When you think about eating a well-balanced diet, you might consider the impact that can have on heart health. Certainly, a thoughtful approach to what you consume can support this muscular organ’s ability to pump life-giving blood throughout your body — and help with everything from regulating blood pressure to lowering risk of heart attack and stroke.
But the way you nourish your body and the impact that has on your function doesn’t stop there. In fact, what you drink and eat also affects all sorts of organs and systems that keep you alive and thriving. That includes the far-reaching nervous system, which contains your body’s control center — the brain — and spine and extends to all the other nerves in your body which branch out from the central nervous system to your skeletal muscles, arms, legs, fingers and toes.
There are quite a few foods and nutrients that support a healthy nervous system, says Joan Salge Blake, a clinical associate professor of nutrition at Boston University, and a U.S. News contributor.
[See: The 10 Best Diets for Healthy Eating.]
Certainly, dietary changes may boost brain health. Look no further than the MIND diet, which combines two heart healthy diets — the DASH and traditional Mediterranean diets — which research suggests could also help protect against the development of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. The MIND diet emphasizes foods such as green leafy veggies — which are chock full of lutein that may help prevent cognitive decline — berries, nuts, beans and whole grains and fish — at least once weekly. Olive oil is held up as the oil and dressing of choice. The diet also calls for people to eat less than four servings of red meat and meat products, and go easy on heavier fare from pastries to fried food to butter.
Nor is the brain the only part of the nervous system that stands to benefit from dietary improvements. Essentially fatty acids, which you can find in things like walnuts, almonds and flaxseed, are very important for healthy skin, nerves and cell membranes, Salge Blake says. Thiamine, one of the B vitamins, is also important for nerve health, she says. In addition to being added to enriched products, from pasta and rice to ready-to-eat cereals, she notes, you can get thiamine from eating everything from pistachios to black beans. “Pork is a very, very good source, and so is oatmeal,” Salge Blake says.
Speaking of B vitamins, when it comes to the nervous system, experts emphasize the critical importance of adequate levels of B12. “Out of all the vitamins, the one that is very important for brain development, as well as for maintaining, or preventing, depression or brain degeneration among the elderly, [is] vitamin B12,” says Dr. Artemis Simopoulos, president of The Center for Genetics, Nutrition and Health in Washington.
Adequate B12 is critical to maintain the myelin sheath, which surrounds and protects nerves. A deficiency in this vitamin can lead to damage to the myelin sheath and problems with nerve functioning. “Some people have pernicious anemia — they lack something called an intrinsic factor in their stomach that helps with the absorption of B12; complications from this condition can range from heart problems to nerve damage, which Salge Blake points out, a person may feel in tingling and numbness in their arms.
Experts recommend those who aren’t able to absorb adequate B12 should get shots of the vitamin, usually once monthly. B12 is naturally found in animal products ranging from seafood to meat. For those individuals who aren’t able to get adequate B12 from food sources, including those who follow a vegan diet, taking a supplement is recommended.
[See: 9 Habits That May Reduce Your Risk for Developing Alzheimer’s.]
For expectant mothers and those who are trying to conceive, experts also emphasize the importance of another B vitamin: folate. This nutrient is integral in the development of the neural tube, the precursor to the nervous system in embryos, which will become the brain and spinal cord. “It’s very important that the mom have the folic acid on board right at conception, because that’s when the neural tube is being formed in the baby,” Salge Blake says. “If you don’t have adequate amounts, it could potentially increase the risk of neural tube defects in the baby.” These include spina bifida, in which the spinal column doesn’t close properly, and anencephaly, in which the brain and skull don’t fully develop, usually leading to stillbirth or the death of a baby shortly after birth.
As such, the U.S. Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that all women of childbearing age consume 0.4 milligrams, or 400 micrograms, of folic acid daily. This has been added to many foods, like pasta and rice, through a process of enrichment, and can also be found in foods like kidney beans, peanuts, chickpeas, broccoli, avocados and asparagus, Salge Blake says.
Women who can’t get sufficient amounts of folic acid from dietary sources are advised to take a supplement.
In addition, adequate potassium and calcium are also important to maintain a healthy nervous system. You can find these in the usual places: potassium in bananas and potatoes, and calcium in dairy products. But you’ll also find potassium in fish and in lean meats, Salge Blake points out. And you can find potassium and calcium in yogurt. Also, look for calcium in those greens, such as bok choy, kale and broccoli, she notes. You’ll also find it in fortified products like orange juice (though experts recommend drinking juice in moderation to keep a lid on sugar consumption).
Experts say moving away from the traditional Western diet that’s high in fat and carbs is also a good idea to reduce inflammation, which seems to promote not only heart health but the health of other body systems — though research is still ongoing to better understand this. “So I would say dietary components that are associated with reduced inflammation would also be helpful for nervous system health,” says Brenda Davy, a registered dietitian nutritionist and professor in the Department of Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise at Virginia Tech. Certainly, that seems to bear out in the potentially protective benefits of eating patterns, like the Mediterranean diet, on brain health — even if the reasons for these benefits aren’t fully understood.
Davy also stresses the important of staying hydrated for optimal cognitive function. Drink water, she advises, over sugar-sweetened beverages.
[See: 9 Ways to Boost Your Immune System.]
Just as dietary experts now emphasize eating patterns over single nutrients, it’s not that one diet works better for the nervous system and others for the rest of the body. But rather, a well-balanced approach — not to mention not overeating — will help in areas ranging from weight control and lowering cardiovascular risk to promoting nervous system health.
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Eating to Promote a Healthy Nervous System originally appeared on usnews.com
