Evolving Science

Nutrient Density

Nutrient density is about maximizing the intake of nutrients from food that we eat. There’s obviously a limit to how many calories we can stomach in a day. Within that number of calories, it’s a good idea to take in as many vitamins, minerals, amino acids, healthy fats, and other key nutrients as possible.

When it comes to mental wellness, nutrient density is about providing the brain the right amounts of key nutrients that will help the brain function. In the brain, there are certain places where key nutrients are needed to make important things happen. Inadequate nutrition leads to dysfunction in the brain. Dysfunction in the brain contributes to mental illness symptoms.

For example, French toast is a tasty treat, and it provides a ton of calories. But in terms of the nutrients needed for optimal brain function, that syrupy goodness pales in comparison to a square breakfast of eggs, meat, and potatoes with a side of spicy kimchi.

Many of the ancient foods described above may seem exotic and a little too far out there. However, one of the great things about nutrient density is that we don’t need to consume a pound of beef liver, a dozen oysters, or a whole jar of sauerkraut every day to feel well. Just sprinkling these foods in among more commonly consumed whole foods, like fruits, vegetables, animal meats, and healthy fats can help round everything out.

If you can’t tolerate the taste of some organs, shellfish, certain herbs and spices, fermented foods, or connective tissue foods, that’s okay. TMWD provides options for supplement hacks to get your brain what it needs to function at its best – without the pangs of nausea.

Key Nutrients = Optimal Brain Function

So far, we have established that traditional cultures got a lot right. They either had an intuitive sense about what the human body and brain needed, or just learned what to do through generations of trial and error. Eventually they figured out what worked best in terms of diet and lifestyle. Minus the warfare, freezing winters, and occasional famine, things were good. Our ancestors lived in harmony with the seasons and the planet. We have lost touch with that harmony in modern-day life.

Living in harmony with the planet maximized our ancestors’ brain power over time. They were able to use their newfound mental power to invent modern-day life. With an eye for speed, convenience, and ease of survival, people began to invent things and try to find ways to make the hard parts of life easier. A couple of hundred years ago, after all that hard work of trying to make hard work less hard, the world changed. It changed dramatically over a relatively short period of time.

Suddenly, food was easier to obtain, store, and consume. Work became less physical and more stationary. Communication and travel increased exponentially. Food started coming in boxes and cans instead of plucked from trees or picked from the ground. That hard work paid off and things were easier. But has it made life all around better?

Now, here we are in the middle of what seems like an epidemic of mental illness across all the developed nations of the world.¹¹³ Yearly, 1 in 5 people will experience mental illness. 20% of Americans meet the criteria for some sort of mental illness. And, only 50% of those Americans are currently receiving help.¹¹⁴

What the Brain Needs

Like most complex systems performing complicated tasks, the brain needs more than just energy. In addition to fuel, our brains also require stimulation, protection, healthy structures, fine-tuning of communication, and the occasional 15 minute break.

Adequately meeting these five core needs depends on adequate nutrition. It also depends upon effective management of environmental stressors. Attend to each of these core needs and you will foster a healthy and optimally functioning brain – which in turn will allow you to better cope with the unavoidable stress of life.

Satisfying these core needs of the brain will help us better respond to challenges in our lives. The challenge that remains is the task of deciding how best to make meaning out of our experiences. Neither robots, nor zombies can decide how to make meaning out of their existence. It’s a uniquely human thing.

Life comes at us fast. We need a healthy and optimally functioning brain to deal with it all. If you feel that you're struggling to cope, consider the following ways in which the brain was originally designed to function. These functions help us to cope with the daily onslaught of a constantly changing environment that is rife with all kinds of threats and stressors.

Below is a quick preview of these specific functions and the budding science behind what keeps the gears grinding in our brains. No surprise, a lot of it comes down to adequate nutrition and the right kinds of stimulation in life.

Respond

The water’s warm, jump on in. Life is happening all around us. And, we feel good when we can engaged with what’s happening in and around us. When the symptoms of mental illness strike, we can feel disconnected, distracted, empty, nerve-wracked, or just ‘blah.’ These symptoms get in our way. If we aren’t in the right state of mind to immerse ourselves in the experiences of life, we miss out.

We need to feel connected. We need to be able to feel life happening. But sometimes, we might need our emotional responses to be muted a little bit. We need volume dial control of our emotions. Feeling too much can be just as hard to deal with as not feeling enough.

So, which brain chemicals are responsible for managing our responding? That’d be the neurotransmitters! They are the critical piece that needs to be in place in a healthy and optimally functioning brain in order for us to think, feel, reflect, interpret, remember, and respond with action. In certain times and situations, we need our neurotransmitters to be there to help us feel connected to life. There are other times and situations when less is more, and we want the internal response to be more measured, or even muted. It’s equally terrible when we feel nothing as when we get overwhelmed with overly intense feelings. Luckily, our brain has plenty of enzymes and elimination pathways embedded in an elaborate system of checks and balances that moderates our chemical responses to life.

