Tag Archives: vitamin B

Preventing of Memory Problems

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Many researchers have discovered that when people are low in certain nutrients, their mental performance drops. Many people are fine as long as they meet their nutritional needs. Even not getting enough water can cause the mind to get fuzzy.
The thirst mechanism slows down as we get older, as a result, we’re not always aware right away that we need water. However, not all memory problems are caused by your diet, but when nothing else is wrong it may be what you eat that is slowing you down.

Vitamin B for the Brain
The vitamin B complex are probably the most essential nutrients to keep your mind sharp. Your body needs the B vitamins to transform food into mental energy and to manufacture and repair brain tissue. “Deficiencies in thiamin, niacin and vitamin B6 and B12 can all cause mental dysfunction”, says Vernon Mark, MD, author of Reversing Memory Loss.
In fact, pellagra, a niacin deficiency, used to be a leading cause of admissions into mental hospitals,” he explains.
Research has shown that when children are given 5 mg thiamin instead of the Daily Value of 1.5 mg, they achieve remarkeble higher scores when they are given tests of mental functioning, Dr. Mark adds.

Today, many cereals, breads and pastas are enriched with thiamin and niacin, so that most people are getting enough of these vitamins. Niacin deficiencies have become extremely rare, especially in this country. But in older people or those who frequently drink alcohol, levels of thiamin can drop low enough to cause memory problems, says Dr. Mark.

The easiest way to make sure you get enough brain-boosting B vitamins is to eat foods that contain enriched grains. One cup of enriched spaghetti, for example, has 0.3 mg of thiamin, or 20% of the Daily Value (DV), and 2 mg of niacin, or 10% of the DV.
Meat is also a good source for getting these nutrients. Three ounces of pork tenderloin,
for example, provide 0.8 mg of thiamin, 53% of the DV, while 3 ounces of chicken breast deliver 12 mg or 60% of the DV for niacin.

As we get older, it’s not so easy to get additional amounts of vitamin B6 and B12, because it’s harder for the body to absorb them. After the age of 55, it’s common to be low in these vitamins, because the lining of the stomach is changing.
When you get older, it’s a good idea to get more than the DV of both of these nutrients.
Vitamin B6 is abundant in baked potatoes, bananas, chickpeas, and turkey.
One baked potato provides 0.4 mg of vitamin B6, 20% of the DV. and one banana provide 0.7 mg or 35% of the DV. For vitamin B12, meat and shellfish are good choices.

Maintaining the flow to the brain
In order to avoid memory problems there should be sufficient blood flow to the brain.
When adequate blood flow is not maintained, the brain and memory begin to perform poorly.
The lack of blood to the brain is often caused by the same problem that leads to heart disease and stroke: a buildup of cholesterol and fat in the arteries.
This condition is not only preventable through diet, it is even at least partially reversible.
The primary cause of cardiovascular disease – clogged arteries in the heart and the brain – is too much saturated fat in the diet. Keep your intake of saturated fat low by cooking with small amounts of liquid oils, such as olive or canola oil. instead of margarine or butter and by minimizing your intake of fatty foods, such as full-fat mayonnaise, rich desserts and fatty meats.

Getting plenty of fruits and vegetables is also important. Fruits and vegetables are packed with antioxidants, compounds that block the effects of harmful oxygen molecules called free radicals.This is important because when free radicals damage the harmful low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, it becomes stickier and more likely to stick to artery walls.

Studies have shown that antioxidants in fruits and vegetables can help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. In 2002, researchers studied nearly 5,500 people and found that those who ate diets rich in antioxidants, vitamin C and E, lowered their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.Citrus fruits, kiwifruit, sprouts, broccoli, and cabbage are packed with vitamin C. While whole grains, nuts, milk and egg yolks contain vitamin E.

The combination of reducing fat in your diet and eating plenty of fruits and vegetables will help to keep your arteries clear, including those leading to your brain. In fact, it may even help restore blood flow through arteries that have already begun to close up.

Coffee can Improve Memory Function
It’s not without reason that millions of Americans jump start their day with steaming cups of coffee. The caffeine in coffee has been shown to improve mental functioning, including memory.

In one study, Dutch researchers used a chemical to block short-term memory in
16 healthy people. They found that giving these people 250 milligrams of caffeine –
about the amount of 3 cups of coffee – quickly restored their powers of recall.
However,too much coffee can be bad, if only the java buzz wears off within 6 to 8 hrs.
For some people, at least, the after-coffee slump can result in mental fogginess.

Everyone has different reactions to caffeine. For people who rarely drink coffee,
having a cup or two can definitely improve performance and memory.
But if you drink coffee throughout the day, you quickly build up tolerance and you
won’t get the same benefits. In fact, too much caffeine can make you jittery and
reduce your concentration.

