Food to Feed Your Mind(食物喂養(yǎng)你的頭腦）

吃什么食物能夠讓你的頭腦變得聰明呢？下面列了5種食物偎痛，最我們最熟悉的應(yīng)該是核桃和蜂蜜旱捧。

If we’re told to fuel and protect our minds by the content we absorb（吸收）, how can we improve our brain health with actual foods?

With the internet overflowing with quotes from wise, philosophical types, a generous abundance of pre-8AM life-hacks to choose from each morning, and a self-help industry worth more than $11 billion, the idea of “feeding our minds” has taken on a certain color. We’re advised to immerse ourselves in the writing of great minds, to broaden our spiritual horizons, to create and follow personal maxims. And rightly so. Feed away.（連續(xù)不斷的）

But I want to think about this a bit more literally: how about feeding our minds with the food we eat?

I’ll mention just one quote from a wise, philosophical type, which is this:

“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”*

— Virginia Woolf*

There’s emerging science which shows how certain, everyday foods have complex properties which help our brains do their thing — i.e. to feel good, to focus well, to sleep soundly.

It’s unsurprising, really. We can put pills in our mouths, digest them, and find ourselves relieved of depression, anxiety, sleep problems and stress. It’s surely not a huge stretch to imagine that the food we eat can do the same thing — but in a more natural, sustainable, side-effect free way.

Ancient cultures have known this for centuries, but — as with so many things — it’s taking us a bit of time to come full circle. Armed with Western science alongside long-held holistic knowledge, there’s a pretty compelling case for using and enjoying food as a way to feed our minds.

One in five of us in the UK are affected by anxiety or depression, and nearly half by chronic stress; there’s a fairly terrifying increase in rates of dementia; plus growing awareness of a ‘modern epidemic’ called brainfog. The time feels pretty ripe for exploring ways to tackle mind-related issues that are well within all of our control, available to us daily, and don’t involve a prescription.

So what does it mean, as Woolf so simply put it, to “dine well”?

There’s a wealth of knowledge out there — and even more that we don’t yet understand. Based on my own biohacking（生物駭客） self-experiments and a lot of research, below are my top five awesome（極好的） mind-fueling foods that are probably already in your cupboard. Equally important is a short explanation of the way they work their magic — because? the last（最后的） thing anyone needs is another list of “Eat this!” / “Never eat this!” to blindly memorize; it’s time we embraced the stories of why and how.

補(bǔ)腦top5

Turmeric（姜黃）is a root, closely related to ginger（姜）. It contains curcumin（姜黃素）, which is an absolute wonder for the brain. It regulates the levels of serotonin（血清素）in our brains, by putting a stop to the enzymes which break it down — giving it freedom to run round our brain making us feel good and sleep well. It’s also a brilliant anti-inflammatory（消炎藥）that keeps brain cells calm and happy, and promotes the growth of nerve cells. Awesome for memory. Best eaten with black pepper（黑胡椒）, to make it easily absorbable（吸收）.

Parsley（歐芹）is the best herb to have in the house. It’s full of vitamin C (way more than oranges) — which is known to directly reduce levels of a particularly nasty inflammatory（惡性的炎癥）called CRP. It contains luteolin（毛地黃黃酮）, which helps the hippocampus（海馬區(qū)） — where memory and learning happen — to do its thing. It’s also rich in antioxidant flavonoids（抗氧化劑）, which run around neutralizing floating free radicals（自由基） so they can’t damage and age cells.

Miso（味噌）. Fermented foods（發(fā)酵類食物） — like miso — rebalance our gut bacteria（細(xì)菌）, which sorts out all manner of woes（各種各樣的麻煩）. Too much ‘bad bacteria’ in the gut（腸道菌群） creates toxic byproducts, which are horrible for the brain and disrupt serotonin production. Miso helps prevent this. And to counter stress, get the ‘barley’ version (it’ll say it on the label) for a powerful antidote to anxiety — it contains phosphatidylserine, which reduces the stress hormone cortisol（皮質(zhì)醇）.

Walnuts（核桃） look like teeny（微型的） brains for good reason. They contain anti-inflammatory polyphenols（多酚） which soothe upset, tired cells; magnesium（鎂）, which aids ‘synaptic plasticity’（突觸可塑性反應(yīng)）, making it easier for the brain to rewire itself — a helping hand if you’re stuck in anxious repeated thoughts; melatonin（褪黑素）, which supports natural deep sleep so that brain cells can chill out（徹底的放松） and get all the rest they need each night; and finally, vitamin E, which protects and maintains brain cell membranes（膜）.

