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What To Eat For Your Brain with Dr. Mark Hyman

Mark Hyman MD is an award-winning physician who has dedicated his career to identifying and addressing the root causes of chronic illness through a groundbreaking whole-systems medicine approach known as Functional Medicine. He’s spoken at many of our Kwik Brain events.

An eleven-time New York Times bestselling author, he’s the author of books on topics from blood sugar to detoxing. He’s been featured by the NYTimes, 60 Minutes, MindBodyGreen, and the Huffington Post. His latest book is Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?

Mark is Director at The Cleveland Clinic, The UltraWellness Center and The Institute for Functional Medicine. He’s recently debuted his podcast, The Doctor’s Farmacy with Mark Hyman.

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*** Please note, this episode is educational only and is not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions.Please consult your healthcare provider if you have any questions or concerns.

"No food tastes as good as feeling good feels."

Dr. Mark Hyman

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FACTORS PREVENTING OPTIMAL HEALTH

  • Larger waist size correlated with poorer memory and brain function.
  • Sugar and starch are toxins to the brain, cause inflammation.
  • Low-fat foods are unhealthy too — we need the good fats.
  • Everything is harder when your body isn’t healthy!

DR MARK HYMAN’S TYPICAL EATING DAY

  • Typical foods: plenty of vegetables, coffee, nut butter, flax crackers, eggs.
  • Alkalizer: vegetable shake. Vegetables in a blender with avocado and olive oil.
  • Plenty of vegetable, protein, and fats, focus on cutting carbs.
  • Occasionally engages in intermittent fasting.
  • In the US we eat dessert for breakfast e.g bagels, muffins.

FOOD QUALITY MATTERS!

  • Aim for real food— that means whole foods with a minimal ingredients list.
  • Cut out processed food and foods with chemical additives.
  • If you can afford it, buy local foods, shop at local markets, and organic.
  • Walmart + Costco + Thrive markets are now some the biggest organic suppliers.

EATING OUT TIPS

  • When traveling, keep a day’s worth of food in a bag (e.g. jerky, nut butter, protein and fat snacks).
  • Take responsibility for picking the restaurant (e.g. Perennial, climate change restaurant in San Francisco) — if limited options, Asian restaurants will often have vegetables.
  • Biggest mistake eating out: too much gluten and alcohol. Skip bread at the start of meal & drink alcohol halfway through a meal for optimal metabolism.

GLUTEN SENSITIVITY

  • Gluten sensitivity affects 20% of the population.
  • Why? Changes in our wheat production processes — high in glyphosate & neurotoxins.
  • If you can find organic, local, heirloom flours not so bad.
  • Gut damage from low fiber, high sugar diets, damaged gut flora, and leaky gut.
  • Gluten has been linked to schizophrenia, depression, a range of other illnesses.
  • You can try a trial elimination of gluten to detox & reset, and observe the effect on your eating, thinking and focus.
  • Gut-brain connection is important — lots of data now emerging.

TOP 3 BRAIN FOODS TO EAT:

  • Good fats: e.g. avocados, seeds, coconut oil, and flax.
  • Plant-rich colorful foods.
  • Fiber: plant foods, helps microbiome.

TOP 3 BRAIN FOODS TO AVOID:

  • Refined sugars & starches
  • Trans fat
  • Food additives: e.g. aspartame, MSG

 

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