How To Talk To Young Adults About Brain Health
7 simple strategies + 2 very special Black Friday deals
Hello, everyone. It’s Thanksgiving morning and I am writing to you from my friends’ apartment in New York City. I’m up early, enjoying the sounds of the city coming to life. Last night at our pre-Thanksgiving pie baking party, we had the best time cooking some of my recipes: a vegetarian version of the Brown Rice Paella with Shrimp and Artichokes and a huge bowl of Your New Favorite Kale Salad with Blueberry Shallot Dressing from my book. Everything was devoured! We made two of the Pumpkin Tahini Pies—one swapping in sunflower seed butter for the tahini for a sesame-allergic friend, a successful swap. The sunflower pie was differently delicious from the tahini one, tasting like halva and honey.
At the table, all the young adults peppered me with questions about brain healthy eating. They wanted to know how to buy really good extra-virgin olive oil. They wanted to know what type of plant milk is best, and if seed oils are actually toxic. What was a monounsaturated fat? And why is saturated fat not as brain-healthy? All of this reminded me that young adults are constantly dealing with an overload of nutrition misinformation as they navigate adult life, striving to be their brain-healthiest selves.
So for today’s newsletter, I’ve updated my thoughts on this very important topic—brain-healthy eating for young adults—in the hopes that it will be useful to you over the holidays. Do you have any 20- or 30-somethings coming over to eat? Cook up some of your brain-healthy dishes and open up the conversation. I am willing to bet that the “kids” really want to hear from you and could use some guidance from a brain health ambassador.
I don’t claim to have all the answers, but here I offer you seven simple strategies to nudge the young adults in your life towards better brain health.
The first three are solidly based on science. For the rest, I draw on my experience of sharing brain health information with medical students, young adults in my cooking classes, and raising two 20-something sons. I have found that kids today are more health-conscious than you may think. But because they consume so much information via social media, they get a lot of misinformation about brain health. Case in point: many young adults think coconut oil is a brain healthy food when, in fact, studies suggest the opposite.
7 Actionable Brain Health Strategies For All Ages
A Mediterranean-style diet improves mental health. As I mentioned in this post about ultra processed foods (UPFs), researchers are starting to prove that poor dietary patterns increase mental health challenges like anxiety and depression. But here’s the good news: young adults suffering from these disorders got better when a Mediterranean-style diet was part of the treatment plan—25% better! That’s like gaining a depression-free week of every month.
Share This: The science of how a brain healthy diet alleviates anxiety or depression: this study, the SMILES trial, and this one from Italy. Suggest Mediterranean-style swaps for UPFs, like hummus and crudité for chips and dip, oatmeal and berries for sweetened cereal, smoothies for energy drinks. A good book and social media follow: Eat to Beat Anxiety and Depression by @drdrewramsey @brainfoodMD.