Healthy Foods to Feed Your Brain

Brain Food #1: Berries

Berries are full of memory-boosting nutrients. Here's how they work: When we talk about getting "rusty" at certain tasks, we may not be far off. Oxidation, the process that causes metal to rust, can also damage brain cells. This oxidative stress as it's called, plays a part in many diseases associated with aging from dementia and Alzheimer's to Parkinson's.

Getting beneficial anti-oxidative compounds like vitamins C, E, beta-carotene and other nutrients through food may help prevent, or at least curtail, the damage, because they can disarm potentially cell-injuring free radicals circulating throughout the system.

Research has shown that beneficial chemicals called ellagatannis in raspberries, strawberries and blueberries are also found right in the hippocampus, the brain's memory control center. Talk about a direct hit!

Blueberries also contain proanthocyanins, which gravitate toward the striatum, which is more closely related to spatial memory. Scientists believe that that these compounds may enhance the performance of those parts of the brain, and indeed, actual animal studies have substantiated the evidence that they do improve memory.