Essentials: Food & Supplements for Brain Health & Cognitive Performance

**Andrew Huberman** (0:00)
Welcome to Huberman Lab Essentials, where we revisit past episodes for the most potent and actionable science-based tools for mental health, physical health and performance.
I'm Andrew Huberman, and I'm a professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford School of Medicine. Today, we are talking all about food and the brain. We are going to talk about foods that are good for your brain in terms of focus, in terms of brain health generally, and the longevity of your brain, and your ability to maintain cognition and clear thinking over time. We are also going to talk about why and how you prefer certain foods to others. And I'm going to talk about the three major signals that combine to drive your food choices. One of those signals comes from your gut and is completely subconscious. These are neurons in your gut that are sending signals to your brain that you are unaware of about the nutrient contents of the foods that you were eating. The second signal is how metabolically accessible a given food is, meaning how readily that food can be converted into energy that your brain, not your body, but that your brain can use. And the third signal is perhaps the most interesting one. It's the signal of belief. It's the signal of what you perceive and believe the food that you're eating to contain and what you think it can do for you health-wise and energy-wise. What are the things that directly impact brain health and what are the foods that we can eat that will support brain health? Generally, when we think about neuron function and brain function, we default to a discussion about fuel. The fact that neurons use glucose, which is blood sugar, and that they require a lot of it. But before we can even consider the fuels that neurons use in order to function, we have to talk about the elements that actually allow those neurons to be there and to stay healthy, what actually makes up those neurons. And that brings us to what I would argue is the most important food element for brain function, and that is fat. And that may come as a surprise, but unless one considers the water content of the brain, which is very high, a lot of our brain and a lot of the integrity of the nerve cells, the so-called neurons in our brain and the other types of cells comes from fat. And that's because nerve cells and other cells in the brain have a external layer. It's what's sometimes called a double-layered membrane. It's essentially two thin layers that serve as a boundary between those cells. And that boundary is very important because how things pass across that boundary actually regulates the electrical activity of neurons, which is the way that neurons fire and communicate and keep you thinking and acting and doing all the good things that those neurons allow us to do. And those membranes are made up of fats, but they're not made up of the fats that are around our belly, around the other organs of our body. They're not made up of storage fat. They are made up of structural fat and maintaining the so-called integrity of that structural fat, meaning the health of those neurons is going to come in large part from the foods that we eat. So what type of fat is it? And what should we eat in order to support that fat and those neurons? And the answer is the so-called essential fatty acids and phospholipids. Now those are more or less the same thing, but I just want to make a very large literature, very crystal clear. Essential fatty acids can include the so-called EPA variety or DHA variety. You hear about omega-3s and omega-6s. Most people are getting enough omega-6s from their diet. However, most people are not getting enough omega-3s in their diet to support healthy brain function in the short and long term. What are foods that are high in omega-3s that we should all probably be consuming, at least on a daily basis? The number one is fish. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm not eating a lot of fish. I will from time to time, but that's one reason why one might want a supplement with EPAs from another source. But also EPAs are found in chia seeds, in walnuts, in soybeans and other plant-based foods. You can look these up online and you'll immediately see that there are a lot of sources of EPAs. And many of the foods that I listed off might be appetizing to you. Some of them might be unappetizing to you, or some of them you might be sort of neutral about. But it's very clear that eating foods that are rich in omega-3s and or supplementing with omega-3s to get above that 1.5 grams, and ideally up to two or even three grams per day of EPA can be very beneficial for cognitive function in the short and long term. The other compound that has been shown to be directly supportive of neuronal function is phosphatidylserine, which is abundant in meats and in fish. So for those of you that do consume meat and fish, provided you're getting enough fish, you're probably getting enough phosphatidylserine. For those of you that are interested in supplementing the phosphatidylserine, it's a relatively inexpensive supplement that again is lipid-like. So it's mimicking some of the same things that you would get from food, but in higher concentration. Now, after EPA, fatty acids and phosphatidylserine, I would say third on the list of things that come from food that can readily support brain function would be choline. And that's because of the relationship to choline in the biosynthesis pathway for acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is a neuromodulator, not a neurotransmitter, but a neuromodulator in the brain. So it's kind of a electrical highlighter pen, if you will, by analogy.