Healthy eating for improved productivity and stress management

The following is an edited excerpt from the best-selling book 'The Habit Mechanic - Fine-Tune Your Brain and Supercharge How You Live, Work, and Lead' by Dr. Jon Finn. Get your copy here and learn how to quickly build better sleep, diet and exercise habits.

Our Diet, Exercise, and Sleep (DES) habits are crucial for wellbeing and success. Diet, exercise, and sleep help maintain the hippocampus (or hippocampi—as there is one in each brain hemisphere), which is the main part of the human brain that produces new brain cells. These new cells are very important for helping us manage stress, perform well, and learn new things. Poor diet, exercise, and sleep can lead to the hippocampus becoming damaged. That makes managing stress and consistent high performance more difficult.

Good exercise and diet also help the brain release a protein called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). This helps brain cells grow and flourish, so we can manage stress and learn more with less effort. Diet, exercise, and sleep are the foundation for:

better stress management;
spending less time thinking unhelpful thoughts;
being focused to drive productivity, creativity, and problem-solving;
building and maintaining robust levels of confidence;
performing well under pressure; and
better leadership for improved individual and team performance.

Good DES habits are the foundation for work-life balance.

Now that we have a general understanding about the importance of DES for good brain function—the foundation of health, happiness, and performance—we can explore each area in greater depth. This week, we are going to focus on: diet.

Diet: What Should I Eat?

A good diet boosts brain function. There are many fantastic books you can read on how your diet impacts your gut and brain performance. Here, I want to share one quick insight that covers a lot of ground and is simple to understand.

BBC broadcaster and phone-in host Stephen Nolan learned how a bad diet with a high proportion of junk food affects our mental health. He discovered it damages the brain, not just the heart and the body.

By his own admission, Nolan has struggled with his diet and body weight. A few years ago, he produced a TV feature in which he traveled to New York to meet Professor Felice Jacka, a leading scientist from the International Society for Nutritional Psychiatry Research.

He learned that a bad diet produces unhelpful changes in the brain and that we must feed our brains well if we want them to function properly.

Nolan was shown that a high consumption of junk food means the hippocampus receives less BDNF. In short, a lack of BDNF can shrink the hippocampus. And brain shrinking is one of the signs of depression.

The broadcaster was told about a recent experiment. A group of healthy males were fed junk food for a week. After that week, the group all showed significant signs of diminished cognitive or brain function.

So when thinking about diet, you should begin with the brain in mind. Your brain needs a combination of energy, building blocks, and antioxidants to work properly.

4 Ways to Improve Your Diet for Brain Function

1. Eat the Right Energy

Although your brain only makes up around 3 percent of your overall body weight, it uses about 20 percent of your oxygen and around 25 percent of your glucose. It is best to eat complex carbohydrates, which release glucose slowly, for example, green vegetables, whole grain or whole wheat bread, whole wheat pasta and brown rice, sweet potatoes, beans, lentils, and peas.

2. Remember Fatty Acids

The brain is a fatty organ, so it needs fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6 to work properly. Typically, we eat too much omega-6 (poultry, eggs, nuts, cereals, whole grain breads), but not enough omega-3. To boost your omega-3 levels, eat cold-water fish like tuna and salmon, and oily fish like mackerel. Kiwi fruit, soya beans, spinach, flax seeds, chia seeds, and walnuts are also sources of omega-3 fatty acids.

3. Stop Buying Junk Food

There is strong evidence showing that junk food can quickly damage brain function—as detailed in the Stephen Nolan story.

4. Get Plenty of Antioxidants

Having too many “free radicals” can be damaging to brain function. However, a group of molecules known as antioxidants can be used to combat the negative effects of free radicals. Oranges, other citrus fruits, red peppers, almonds, spinach, sweet potatoes, and broccoli all contain antioxidants.

Summary

What you eat can help or hinder your wellbeing, performance, and ability to build new habits. To help your brain function well, consider how you can incorporate the following into a healthy balanced diet:

Complex carbohydrates
Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids
Antioxidants

Dr. Jon Finn founded the award-winning Tougher Minds consultancy and has three psychology-related degrees, including a PhD. He has worked in performance psychology, resilience, and leadership science for over 20 years.

Tougher Minds uses cutting-edge insights from psychology, behavioral science, neuroscience, and world champions to help organizations develop ‘Habit Mechanics’ and ‘Chief Habit Mechanics’ – Resilient people, outstanding Leaders, and World-Class teams.

Having trained and coached over 10,000 people, Dr. Finn and his colleagues work with global businesses, high-growth start-ups, individuals, elite athletes, coaches and teams, leading educational institutes, families, the UK government, and think tanks. For podcast episodes and free resources, visit: tougherminds.co.uk.