Food and Vitamins for Students: Boosting Brain Function Through Gut Brain Connection
Since you’ve started reading a blog post about food and vitamins for students, chances are that you’re a responsible young individual who respects nutrition and health. Your high-quality standards and principles shall help you gain invaluable benefits such as energy, concentration, awesome vibes, and lots of strength.
Since you’re here, you’re surely looking for powerful natural supplements to boost your cognitive performance at school, and not only. If you’re wondering what the best brain food is, that is the wrong question. Every single brain food has different proprieties and benefits that can boost your cognitive functions in unique ways.
Best Food and Vitamins for Students
They say the gut is the second brain. This notion is given credence by the scientific discovery of the gut-brain-axis. There is an undeniable line of communication between the gut and the brain. Thanks to the gut brain connection, it is crucial to eat the best food and vitamins for students.
In today’s post, I’m sharing the best food and vitamins for students, brain foods that not only boost your cognitive function but also significantly improve your physical and emotional health.
Fish
Oily/fatty fish are the best source of a highly essential ingredient that your brain needs. Fatty fish is often the top recommendation in any healthy gut diet plan for mental functioning.
Think about your brain. 60% of it is made of fat 1. That is why fats play such an important role in a mental health diet. However, eating the wrong fats can disrupt your gut health. That’s why you want to eat the type of fat that will feed your brain cells.
Imagine that half of that fat is the omega-3 type of fat that you can get from fish. In order for your brain to build connections and form memories, it uses omega-3s as a fuel to do that.
Studies show that individuals who present high levels of omega-3 fats in their bodies have increased brain blood flow 2.
Fish High In Omega 3’s
Not every fish contains omega-3s.
Some of the oily fish that are recommended are:
- Herring
- Salmon
- Sardines
- Tuna
- Mackerel
- Just be sure to not go overboard on canned fish. While there are some health benefits, you run the risk of consuming too much mercury,
Broccoli
- Broccoli is well known for its incredible health benefits. Most movies and cartoons present broccolis as the healthiest vegetable that “kids hate.”
Well, there’s nothing to hate about this super powerful brain booster.
Quite the contrary, it should be adapted in your daily nutrition. This vegetable contains a lot of fiber that serves as prebiotics for probiotics in your gut. It offers these nutrients at a very low amount of calories.
Speaking of nutrients, broccoli has a lot of Vitamin C. These powerful antioxidants have been linked to generating healthy brain cells 3. That makes broccoli a great addition to any healthy gut diet plan strengthening the gut brain connection.
Avocados
Every student recognizes the value of a complete meal that keeps hunger away for hours. Avocados are literally loaded with fiber, reaching almost 17-18 percent offiber per fruit.
Eat one or two avocados alongside another fruit and you won’t be hungry for a few full hours.
Avocados provide energy while boosting your blood flow and workout performance (in case you regularly practice sport).
Consuming avocados not only affect your brain health but also your overall emotional and physical conditions.
Berries
Berries contain brain-boosting antioxidants named “flavonoid oxidants.” One analysis found these superfruits help improve the quality of life for elderly test subjects.
Results found,
“Higher, long-term consumption of berries, anthocyanidins, and total dietary flavonoids were related to significantly slower rates of cognitive decline in this cohort of older women, even after careful consideration of confounding by socioeconomic status. We report the first epidemiologic evidence that greater intakes of blueberries and strawberries (top food contributors to anthocyanidin intake) were highly associated with slower rates of cognitive decline 4.”
– Ann Neurol
Nature’s candy helps with reducing oxidative stress and inflammation, and they make you feel truly alive.
Berried in antioxidants!
Research shows that berries can greatly improve your mental health if consumed regularly by improving brain cell communication 5.
As a result, you may experience:
- Prevention of Cognitive Decline
- Brain Cell Generation
- Improve Memory
- Accelerated Performance
In fact, animal studies have found that berries can help improve your brain’s ability to react and perform an action 6. Therefore, berries are the ultimate food and vitamins for students who are athletes, scholars, or actors.
Chocolate
Chocolate, especially dark chocolate, is a perfect brain and energy booster that any student needs. When you’re pressed between deadlines, eating dark chocolate will stimulate your brain in such a way that you’ll be able to react under pressure.
Of course, putting yourself under a lot of stress is actually harmful to your mental health.
Therefore, whenever you get overwhelmed and lack the energy to complete critical assignments, seek college paper help at Edubirdie and be done with the anxiety.
Dark chocolate contains flavonoids, antioxidants, and caffeine. These compounds improve your memory and comprehension related brain processes 7.
