quality will be smoother (yes smoother, it prevents vascular disease and helps oxygen get delivered efficiently around the body), and your gut health, which is being increasingly linked to mental health, will also rocket upwards. Interestingly, self-congratulatory pats on the back have also been known to increase.

Drew Ramsey's book is Eat Complete.

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DREW RAMSEY:

Dr. Drew Ramsey is a psychiatrist, author, and farmer. He is one of psychiatry’s leading proponents of using dietary change to help balance moods, sharpen brain function and improve mental health. He is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and in active clinical practice in New York City where his work focuses on the clinical treatment of depression and anxiety. Using the latest brain science and nutritional research, modern treatments, and an array of delicious food he aims to help people live to their happiest, healthiest lives.

He is the co-creator of The Brain Food Scale, co-founder of National Kale Day 501(c)3, and a member of the medical review team at Dr. Oz’s webportal ShareCare. He frequently speaks and conducts workshops nationally, including two recent TEDx talks BrainFork and Brain Farmacy on food and brain health. His work and writing have been featured by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Atlantic.com, Prevention, Lancet Psychiatry, and NPR, which named him a “kale evangelist.” His recent bestseller 50 Shades of Kale has made this superfood accessible to thousands. His first book, The Happiness Diet: A Nutritional Prescription for a Sharp Brain, Balanced Mood and Lean, Energized Body explored the impact of modern diets on brain health.

Dr. Ramsey teaches and supervises Psychiatric Evaluation and in the Columbia University Adult Psychiatry Residency Program. He serves as a thesis mentor for graduate students at the Columbia University Institute of Human Nutrition where is also lectures on nutrition and the brain. From 2005 to 2008, he directed the Audubon Continuing Day Treatment Program, a bilingual service for the severely mentally ill located in the Washington Heights. He is a faculty member at the Center for Mind-Body Medicine. Dr. Ramsey is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. He completed his specialty training in adult psychiatry at Columbia University and the New York State Psychiatric Institute, received an M.D. from Indiana University School of Medicine and is a Phi Beta Kappa graduate of Earlham College.

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TRANSCRIPT:

Drew Ramsey: We know that brain health...

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