Don’t kill your brain cells
“Killing brain cells is not the best way to get a high score in the memory department.
Yet that’s exactly what many of .us do to our grey matter every day. Alcohol is
drinking too much alcohol can cause a significant decrease in memory function.”
In fact, even small amounts of alcohol can damage cells in the brain responsible
for memory.

Many doctors recommend abstaining from alcohol all together to keep your mind
at its sharpest.At the very least, it’s a good idea to limit yourself to one or two drinks –
meaning 12 ounces of beer, 5 ounces of wine or 11/2 ounces of liquor – a day.
When you do drink, choose red wine. It contains resveratrol, a compound that may
keep your brain young.

Optimal Diet for your Brain
You can’t prevent Alzheimer’s disease and dementia altogether, but you can keep
them at bay longer with a heart-healthy diet that focuses on the nutrients that have been
found to be critical for brain function and aging.

Aim for a body mass index of 23 to 25
Being overweight increases your risk for diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and hypertension,
which leads to vascular disease and brain damage.

Choose Dairy
Eat one serving of low-fat, low-sugar dairy once a day, such as milk, plain yogurt,
cottage cheese or ricotta cheese.Epideemiologie studies show that people who drink milk
are less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

Toast to a young brain
Drink one glass of red wine or 4 ounces of purple grape juice or pomegranate juice a day.
They contain resveratrol, a compound that doctors believe activates a gene that is
associated with longevity.

Buy berries
When you eat one cup of berries a day, it gives your brain resveratrol, and other flavoniods, that strengthens your resistance against the development of chronic diseases associated with aging.

Drink some juice
Drink 8 ounces of fruit juice high in vitamin C daily. Three times a week, substitute a glass of vegetable juice that you buy or make on your own for the fruit juice.
Antioxidants and other compounds in those juices help protect the brain from dementia.

Include fish oil in your diet.
Omega-3 fatty acids are powerful agents for a healthy heart and arteries.
When you eat oily cold water fish such as sardines or mackerel you will ensure that you get enough omega-3. You can also substitute with 2,000 to 3,000 mg of fish oil or flaxseed oil per day.Walnuts are also rich in omega-3. Eating 8 to 10 walnuts per day or using walnut oil in your salads of darrk green vegetables will help protect your brain.

Drink green tea every day.
Green tea is rich in antioxidants and has proved to reduce the risk of dementia.
Experts recommend drinking one to two cups a day.

Multivitamins
To include those in your diet is particularly important for older, inactive adults whose’s
calorie intake doesn’t supply the micronutrients that they need.
Choose a multivitamin without iron or reduced iron if yo ‘re not anemic or menstruating.

Consider supplementing with vitamin D
Vitamin D is a new shining start in the role of brain development and function and many
people are deficient without knowing it.
We get about 95% of our vitamin D from sunlight, but young people who work long
hours and eldery adults who are homebound often don’t get enough sunlight to fill their
vitamin D requirements.

Avoid omega-6 fats
The omega-6 fatty acids in corn- safflower- and sesame oils aren’t as healthy as
omega-3’s found in olivve and canola oil. So use those oils sparingly.

Nourish Your Brain
An overall brain-healthy diet is low in refined carbohydrates, (Found in sugars,
baked food, candy, and other sweets, for example), red meats and trans fats.
It’s high in fatty fish, poultry, soy protein, fruits, vegetables and legumes.

The Superior Protection from Buckweat

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Buckweat has been an under appreciated food in America. In the past, if you had a diet rich in buckweat, you would probably be a farm animal. Until recent years, it was primarily grown as feed for livestock. The name may confuse you. It’s not a grain, but a seed from a plant related to rhubarb.

However, buckweat is popular in Japan and some researchers suspect that this may be the reason for the remarkable low cancer rates in Japan. If you’re familiar with Japanese cuisine, you might recognize soba noodles, which contain buckweat. It’s also commonly available in pancake mixes.

Wide protection
Buckweat contains a variety of compounds called flavonoids that have been shown in studies to help block the spread of cancer. Two compounds in particular, quercetin and rutin, are especially promising because they appear to thwart cancer in two ways.

These substances make it difficult for cancer promoting hormones to attach to healthy cells.
They can literally stop cancers before they start. Should cancer-causing substances get into cells, these compounds may be able to reduce damage to the DNA, the body’s chemical blueprint for normal cell division.

Japanese researchers have found that buckweat extract can help interfere with colon and breast cancer in rats.

Keeping blood flowing
The rutin in buckweat plays yet another protective role. Working in conjunction with other compounds, it helps prevent platelets – the components in blood that assist in clotting – from clumping together.
By helping to keep blood fluid, buckweat can play an important role in any heart-protection plan. Rutin has also proved to stabilize blood vessels and help lower blood pressure, thus helping to protect against heart disease. And it act as an antioxidant, protecting your cells from the damaging attacks from free radicals.

