Introduction
Snacking is a part of life, but it can have a major impact on your brain health. Eating the wrong snacks can age your brain faster, leading to cognitive decline and other health issues. But, with the right snacks, you can actually help to protect your brain and keep it healthy. In this article, we’ll look at some of the best and worst snacks for your brain health, so you can make smarter choices when it comes to snacking. We’ll also provide some tips on how to make healthier snacking choices, so you can keep your brain healthy and functioning at its best.
Snacking Habits Aging Your Brain Faster — Eat This Not That
Snacking is a part of life, but it can also be a major contributor to aging your brain faster. Eating the wrong snacks can lead to poor nutrition, weight gain, and even cognitive decline. To keep your brain healthy and functioning at its best, it’s important to make smart snacking choices.
Eat This
- Nuts: Nuts are a great source of healthy fats, protein, and fiber. They’re also packed with antioxidants and vitamins that can help protect your brain from damage.
- Berries: Berries are a great source of antioxidants and vitamins that can help protect your brain from damage. They’re also low in sugar and calories, making them a great snack.
- Dark Chocolate: Dark chocolate is a great source of antioxidants and can help improve your cognitive function. Just make sure to choose dark chocolate with at least 70% cocoa.
- Yogurt: Yogurt is a great source of protein and probiotics, which can help improve your gut health and cognitive function.
- Green Tea: Green tea is packed with antioxidants and can help improve your cognitive function. It’s also low in calories and can help you stay hydrated.
Not That
- Sugary Drinks: Sugary drinks are high in calories and sugar, which can lead to weight gain and cognitive decline. Avoid sugary drinks like soda, energy drinks, and sweetened teas.
- Processed Foods: Processed foods are high in calories, sugar, and unhealthy fats, which can lead to weight gain and cognitive decline. Avoid processed snacks like chips, cookies, and candy.
- Fried Foods: Fried foods are high in calories and unhealthy fats, which can lead to weight gain and cognitive decline. Avoid fried snacks like french fries, onion rings, and chicken nuggets.
- Artificial Sweeteners: Artificial sweeteners are low in calories, but they can still lead to weight gain and cognitive decline. Avoid artificial sweeteners like aspartame, sucralose, and saccharin.
- Alcohol: Alcohol is high in calories and can lead to weight gain and cognitive decline. Avoid alcoholic beverages like beer, wine, and spirits.
Making smart snacking choices can help keep your brain healthy and functioning at its best. Choose snacks that are high in nutrients and low in calories, sugar, and unhealthy fats. Eating the right snacks can help protect your brain from damage and keep you feeling your best.
When focusing on brain health, there are certain things you can do to help slow down cognitive decline and boost your brain power. These include exercising and changing your diet to watch what you eat and drink. And although your brain will still age, along with the rest of your body, particular habits can help delay that process.
“While aging is inevitable, certain eating habits can help fight the effects of aging or potentially accelerate it,” says Lisa Moskovitz, RD, CDN, author of The Core 3 Healthy Eating Plan. “Generally, it’s important to eat a nutrient-dense, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant-rich diet to keep your mind and body strong.”
Moskovitz also suggests that on the flip side, mindlessly snacking on ultra-processed and empty-calorie foods such as candy, soft drinks, and chips may accelerate brain aging. If you want to avoid some extra cognitive damage, take a look at these four snacking habits that may be aging your brain faster.
While sugary goods are an easy midday snack to munch on and may satisfy your sweet tooth for the time being, they don’t have many benefits to them. In fact, they may negatively affect your overall health, which may lead to problems with your brain health.
“Added sugar found in snacks such as baked goods, ice cream, candy, certain cereals, and bars, can increase blood sugar levels,” says Moskovitz. “Chronically high blood sugar levels can affect your brain’s functional connectivity which, over time, can potentially contribute to brain shrinkage and atrophy.”
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It’s easy to pick up a family-sized bag of chips at the store. Snacking on the chips straight from the bag is also easy. But it turns out doing this has a more severe impact on your age than you might’ve thought.
“Lots of research shows that we tend to eat more when we eat from an oversized bag,” says Lisa R. Young, Ph.D., RDN, author of Finally Full, Finally Slim and The Portion Teller Plan. “Take a portion, put it on a plate, sit down, and enjoy it! And if you don’t like the taste, choose something else.”
According to a study published in the American Academy of Neurology, research showed that overeating may double the risk of memory loss. If you eat too many calories repeatedly, over time it may actually raise your chances of developing memory loss or mild cognitive impairment later in life.
Liquid calories are drinks that don’t bring much to the table besides unnecessary calories. These include soda, juice, and sweetened iced tea. And although they may seem harmless as a midday treat, they can lead to cognitive problems.
In a study published in the journal Stroke, participants who drank at least one artificially sweetened drink per day were three times as likely to develop stroke and almost three times as likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.
“These [liquid calorie drinks] are high in sugar and contain unnecessary calories,” says Dr. Young.
Similarly, eating any kind of processed food in high amounts will have a negative impact on your brain health.
“When consumed in large quantities, snacks such as chips, baked goods, and candy bars, with high amounts of saturated fat and/or refined flours can increase systemic inflammation,” says Moskovitz. “Eventually, this may contribute to cognitive decline and memory loss.”
Kayla Garritano