“Your mood is not a vending machine…”

Hello Scalpelheads!! I wanna start with an uncomfortable thought: remove the water from your brain and roughly 60% of what’s left is fat.

So yes, the organ currently judging your life choices is structurally quite greasy.

We’ll be talking the foundations of cognition, ladies and gents…

Before anyone celebrates by ordering deep-fried mozzarella “for neurological maintenance,” the type of fat matters. Your brain is loaded with lipids because neurons need them to build cell membranes and myelin, the insulation around nerve fibers. DHA, an omega-3 fatty acid, is especially concentrated in the brain.

Your body can make only small amounts of DHA from the plant omega-3 ALA, so fatty fish such as salmon, sardines, trout, and mackerel are efficient sources. Walnuts, chia, flax, and canola oil provide ALA. A practical target is about two servings of fish per week.

This does not mean fish-oil capsules are tiny Harvard degrees.

Trials in healthy older adults have not consistently shown that omega-3 supplements improve cognition. Food first remains the less exciting, more annoying answer.

Dietary protein gets broken into amino acids, and several amino acids are raw materials for neurotransmitters. Tryptophan helps make serotonin. Tyrosine contributes to dopamine and norepinephrine.

But eating turkey does not press the “serotonin” button, and steak does not install LinkedIn Premium directly into your frontal lobe.

Amino acids compete to cross the blood-brain barrier, and neurotransmitter production is tightly regulated. Meals can influence the availability of these precursors, but your mood is not a vending machine…

Your brain is only about 2% of your body weight, yet at rest it consumes roughly 20% of the body’s energy. Under ordinary conditions, glucose is its primary fuel, although during prolonged fasting the brain can also use ketones.

That does not mean your brain requires a cinnamon roll every four hours for “focus.”

Highly refined carbohydrates can raise blood glucose quickly. Foods rich in fiber, such as beans, lentils, oats, and minimally processed whole grains, usually produce a slower rise.

The practical move is boring enough to offend the wellness industry: combine carbohydrates with protein, fiber, and healthy fats instead of repeatedly sending naked sugar into your bloodstream like it has diplomatic immunity.

Especially when you are actually deficient.

Vitamin B12 deficiency, for example, can cause numbness, memory problems, confusion, and other neurological symptoms. Folate and B6 also participate in reactions essential to brain and nervous-system function.

But taking heroic doses when you are already sufficient does not automatically upgrade your RAM. B-vitamin supplementation has generally failed to improve cognition in people who are not deficient.

More is sometimes just more expensive urine, with branding.

Aim for a pattern that looks suspiciously like food your great-grandmother would recognize:

Vegetables, fruit, legumes, nuts, whole grains, olive oil, fish, and adequate protein.

Mediterranean and MIND-style eating patterns are associated with better cognitive outcomes in several studies, although they are not proven anti-dementia force fields.

Your brain-health grocery strategy is painfully unsexy: eat fish or other omega-3 sources, choose fiber-rich carbs, get enough protein, correct actual deficiencies, and eat plants regularly.

Then sleep.

Because no quantity of blueberries is going to negotiate with four hours of sleep and a 2:17 a.m. doomscroll.

Until next Saturday,

Kevin Cutthebull, MD

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