[@hubermanlab] Food & Supplements for Brain Health & Cognitive Performance | Huberman Lab Essentials

Link: https://youtu.be/cIla9axQRyM

Short Summary

Number One Most Important Action Item/Takeaway:

Prioritize consuming essential fatty acids, particularly omega-3s (EPA and DHA), from sources like fish, chia seeds, walnuts, soybeans, or supplements, aiming for 1.5 to 3 grams of EPA daily, to support brain structure, function, and long-term cognitive health.

Executive Summary:

This video focuses on how food impacts brain health and food preferences. The critical takeaway is to consume essential fatty acids, particularly omega-3s, for optimal brain health, alongside other compounds like phosphatidylserine, choline, creatine, anthocyanins, and glutamine. Furthermore, understanding how taste, subconscious gut signals, and learned associations influence food choices can help individuals rewire their preferences to embrace more brain-healthy foods.

Key Quotes

Here are five direct quotes from the YouTube video transcript that represent valuable insights:

1. "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." (This highlights the power of perception and belief in shaping our body's response to food.)

2. "What your brain, meaning what you are seeking when you eat is not taste, is not dopamine, is not even a rise in blood glucose. What you're seeking, even though you don't realize it because it's subconscious, is you are seeking things that allow your neurons to be metabolically active." (This points to a deeper biological drive underlying our food choices beyond just pleasure or reward.)

3. "But it's also true that if we continue to eat foods that are progressively sweeter and sweeter and highly palatable, it shifts our dopamine system because it activates our dopamine system to make us believe that those foods are the only foods that can trigger this reward system and make us feel good and taste and that they taste good." (This highlights how repeated exposure to highly palatable foods can alter our reward system.)

4. "For those of you that supplement with glutamine, generally they will take anywhere from a gram as much as 10 grams per day. Why would they want to do that? Well, there's also some evidence starting to emerge that glutamine can help offset sugar cravings." (This provides a specific example of how a particular compound may help with specific food cravings).

5. "This is a belief effect where the belief and the subjective thoughts about what a given food will do has a direct impact on a physiological measure like blood sugar and blood glucose." (This highlights that belief can have a direct physiological impact).

Detailed Summary

Here's a detailed summary of the YouTube video transcript, presented in bullet points, excluding any sponsor announcements:

Key Topics:

• Foods for Brain Health & Longevity: Focuses on foods that enhance focus, general brain health, and maintain cognitive function over time.
• Food Preferences: Explores the reasons behind individual food preferences and aversions.
• Three Signals Driving Food Choices: Outlines the major signals that influence food selection.
• Rewiring Taste: Discusses the possibility of changing one's preferences for certain foods.

Foods Beneficial for Brain Health:

• Fats (Essential Fatty Acids - Omega-3s):
  • Critical for neuron structure and integrity, specifically the cell membrane.
  • EPA and DHA (types of omega-3s) are essential. Most people are getting enough omega-6s.
  • Sources: Fish (primary), chia seeds, walnuts, soybeans, supplements.
  • Recommended intake: 1.5 - 3 grams of EPA per day for cognitive benefits.
• Phosphatidylserine:
  • Supports neuronal function.
  • Abundant in meats and fish. Can be supplemented.
• Choline:
  • Precursor to acetylcholine, a neuromodulator essential for focus and concentration.
  • Sources: Egg yolks (richest), potatoes, nuts, seeds, grains, and fruits (less so).
  • Recommended intake: 500mg - 1g per day.
• Creatine:
  • Can be used as a fuel source in the brain.
  • May enhance frontal cortical circuits related to mood and motivation.
  • Sources: Meat, supplements (creatine monohydrate).
  • Recommended intake: at least 5g per day. Improves cognition in people who are not getting creatine from animal sources.
• Anthocyanins:
  • Found in blueberries, blackberries, dark currants, and other thin-skinned purplish berries.
  • Shown to improve brain function (mechanism unclear).
  • Recommended: One to two cups frequently or daily.
• Glutamine:
  • Amino acid with potential to enhance immune system function.
  • May help offset sugar cravings by signaling satiety to the brain via gut neurons.
  • Sources: Cottage cheese, beef, chicken, fish, dairy products, eggs, beans, cabbage, spinach, parsley.
  • Supplement dosage: 1-10g per day.

Three Signals Driving Food Choices:

1. Taste on the Mouth (Yum, Yuck, or Meh):
   • Sensory touch sensations (palatability) of food and taste receptors on the tongue (bitter, sweet, umami, salty, sour).
   • These senses send information to the brain via the gustatory nerve synapsing the nucleus of the solitary tract and then the insular cortex. The insular cortex is concerned with interosception of our perception of whats going on inside our body.
2. Subconscious Gut Signaling:
   • Neurons (neuropod cells) in the gut sense amino acids, sugars, and fatty acids in digested food.
   • These neurons send electrical signals up into the brain triggering dopamine release. Leading you to seek more of those foods.
3. Learned Association & Metabolic Accessibility (Belief):
   • The body learns to associate tastes with the metabolic consequences (e.g., blood glucose levels) of eating certain foods.
   • The brain seeks foods that allow neurons to be metabolically active.

Rewiring Taste:

• Conditioning & the Dopamine System:
  • Initially, artificial sweeteners are not strongly preferred because they don't raise blood glucose or dopamine.
  • However, continued consumption can lead to a conditioned dopamine response, increasing the desire for them.
• Pairing Sweetness and Metabolic Change:
  • Pairing artificial sweeteners with foods that do increase blood glucose can disrupt blood sugar management by creating a conditioned insulin response.
  • Best to consume artifical sweeteners away from food that raises blood glucose levels.
• The Belief Effect: Belief in the food and how it will affect you has a direct physiological measure, such as blood sugar and blood glucose. The body will release insulin and blood glucose will go up.
• Pairing Healthy Foods: Pair healthy foods that you don't necessarily enjoy with foods that provide a desired shift in brain metabolism (e.g. increase brain glucose level), which will progressively improve your palatability for them. Seven to fourteen days to take on a subjective experience of tasting better.
• Foods Impact the Brain and How The Brain Responds to Food: It is a largely learned response. The system can be softwired to change.

Additional Points:

• Regular consumption reinforces food preferences. The foods we regularly consumer can increase brain metabolism and releases dopamine, motivating us to eat them.
• Super palatable foods trigger the dopamine system to make us believe that those foods are the only foods that can trigger this reward system.
• "Rethinking Food Reward" by Ivan De Araujo, Mark Shaker, and Dana Small is a recommended review of food reward and reinforcement.