TBI and Neuronutrition: How What You Eat Can Help Improve Brain Injuries
Have you, or someone you love, been the victim of a traumatic brain injury and you feel like its taking too long to recover? If so, then you'll want to read this article and learn how neuronutrition can help speed up the brain's healing process.
Neuronutrition is the process of eating foods that give your brain the nutrients it needs to function at it's best.
Because these nutrients strengthen your brain's neurological activity, they can improve your brain health, your productivity, and your memory. They can even help recover lost cognitive ability after a brain injury.
This can protect you from getting diseases like Alzheimer's or dementia. But for people who've suffered a traumatic brain injury, or TBI, neuronutrition is a natural way to improve brain function.
Keep reading to learn more about neuronutrition and why it's so important for people recovering from a TBI.
How Does Neuronutrition Work?
Like the rest of your body, your brain needs calories to run. Without the right amount of calories or nutrients, your brain has a hard time thinking and working the way you need it to.
A person who has experienced a TBI needs these calories and nutrients even more than others. They need to feed the brain nourishment that will help speed recovery and improve cognitive function. This nourishment will also affect the brain's neurotransmitters.
In other words, eating right will give you more energy and improve your mood.
Who Can Benefit from Neuronutrition?
While anyone (and everyone) can benefit from neuronutrition, it's even more important for people recovering from a brain injury.
Why?
Eating non-nutritive and inflammatory foods, like those often consumed on the Standard American Diet, can have a negative impact on your overall brain health. For someone already experiencing a recess in cognitive ability, these types of foods can make the recovery longer and harder.
So neuronutrition is especially important for people who have sustained a traumatic brain injury.
8 of the Best Foods for Neuronutrition
The best foods for neuronutrition are ones that contain vitamins, minerals, healthy fats, and antioxidants. You should stay away from processed foods that are full of harmful chemicals.
Keep an eye out for things like artificial sweeteners, GMOs, mercury, inflammatory proteins, fluoride, and pesticides. You'll always want to avoid sugar, fried foods, and alcohol.
Instead of focusing on fast or convenient food, make sure your diet includes these eight foods for neuronutrition.
1. Blueberries
Blueberries are full of nutrients including vitamin C, vitamin K, fibre, and antioxidants. These things can lower inflammation and protect your brain from deterioration and oxidative damage. On top of that, blueberries reduce the speed of natural cognitive decline that comes with age.
2. Avocados
This superfood has large amounts of healthy fats that load your brain with necessary nutrients. The vitamin K and folate inside avocados prevent blood from clotting in your brain and strengthen both concentration and memory.
3. Wild Salmon
This is arguably the best food for your brain. Because it's full of antioxidants, micro-minerals, omega-3 fatty acids, and micronutrients, wild salmon can give you better memory recall and get rid of brain fog, improving your focus.
“Please note - wild salmon does mean wild. Farmed salmon often have heavy metals and other toxins that promote more problems than provide benefits. ”
4. Whole Eggs
Instead of eating GMO eggs, buy whole eggs that come from free-range chickens. These chickens ate grass, so they weren't exposed to harmful chemicals in their food like conventional chickens. Whole eggs like this have over twice the amount of omega-3 fatty acids and choline of farmed eggs.
5. Coconut Oil
Coconut oil serves as an anti-inflammatory solution for the brain. If you're recovering from a TBI, this is one of the foods you should eat plenty of. It reduces brain inflammation and helps you recover lost memories.
6. Broccoli
Because broccoli is loaded with vitamin K, it's an essential food for restoring and improving memory. This vegetable also contains high amounts of vitamin C and fibre.
7. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Olive oil has polyphenols that contain antioxidant and anti-inflammatory qualities. Eating extra virgin olive oil can make learning new things easier and strengthen your memory.
But this oil, like most, loses some of these benefits when you heat it up. For this reason, it's better to drizzle olive oil on cold foods, like salads, rather than cooking it.
8. Beets
Beets also reduce inflammation and contain high levels of antioxidants. This root vegetable helps get rid of stored toxins in your bloodstream and increases blood flow to the brain. Better blood flow means better cognitive ability.
Nutritional Tips for People Recovering from Brain Injuries
For some people, their brain and body signals don't function the way they should after a brain injury. This can throw off your eating patterns, which can result in eating too many calories or not enough.
In these cases, it's helpful to eat small meals every three to four hours instead of three big meals a day. To stick to this schedule, make sure you set a timer to remind you when you should be eating again. Your body and brain are at their best when they stick to a routine eating schedule.
Don't let yourself overeat during these meals. Eating too much food can make you feel even more tired than you usually are.
Whenever you leave the house, make sure you take healthy snacks with you. This might include fruits, nuts, energy bars, and hard-boiled eggs. Snacks like these will come in handy if you start losing energy.
TBI and Neuronutrition: The Right Foods Can Improve Your Brain Function
If your brain doesn't get the right kind of nutrition, it can take longer for you to relearn skills and recover from a traumatic brain injury. Eating foods that are full of vitamins, antioxidants, and brain-healthy fats support your brain function, strengthen memory, and improve cognitive ability.
Do you need some help planning the right meals for your TBI recovery? Take a look at our meal planning services and find out how we can help.
As always, I value your feedback. Contact me or comment below with what has helped you overcome a TBI.