Additionally, chocolate will boost your mood, making you confident and ready to face challenges.
Nuts
Nuts are not only perfect for the brain, but also for your heart. Since heart and brain are interconnected, keeping both healthy is critical.
By adding nuts in your daily nutrition, you can sharpen your memory and boost your mental health in significant ways. Study after study shows that nuts (and especially walnuts) contribute to a better brain function in people who consume them regularly 8.
Tea
Tea, or often green tea can boost your brain performance if consumed moderately. The proven benefits of green tea include:
- Improved mental alertness
- Boosted mental performance
- Memory improvement
- Focus boost
- Reduced anxiety 9
The reason green tea is one of the best food and vitamins for students is its high levels of the amino acid, L-Theanine. Research finds that this amino acid is essential for reducing anxiety 10.
Probiotics Supplements
Due to the gut brain connection, if your gut health is poor, then your mental health should be lacking as well. The best way to fix this is to add good stomach bacteria to your system. With Ombre, it’s easier than ever.
They send you a kit that conducts at-home microbiome testing. They can determine which intestinal flora are causing your stomach problems and mental unclarity.
Based on the results, they send you probiotics supplements unique to your gut biome. It’s like GrubHub for gut health!
Takeaways on Best Food and Vitamins for Students
Taking care of your brain performance while still being in college or university is the best possible habit you can ever build at this moment in life. A human with a healthy mind will always face life and its challenges without having to deal with intense pain and suffering.
Improve your brain health and all your thoughts, emotions, and decisions will be of a higher frequency. Eat the superfoods we’ve discussed on a regular basis and witness the wonders. Take care!
Jeremy Raynolds is an independent publisher and a professional academic writer at EduBirdie. While prioritizing his professional career, Jeremy cares to help poor students evolve as individuals by offering free counseling sessions where he teaches them how to approach life and career.Click Here To View Resources
Resources
- 1 Chang, Chia-Yu, et al. “Essential Fatty Acids and Human Brain.” Acta Neurologica Taiwanica, U.S. National Library of Medicine, Dec. 2009, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20329590.
- 2 Amen, Daniel G, et al. “Quantitative Erythrocyte Omega-3 EPA Plus DHA Levels Are Related to Higher Regional Cerebral Blood Flow on Brain SPECT.” Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease : JAD, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28527220.
- 3 Harrison, F. E., & May, J. M. (2009). Vitamin C function in the brain: vital role of the ascorbate transporter SVCT2. Free radical biology & medicine, 46(6), 719–730. doi:10.1016/j.freeradbiomed.2008.12.018.
- 4 Devore, E. E., Kang, J. H., Breteler, M. M., & Grodstein, F. (2012). Dietary intakes of berries and flavonoids in relation to cognitive decline. Annals of neurology, 72(1), 135–143. doi:10.1002/ana.23594.
- 5 Subash, S., Essa, M. M., Al-Adawi, S., Memon, M. A., Manivasagam, T., & Akbar, M. (2014). Neuroprotective effects of berry fruits on neurodegenerative diseases. Neural regeneration research, 9(16), 1557–1566. doi:10.4103/1673-5374.139483.
- 6 Krikorian, R., Shidler, M. D., Nash, T. A., Kalt, W., Vinqvist-Tymchuk, M. R., Shukitt-Hale, B., & Joseph, J. A. (2010). Blueberry supplementation improves memory in older adults. Journal of agricultural and food chemistry, 58(7), 3996–4000. doi:10.1021/jf9029332.
- 7 Santiago-Rodríguez, E., Estrada-Zaldívar, B., & Zaldívar-Uribe, E. (2018). Effects of Dark Chocolate Intake on Brain Electrical Oscillations in Healthy People. Foods (Basel, Switzerland), 7(11), 187. doi:10.3390/foods7110187.
- 8 O’Brien, J., Okereke, O., Devore, E., Rosner, B., Breteler, M., & Grodstein, F. (2014). Long-term intake of nuts in relation to cognitive function in older women. The journal of nutrition, health & aging, 18(5), 496–502. doi:10.1007/s12603-014-0014-6
- 9 Dietz, Christina, and Matthijs Dekker. “Effect of Green Tea Phytochemicals on Mood and Cognition.” Current Pharmaceutical Design, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2017, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28056735.
- 10 Nobre, Anna C, et al. “L-Theanine, a Natural Constituent in Tea, and Its Effect on Mental State.” Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, U.S. National Library of Medicine, 2008, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18296328.