by Maggie Lee

Created on: December 16, 2009   Last Updated: December 17, 2009

If you feel exhausted every day, you may be wondering if there are some foods which may help improve your brain activity and make you more competitive in your daily job and life. Indeed, there is some good advice for you:

1 – Bring more vegetables and fruits into your meals.

Vegetables and fruits are excellent sources of daily calories.  Hence, it’s important to provide enough food to nourish your brain.

Furthermore, vegetables and fruits are also good sources of antioxidants. An antioxidant is defined as a molecule that converts free radicals (waste) into harmless products, thus reducing their harmful effects on all cells, including those of our brain.

2 – Consume more food of grain group.   

Most grain foods contain Vitamin B1, vitamin B2 and carbohydrates. Vitamin B1 is a water-soluble vitamin of the B complex, whose phosphate derivatives are involved in many cellular processes. It is essential for the proper use of glucose by the brain. Vitamin B2, like vitamin B1, it plays an important role in energy metabolism, and is required for the metabolism of fats, carbohydrates and proteins. Good metabolism can provide more positive energy to your body and your brain.

Milk, cheese, leafy green vegetables, liver kidneys, legumes such as mature soybeans, yeast, mushrooms, almonds, bread, pasta, rice and cereals are good sources of vitamin B1 and vitamin B2.

3 – Drink at least a big glass of milk each morning.

Milk and other dairy products are rich in vitamins B2 and B12, which moisturize the cells of your brain. In fact, when our body is dehydrated, the speed of transporting nutrients to your brain can be slower, which may lead to dizziness, loss of concentration and fatigue.

4 – Eat at least two times of fish each week. 

Fish is rich in omega-3. Omega-3 DHA is an integral part of our brain membranes and is essential to nervous system function. Thus, in children, a lack of DHA can result in potential loss and cognitive slowing. 

5 – Iron supplement.

Iron is essential for the nutrients and oxygen transport to the brain. Iron deficiency can cause a slowing of intellectual capacity. We find iron mainly in legumes, beef, organ meats, dried fruit and tofu.

6 - Vitamin B12 intake.

Vitamin B12 plays a key role in the normal functioning of the brain and nervous system, and for the formation of blood. It is normally involved in the metabolism of every cell of the body. It is found in foods of animal origin: eggs, meat, poultry, milk and fish.

7 - Eat more fresh grapes.

Eating fresh grapes can prevent the accumulation of harmful oxidized cholesterol and avoid the blockage of the vessels that supply blood to the heart or the brain.

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