Research believe that when flavonoids are combined with vitamin E, which is also found in buckweat, the benefits are even more significant. Fat-soluble vitamin E can neutralize dangerous free radicals, that can damage cells, in the fatty portion of cells. Flavonoids, on the other hand, are water soluble; they attack free radicals in the watery parts of cells.”That puts an antioxidant in both the watery and fatty portions of cells,” says Timothy Johns, PhD, professor at the School of Dietetics and Human Nutrition at McGill University in Montreal.

An Italian Study tested the antioxidant capacity of a number of spices, fruits, cereal products, and other foods. It found that among the 18 cereal products tested, whole-meal buckweat and wheat bran had the highest total antioxidant capacity.

Protein Power
Buckweat is the best known non-animal source of high-quality protein. That’s good news if you are vegetarian or trying to cut back on meat. It also helps to lower cholesterol as well.
We need protein for everything, from healing wounds to producing brain power.

In laboratory experiments, animals that were fed extracts of buckweat protein had significantly lower cholesterol levels than there non-buckweat-eating companions. Levels in the buckweat-fed animals, in fact, were even lower than in animals given soy protein extract, one of the most cholesterol-busting foods.

In addition, buckweat is an excellent source of essential nutrients. “It’s rich in several minerals, most especially magnesium and manganese, but also zinc and copper,” says Dr. Eskin.

One cup of buckweat flour made from whole groats (the grain with the hull removed ) contains 301 mg of magnesium, or 75% of the Daily Value (DV) for this mineral. It also contains 25% of the DV for zinc, 40% of the DV for phosphorus, 27% of the DV for iron, and 20% of the DV for potassium.

Blood Sugar Control
One of the most valuable aspects of buckweat is its ability to help control blood sugar levels in people with adult-onset, or type-2 diabetes, the most common form of the disease.

The carbohydrates in buckweat, amylose and amylopectin are digested more slowly than other types of carbohydrates. This causes blood sugar levels to rise more evenly. While this good for everyone, it’s especially important for people with diabetes, whose blood sugar levels tend to rise steeply and stay high too long. Keeping blood sugar under control has been shown to reduce or prevent many of the serious complications of diabetes, including kidney damage.

Because buckweat is absorbed more slowly than grains, it leaves you feeling full longer. This makes it easier to eat less and thus control your weight.

British researchers found that using buckweat flour in pasta made it more filling. One easy way to get buckweat into your diet is in pancake mixes that contain buckweat flour. You may find that buckweat pancakes “stick with you” than those made with regular flour.

People who are sensitive to gluten who have celiac disease, a serious intestinal problem, caused by gluten found in wheat and other grain products will have no problem with buckweat, because it is free of gluten.

Excellent Source of Vitamin B
Buckweat is also an excellent source of several B vitamins. One cup of buckweat flour contains 37% of the DV for niacin, 35% of the DV for vitamin B6 and 33% of the DV for thiamin.

Niacin helps to transform the food your body uses into energy.Vitamin B6 is needed because it helps the hemoglobin in your red blood cells to carry oxygen, and it plays a role in maintaining a healthy immune system and a healthy nervous system.
Like niacin, thiamin also helps to transform fuel into energy and helps your nervous system.

If you have a sweet taste, some honey producers bottle honey that is made by bees that harvest nectar from buckweat fields. This honey is rich in antioxidants, like phenolic acid, and flavonoids. This honey seems to be particularly powerful. Researchers found that buckweat honey has 20 times more antioxidant activity then any light-colored honey.

However, buckweat honey has a strong flavor that some people call “full body”, but it’s taste is not for everyone.

How to use buckwheat in the kitchen
As already mentioned, buckweat contains no gluten like rice and wheat. Without gluten to hold the grain together, it will turn to mush unless you precook it.

Here is what you can do. Put the buckweat in a hot skillet, and toss gently for 3 to 5 minutes. This expands and strenghtens the outer skin, which will help it stay in tact during the simmering process.

If you’re using kasha (the roasted form of buckweat) that’s been cracked, toss it with an egg white before before adding it to the pan. The albumen in the egg will help to keep it firm. Uncracked kasha however, can be cooked without an egg.

Put the buckweat in a saucepan. Cook it the same way as brown rice.Add two cups of boiling water for each cup of buckweat.
Boiling water will seal the outer shell and keeps the buckweat together during cooking.

Simmer the buckweat, covered, untill all the water is absorbed and the kernels are tender. Cracked kasha will take 8 to 10 minutes, and whole kasha 10 to 12 minutes.