Currently I am in Bali, Indonesia! My travels around South East Asia have taken me from Cambodia to Vietnam, Vietnam to Malaysia, Malaysia to Singapore and Singapore to Indonesia! I know I posted before I left that there would be no blog posts until I got back, but there was something I just had to post about… THE FOOD!
The food here is incredible and very different to anything in the UK. Although a lot of it is very spicy, even when they tell you it isn’t. I have tried a wide variety of different foods out here from shark to bamboo soup. It got me thinking about what different foods do to the brain. Not only can we help out our brain by exercising but we can also help our brain by eating, which for some of us is an appealing idea!
Today I had two poached eggs on an English breakfast muffin (no not a McMuffin), topped with hollandaise sauce and smoked salmon accompanied by a ‘power smoothie’ (coconut milk, peanuts, oats and honey). While this may not be very native of Indonesia which is shocking of me, it made me think, what does my breakfast do to my brain?
Smoked Salmon
I absolutely love smoked salmon, especially with some granary bread. From researching, smoked salmon is not only yummy but great for the brain! Smoked salmon is packed with Omega-3 which is a fatty oil found in some foods. Omega-3 has been associated with preventing heart disease (Simopoulos, 1991). Smoked salmon also preserves brain function and eases inflammation. Who doesn’t want that!
Eggs
How do I like my eggs in the morning? Anyway possible. Friend, poached, scramble, raw… maybe not raw. Eggs have many great health benefits such as being a great source of protein. But eggs are also a great source of Choline. Choline is also associated with preserving brain function and reducing inflammation.
Nuts
There are many different types of nuts, peanut, macadamia, coconut, almond, cashew, to name a few. Did you know they help the brain in different ways. Almonds can help preserve memory, pistachios help preserve fatty oils which prevent inflammation and macadamia nuts help with normal brain function.
These are just 3 different types of food that are great are strengthening the brain. All of these help preserve brain function which means aiding our memory, problem solving and decision making. So if you don’t fancy lifting some weights to strengthen your brain, maybe lift up your fork… with some of these foods, not junk, but hey, it’s your choice!
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