Honey. Tryptophan（色氨酸） — the building block（基本要素） of serotonin — is really hard for our bodies to absorb. It gets crowded out by the bigger, bulkier proteins that exist in all tryptophan-rich foods, and struggles to enter the bloodstream（血液循環(huán)）. So — and the gods of modern fad diets may strike me down for saying so — carbs are super important. Eating some pure carbs after protein gives the tryptophan a chance to enter the bloodstream, without all the other big hulking proteins getting in the way. Carbs in the form of refined sugars (like sweets, white pasta and bread) are a no-no — they deplete brain cells’ mitochondria（線粒體）, making them tired and age faster. But honey is carb with a difference — a unique source of anti-inflammatory sugar which calms, rather than upsets, brain cells. Best eaten before bed to help with the sleep cycle.

This is about nothing more than being informed and deliberate about what we eat, and enjoying the amazing powers of the foods so readily available to us. It’s not about expensive supplements, complicated meals, or restrictive diet plans.

There are loads more foods with exciting stories to tell — their tales just need to continue to be uncovered, shared, and lived.

Our brains are our most exciting, powerful tool. Let’s feed them, literally.

重點(diǎn)詞匯

· overflowing 溢流，過剩

· quote 引用踩麦，引語

· life-hack 生活妙招

· take on 承擔(dān)枚赡，呈現(xiàn)，具有谓谦，穿上

· immerse oneself in 潛心于某事贫橙，專注于某事

· spiritual 精神的

· horizons（思想、知識(shí)和經(jīng)驗(yàn)的）范圍反粥，界限卢肃；眼界

· maxim 箴言，格言

· and rightly so 有理由這樣（用于表示認(rèn)為某個(gè)決定或行為合理并合乎道德）

· literally 根據(jù)字面意思

· emerging 新興的

· complex 復(fù)雜的

· properties 特性星压，性質(zhì)践剂，屬性

· digest 消化

· relieve 減輕，緩解

· depression 抑郁

· stretch 延伸

· sustainable 可持續(xù)的

· side-effect free 沒有副作用

· as with 正如娜膘；與……一樣

· come full circle 兜了個(gè)圈回到原點(diǎn)

· holistic 整體的

· compelling 令人信服的

· armed with 裝備有

· chronic 慢性的逊脯，長(zhǎng)期的

· dementia 癡呆

· epidemic 流行病，傳染病

· brain fog 腦霧

· tackle 應(yīng)付竣贪，處理

· prescription 處方军洼，（醫(yī)生開的）處方藥

· biohacking 生物黑客

· turmeric 姜黃

· curcumin 姜黃素

· serotonin 血清素

· enzyme 酶

· anti-inflammatory 消炎的，消炎藥

· absorbable 可吸收的

· parsley 歐芹

· luteolin 毛地黃黃酮

· nasty 令人不快的演怎，糟糕的

· hippocampus 海馬體匕争，海馬區(qū)

· antioxidant 抗氧化劑

· flavonoid 黃酮類

· neutralize 中和

· free radicals 自由基

· miso 味噌

· gut bacteria 腸道細(xì)菌

· all manner of sth 各種各樣的

· woes 大麻煩

· disrupt 擾亂

· phosphatidylserine 磷脂酰絲氨酸

· hormone 激素，荷爾蒙

· cortisol 皮質(zhì)醇

· teeny 很小的

· polyphenol 多酚

· magnesium 鎂

· synaptic plasticity 突觸可塑性

· rewire 給……重新布線

· stuck in 陷入

· melatonin 褪黑素

· chill out 徹底休息

· membrane 膜

· tryptophan 色氨酸

· building block 積木爷耀，基本要素

· fad diet 時(shí)尚飲食

· carbs 碳水化合物

· refined sugar 精制糖

· no-no? 禁忌甘桑，不可作之事

· deplete 耗盡；使衰竭

· mitochondria 線粒體

· deliberate about 就……仔細(xì)考慮

· supplements 補(bǔ)充品

· restrictive 限制（性）的歹叮，約束（性）的-

重點(diǎn)句子

長(zhǎng)而不難跑杭，語言平實(shí)有力量，推薦熟讀：

With the internet overflowing with quotes from wise, philosophical types, a generous abundance of pre-8AM life-hacks to choose from each morning, and a self-help industry worth more than $11 billion, the idea of "feeding our minds" has taken on a certain color.

We’re advised to immerse ourselves in the writing of great minds, to broaden our spiritual horizons, to create and follow personal maxims.

One in five of us in the UK are affected by anxiety or depression, and nearly half by chronic stress; there’s a fairly terrifying increase in rates of dementia; plus growing awareness of a ‘modern epidemic’ called brain fog.

They contain anti-inflammatory polyphenols which soothe upset, tired cells; magnesium, which aids ‘synaptic plasticity’, making it easier for the brain to rewire itself?—?a helping hand if you’re stuck in anxious repeated thoughts; melatonin, which supports natural deep sleep so that brain cells can chill out and get all the rest they need each night; and finally, vitamin E, which protects and maintains brain cell membranes.

自己整理的筆記咆耿。