- One of the best things about this meal
is that it's very easy to cook
and it requires just a few ingredients.
How's it going, everybody?
My name is Max Lugavere, health and science journalist
and the author of the New York Times bestselling book,
Genius Foods, which is all about
how to optimize your brain function with food,
and I'm about to show you the ultimate recipe
for brain health.
So I call this the ultimate recipe for brain health
because every ingredient is selected for a specific purpose.
Every ingredient serves a specific function
in the overall recipe from brain health.
One single meal is not gonna be enough to sway
the health of your brain in any particular direction,
but when you eat foods like this on a regular basis,
you're really giving your brain the tools
that it requires to not only create healthy new brain cells
throughout your life but also to defend itself
against the many stresses that it incurs
over the course of daily life.
I'm a huge fan of Brussels sprouts.
I like to make them well done
so they get nice and crispy and soft.
Cruciferous vegetables are amazing
because they stoke your body's detox pathways
so I mean a lot of people today are obsessed
with overpriced detox teas but your body has
a very elegant detoxification machinery hard coated
into your genome and by consuming cruciferous vegetables,
you basically help your body better detox.
And studies show that people
who consume cruciferous vegetables and dark leafy greens
tend to have more youthful performing brains.
So extra-virgin olive oil is essentially a fruit juice.
It's made simply by crushing olives
which is something that human beings have been doing
for thousands of years
unlike these newer industrial oils
like canola oil, corn oil, soybean oil.
The benefits of extra-virgin olive oil
are not only is it chemically stable
when you use it to cook at low to medium heats
but it actually is an anti-inflammatory fat.
It's as anti-inflammatory as low dose ibuprofen
which many people take for pain relief.
It also has a very favorable fatty acid profile.
It's predominantly monounsaturated fat
which is very good for the cardiovascular system,
and what's good for the heart is good for the brain.
Wild salmon, I know it's gonna be a little bit
more expensive than farm raised salmon
but it's well worth the money.
It has lower levels of omega-6 fatty acids,
higher levels of a powerful antioxidant compound
called astaxanthin which is very good for your skin,
eye, brain, you name it, and importantly,
wild salmon doesn't have any of the antibiotics
and potentially endocrine disrupting compounds
that are very commonly found in farm raised salmon.
Farm raised salmon, they're usually kept in pens,
and they're fed antibiotics to prevent infection,
and they also end up eating a lot of fishmeal
that contains compounds like flame retardants
which we've observed is actually very concentrated
in the flesh of farm raised fish.
So by eating wild salmon,
you're getting a much healthier fish,
and the healthiness of that fish is going to impart
its benefits and its health onto you.
'Cause at the end of the day, you're not just what you eat,
you are what what you eat eats.
Arugula is another very important staple of this dish,
and that's because arugula has the highest concentration
of nitrates of any fruit or vegetable.
Organic naturally occurring nitrates are very good
for your cardiovascular system
and what's good for the heart, again,
is good for the brain.
Actually research shows that one high nitrate meal
is enough to potentially boost cognitive function
so I'm a big fan of arugula, beets are another good option,
but I tend to like the spiciness,
the pepperiness of arugula.
It's a complete misconception that you can't cook
with extra-virgin olive oil.
At the very worst, you're gonna neutralize
some of the many health benefits,
but what's not gonna happen is it's not gonna become
a toxic carcinogen like many other
industrial seed oils actually do.
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So I happen to love the way mustard seed powder tastes
on my cruciferous vegetables, it adds a spicy kick,
but most importantly it actually increases
the healthiness of those vegetables.
All cruciferous vegetables when you chew them raw,
they have the ability to create a compound
that is being studied
for its broad reaching anti-cancer potential.
What happens when you cook cruciferous vegetables
is the ability to create that compound gets lost
but you can regain the potential to create
that compound by sprinkling a little bit
of mustard seed powder on your cooked cruciferous vegetable,
and what's so beautiful about this is that in doing so
you actually increase levels of antioxidants in the brain.
This recipe holds no punches in terms of its ability
to give your brain the nutrients and the tools
that it needs to be healthy and to perform optimally
both in the present and for the long haul as well.
But one of the best things about this meal
is that it's very easy to cook
and it requires just a few ingredients.
Well there you have it,
the ultimate recipe for brain health.
If you wanna learn more about any of that,
you can check out my book, Genius Foods.
Thanks for watching, and keep watching more Goodful.
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