BRAIN FOOD ESSENTIALS

Fuel for the brain

BRAIN BENEFITING SOURCES:

ALPHA-LIPOIC ACID: A small and powerful molecule enters the brain to protect it from free radical damage. Alphalipoic acid activates glutathione — the most powerful antioxidant in our cells — which stimulates the ability of each to absorb free radicals, thereby neutralizing their negative effects. Since international research has revealed that free radicals attack brain cells (neurons), the use of alphalipoic acid prevents or limits the damage caused by these free radicals. Studies also indicate that this powerful preventive agent helps remove lead from brain tissue. Alpha lipoic acid is made by the body and can be found in very small amounts in foods such as spinach, broccoli, peas, Brewer’s yeast, brussel sprouts, rice bran, and organ meats. Alpha lipoic acid supplements are available in capsule form at health food stores, some drugstores, and online. For maximum absorption, the supplements should be taken on an empty stomach.

BRAIN ALGAE: Sublingual (under the tongue) use of these algae extracts protects the entire brain while reestablishing healthy channels of neuronal activity. The 50-percent protein content of blue-green algae helps alleviate depression by reinvigorating those parts of the brain in which it appears.

B VITAMINS: Our use of B vitamins that are derived exclusively from whole foods benefits the nervous system and helps the brain create and sustain the neurotransmitters that embody thoughts and moods. Members of the B vitamin family are essential for sustained energy, balanced hormones, and healthy mental and cardiovascular functioning. Research indicates that deficiencies of B vitamins cause lethargy, depression, dementia and nerve degeneration.

CAT’S CLAW (UNA DA GATO) The essence of this South American plant helps counteract and/or prevent Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), which attacks not only children but also those adults who are facing or have dementia.

The Peace of Wild Things

When despair for the world grows in me

and I wake in the night at the least sound

in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,

I go and lie down where the wood drake

rests in his beauty on the water and the great heron feeds.

I come into the peace of wild things

who do not tax their lives with the forethought

of grief. I come into the presence of still water.

And I feel above me the day-blind stars

waiting with their light. For a time

I rest in the grace of the world and am free.

                                                          Wendell Berry

TWO KINDS of Intelligence by: Rumi

There are two kinds of intelligence: one acquired,
as a child in school memorizes facts and concepts
from books and from what the teacher says,
collecting information from the traditional sciences
as well as from the new sciences.

With such intelligence you rise in the world.
You get ranked ahead or behind others
in regard to your competence in retaining
information. You stroll with this intelligence
in and out of fields of knowledge, getting always more
marks on your preserving tablets.

There is another kind of tablet, one
already completed and preserved inside you.
A spring overflowing its springbox. A freshness
in the center of the chest. This other intelligence
does not turn yellow or stagnate. It’s fluid,
and it doesn’t move from outside to inside
through conduits of plumbing-learning.

This second knowing is a fountainhead
from within you, moving out.