The enzymatic systems that create (and later destroy) these neurotransmitters, so that we can have the right amount at the right time, rely on two main things: key nutrients and the right kind of environmental stimulation. Feed your brain with both, and let the inherent wisdom of nature take its course.

Build

Thinking takes time. At my house, figuring out what to eat for dinner or which movie to watch takes a very, very long time. But, less painfully complex problem-solving typically takes just nanoseconds. Generally, we do best when our thinking and ability to process experiences occurs quickly and efficiently.

Neurons are the brain cells that do the communicating in the brain. Neurons allow us to have thoughts, feelings, and reactions to the world. However, neurons send and receive messages relatively slowly. Enter myelin. Myelin is the fatty substance that coats most neurons. This fatty coating that covers the entire length of most neurons is termed the myelin sheath. The myelin sheath dramatically increases the speed of communication in and across the brain. Its presence on neurons can mean the difference between a signal being carried 100 meters per second (with the myelin sheath) and 1 meter per second (without the myelin sheath).

Similarly, the outer membranes of neurons are vitally important to the quality and reliability of the messages sent and received inside the brain. We need healthy structures to keep the traffic in our brain flowing swiftly, efficiently, and harmoniously.

As you may have guessed, there is an assortment of nutrients that support the growth and repair of these important structures, such as neuronal membranes and myelin sheaths. Getting them in your diet is crucial. It also takes some forethought.

Fuel

Life is exhausting. We need energy. Without energy, we’d be a puddle of chemicals on the floor. Energy actually helps maintain our physical structure. Just as it takes energy for your body to stand upright and move around, your cells use energy to keep their borders intact. Your cells also need energy to be able to exchange substances in and out. Energy is needed to keep the house clean, functional, and in good repair. If our cells do not possess the ability to do things they need to get done, our body and brain will suffer the consequences.

Mitochondria are tiny energy factories that exist in all our cells. Inside our neurons (which are brain cells), mitochondria help provide the energy needed for the neurons to grow, pass along messages, and branch out to make new connections. Mitochondria suck up fuel (in the form of protein, fats, and carbohydrates from the diet), and they turn that nutritional fuel into an exponentially greater amount of energy that those cells can use later on.

Fuel is vital. If you don’t have enough, you’ll know it. Not only will you feel fatigued, but your mental sharpness will collapse into mental dullness. You’ll be emotionally overwhelmed, your digestion and organ function may suffer, and you might even start gaining weight. Again, the right nutrients in the right amounts is essential for mental and physical wellness. Certain foods, much more than others, offer higher concentrations of the kinds of nutrients that promote energy creation. Doughnuts are delicious, but they ain’t it.

Protect

Life is precious and so are our brains! The world is filled with infectious bugs and other serious toxins that have the potential to take us down. These invaders, once they breach the brain's external defenses, can really jam up our mental functioning. Lucky for us, nature has provided us with an elaborate immune system nestled in and around the neurons. It clears up toxins, neutralizes infections, and sweeps away dead cells. It keeps our brain protected and safe.

Unfortunately, as with most things in life, too much of a good thing is a bad thing. Our brain wants the immune system to attack. Too much attacking however, can hamper brain function and even destroy healthy brain cells. Glial cells are the primary sentinels in the brain. They sense infections, toxins, and other problems that arise in the brain. Once alerted to a problem or intrusion, they spring into action.

Our immune responses in general, and the glial cells specifically, use fire to fight fire. If everything goes according to plan, the threat will be neutralized and soon your brain will return to its normal functioning. If overdone, however, our neurons can be harmed in the firefight. Balance and control are key to brain health. Certain nutrients, and several lifestyle habits, help moderate the immune responses in our brains. They provide an anti-inflammatory counterbalance that can prevent our neurons from being overstimulated. Note that many modern-day foods contribute to furthering inflammation, It’s for this reason that they should be avoided as much as possible.

Balance

Once the brain has what it needs, it’s time to fine tune the signals (for our purposes here in the book ‘signal’ and ‘message’ will be used interchangeably). Our brains truly are supercomputers. They can crunch massive amounts of data and in short order organize it in a meaningful way. But sometimes there’s interference. Excess excitatory activity leads to static that can drown out important signals. Think about your television. How many channels does your cable service stream to your house? A thousand? But how many channels does your cable box let through to your television at a time? Just one. Our brains need to operate in a similar manner. There’s a lot going on in the world around us. There’s also a lot going on inside our own minds. We need to filter out the noise to be able to pick out the signal we want. Accomplishing this will help us find focus and peace.

The brain is built with a vast network of checks and balances. These information superhighways are accompanied by emergency shut off valves. Inside these brain networks, inhibitory neurons T-bone excitatory neurons. The inhibitory neuron stop or slow signals from moving on. This inhibition helps keep the most important activity humming along without interruption. As with every core function, both inhibitory and excitatory networks in the brain demand adequate nutrition and healthy stimulation in order to function optimally.

In sum, these core functions suffer from inadequate nutrition, lack of stimulation, or too much stress. When these systems suffer, we suffer the consequences – mental and emotional dysfunction. Now that we’ve got the basics down, let’s move on to more specific solutions.