How to Feed a Brain: Nutrition for Optimal Brain Function and Repair

Ben Greenfield (0:01)

In this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Show.

Cavin Balaster (0:04)

So I try to get these nutrients in food, so I get supplements that are as close to food as I can find. So desiccate the organ needs, and then kelp and dulse, so sea vegetables.

Ben Greenfield (0:17)

Because you're reducing the communication to the digestive system, or you're disturbing it, for sure.

Cavin Balaster (0:24)

And when communication from your brain to your digestion is impaired, your gut becomes more permeable.

SPEAKER_3 (0:36)

He's an expert in human performance and nutrition.

Voted America's top personal trainer and one of the globe's most influential people in health and fitness. His show provides you with everything you need to optimize physical and mental performance. He is Ben Greenfield.

Ben Greenfield (0:54)

Power.

Whatever it is for you that's the natural movement. Get out there. When you look at all the studies done, studies that have shown the greatest efficacy.

SPEAKER_3 (1:11)

All the information you need in one place, right here, right now, on the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast.

Ben Greenfield (1:33)

Thank Hey, folks, it's Ben Greenfield. Didn't even have a chance to eat breakfast this morning, such a busy, busy morning. I had to choose between breakfast and hitting my sauna. So if you hear me sipping, I'm actually gonna open my little NutriBullet here. I'm sipping decaffeinated coffee blended with a bunch of mushroom extracts, a little bit of almond butter, a little bit of MCT oil, some cacao, some stevia, some cinnamon, and it's goodness. But I digress, because today's podcast guest is also goodness. You see what I did there? I actually met him. I met him at an event called Paleo FX. That was about a little less than a year ago. He introduced himself to me at a dinner function. A very bright young man who informed me that he had suffered a severe, severe traumatic brain injury that left him in a complete coma with less than a 10% chance of ever regaining consciousness beyond a persistent, vegetative state.

I'm gonna have him tell you more of his story, but he was basically tube-fed with a tube, literally like stuck into his belly.

And that was about, I believe, five or six years ago. I'll let him tell you the story again. But he has devoted his entire life since then to studying what he calls neuro-metabolism, neuroplasticity, neuroscience, neuroscience, nutrition that feeds the brain. He just finished a book called How to Feed a Brain, Appropriately Enough. This episode actually, even if you're, if you don't have a TBI or concussion or haven't suffered from a severe traumatic brain injury, but you just wanna learn how to get smart, this is gonna be a good podcast for you.

Now, I don't need that because, of course, I'm drinking this coffee, which I hear just makes you smart automatically. So I might tune out. But the rest of you listen in. No, I'm just kidding.

Cavin, you spell your name C-A-V-I-N, but do you pronounce it Cavin or Cavin?

Cavin Balaster (3:32)

Cavin. Cavin.

Ben Greenfield (3:33)

Okay, Cavin. When I first met you, I thought it was Gavin, because I'm familiar with Gavin.

Cavin Balaster (3:37)

Everybody does that, totally cool.

Ben Greenfield (3:40)

Yeah, yeah. Everything we talk about today, by the way, if you guys listen in, just go to bengreenfieldfitness.com/feedabrain. That's bengreenfieldfitness.com/feedabrain, and it'll all be there.

So, Cavin, welcome to the show, man.

Cavin Balaster (3:56)

Man, it's great to be here, Ben.

Ben Greenfield (3:58)

Yeah.

Cavin Balaster (3:59)

It's awesome to be on here. And yeah, I've seen you at Paleo FX a couple times, and been checking out your work, got a couple friends that are huge fans of yours. One of them's a triathlete, like marathon runner.

Ben Greenfield (4:14)

Yeah, got a lot of fans who are triathletes and marathoners, all they know.

Cavin Balaster (4:17)

Yeah, for sure.

Ben Greenfield (4:18)

Yeah, yeah, that was my fault for doing too many triathlons and marathons.

I want to talk about you, man. So five, six years ago, how long ago did this happen, and what exactly happened?

Cavin Balaster (4:30)

It was six and a half years ago, in May of 2011

I just had a traumatic brain injury. I fell from a rooftop water tower, hit the front of my head on the steel scaffolding back in the Conqueror rooftop.

Ben Greenfield (4:45)

What were you doing in a water tower?

Cavin Balaster (4:48)

You ever seen the Manhattan city skyline from Brooklyn rooftop?

Ben Greenfield (4:54)

You know what? I have been over to Brooklyn a few months ago to look at the amazing Christmas lights in Diker Heights over there.