5 Brain Healthy Things I'm Into This Fall
Plus, my recipe for Pumpkin Seed Matcha Milk
Hello, Brain Health Ambassadors. I am writing to you from Honeybrains in New York, my favorite place to grab a coffee and a brain-healthy meal. Honeybrains is the only brain health-focused restaurant in the U.S., founded by my friend Marisa Seifan and her neurologist brother-in-law. Being here brings back memories of the cooking class I gave at the Flatiron location last year as part of the BHK book tour. Marisa and I bonded over our similar career pivots—mine from ob/gyn physician to culinary instructor dedicated to Alzheimer’s prevention, hers from prosecuting attorney to starting a brain-healthy restaurant group. As you can imagine, all the menu items were created with brain health in mind, plus the food is delicious and the ambience is joyful and fun. If you are ever in New York, do check them out!
New York is a quick stop as I make my way over to Sicily for this October’s brain health retreats. I am excited to be in Italy during one of my favorite months with a group of both new and returning retreat guests. As Sicily winds down from a very busy tourist season, locals are especially relaxed and the markets overflow with fall produce—eggplants, pumpkins, and porcini as big as my fist. I’ll be sure to update you from the road.
Meanwhile, it’s tough for me to leave behind my favorite fall things: long leafy walks, baking pumpkin bread, and reading by the fire while sipping on my new homemade milk concoction (made with matcha, pumpkin seeds, dates, and cinnamon).
So for today’s newsletter I give you a few of the things I’ve been enjoying this fall, including my recipe for pumpkin seed milk. I have a great discount code for you, too, so please enjoy!
The first newsletter of the month is always free. Please share.
Open Meditation App. Stress mitigation is an important pillar of keeping the brain healthy with age. One way to manage the stress of daily life is by having a meditation practice. I needed to bring a new enthusiasm to my sometimes neglected practice, so I signed up for a 30-day free trial on the Open app, thanks to an offer my friend
, a neuroscientist and author of the Substack @BetterBrain. Their 10-day Stress Cleanse was just what I needed—a series of brief guided meditations to get me back on track. Now, I’m diving into the Focused Mind series, 10 classes designed to help the mind resist distraction. During my travels this month—which include a few long haul flights—I’ll be dipping into the Travel Toolkit, a series with meditations for flight anxiety, jet lag, and more. For me, doing a series of goal-focused meditations has really helped me commit to a meditation practice, while making it interesting and fun.
If you'd like to try the Open app, this link applies the code
DRJULIE for your 30-day free trial.
AlfaBot Nut Milk Maker. This nut milk maker was a birthday gift from my boys, Jack and Nick, and it has become a favorite kitchen gadget. While I usually have good results making nut and seed milk in my VitaMix blender, it does make a lot of noise while I stand there for what seems like hours (about 3 minutes) while it goes at full tilt. This new nut milk maker has a “set it and forget it” feature so I can do other things while it whips up the creamiest nut milk I have ever made. Plus, it heats the milk as it blends. The result: a frothy steamed cup of hot milk right from the machine, something I enjoy with my daily dose of creatine. Plus, it earns its spot in my kitchen by also being a juicer and yogurt maker.
Simon Hill’s Proof Podcast: Cholesterol and Dementia. This podcast is a must-listen for ApoE4 carriers or anyone with cholesterol issues. It is also a fascinating discussion of how the brain works that everyone can appreciate. Simon Hill brings together lipid expert Dr. Thomas Dayspring and preventive neurologist Dr. KellyAnn Niotis. If you followed along on our cholesterol mini-series here on BHK, this podcast will recap much of what we covered, but it also includes new science and dives a little deeper. It may be helpful to refresh your knowledge with these posts before listening. Here’s the link to listen.
Your Brain on Cholesterol: Subscribers tell me that my river rafting analogy has been a gamechanger to help understand lipoproteins, lipids, and how they travel together in the body. This post also includes a glossary of common lipid terms and breaks down what testing to ask for at the doctor’s office.
Do Statin Drugs Cause Dementia or Prevent It?: This post covers how statin drugs work and why they may be useful to reduce dementia risk.
My Top 10 Cholesterol-Lowering Foods: A dietary approach to lowering cholesterol.
agebuzz. When agebuzz founder and editor Connie Zuckerman reached out to me to be featured on her website, I jumped at the chance. Zuckerman has been sharing baby boomer-focused articles on agebuzz since 2016, covering everything from the latest science in dementia prevention to the challenges of aging solo and tips on getting a pet. She and her team curate a long list of useful products, books, and podcasts, and offer a free newsletter. In my interview with Zuckerman, we delve into my daily habits for brain health, how I balance healthy eating while still enjoying an occasional treat, and much more.
Pumpkin Seed Matcha Milk. Pumpkin seeds are on the top of my list of delicious brain-healthy foods that are also high in protein, monounsaturated fats, magnesium, and fiber. In this post, I go into why I made seeds a bonus brain-healthy food group. I often throw in a handful of the green variety—called pepitas—when making cashew milk, but recently I’ve been making all-pepita milk that I love. The combination of pepitas and matcha gives the milk a cheery green hue and a nice interplay of nutty, sweet, and pleasantly bitter flavors. For a caffeine-free milk, choose a decaffeinated matcha or leave it out. Check out this post for matcha-buying tips and discount codes for my favorite products.
RECIPE: Pumpkin Seed Matcha Milk
When shopping for pumpkin seeds, be sure to get pepitas—the bright green variety full of brain-friendly fats, magnesium, zinc, potassium, and protein. They blend into milk better than the white seeds you scrape from the inside of a pumpkin.
Serves 2
½ cup pepitas, raw and unsalted
2 cups water
2 teaspoons matcha green tea powder
1 Medjool date, pitted
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
Combine the pepitas, water, matcha, date, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt in a powerful blender or nut milk machine. Blend on high until completely smooth, about 3 minutes.
Next time I’ll be sharing my recipe for Pumpkin Olive Oil Bread with Blueberries, a better-for-you take on the classic fall treat.
For full access to all the articles, recipes, discount codes and guides I am sharing, upgrade your subscription for just $5.83 per month. If you upgrade as a Founding Member, you’ll also get 4 live on zoom cooking classes with me each year + even more recipes. All paying subscribers get first dibs on spots for brain health retreats and one-on-one consultations before they are announced elsewhere. In addition, they have the ability to leave comments, message me directly, and get questions answered. I personally answer each and every paying subscriber question.
Thank you for reading, sharing, and taking the best care of your brain. I look forward to writing to you next week from Palermo, Italy!
Love,
Annie
Upcoming Brain Health Retreats
Click on these links to download the brochures that include all the retreat details: dates, cost, itinerary. Please note that Costa Rica and Sardinia have just a few spots left.
I can't wait for the pumpkin blueberry bread recipe!!! Thank you for all you do. Your cookbook is one of my favorites. Every recipe has been top notch delicious.
Thanks for the advice and recipe! We need to get past the election and inauguration before I can worry about my double gene. In the meantime writing postcards and supporting democrats!