Feed Your Brain

A clear, crisp mind can see the solutions laid out before it. A clear, crisp mind will sort the waste and detox the fuzziness; it will hone in on the relevant and get you where you want to be, with no wasteful detours. Eat your way to intelligence and chomp your way to cheeriness.

It should come as no surprise that the sorts of foods that are good for your brain, intelligence, memory, alertness and vitality are also the types of foods that are good for you in all sorts of other ways.

Following a balanced diet will provide all the nutrients you need to keep your mind alert and fit for the Detox Your Life tasks, so you don’t miss anything important.

‘Balanced’ is the key word – we should cut down on some foods and increase others in order to fulfil all our nutritional requirements.

We should also watch what we eat and when in order to ensure optimum energy levels at the times we most require them. Everyone has suffered the mid-afternoon ‘snooze’ syndrome where we are expected to carry on with the day as normal when all we really want to do is sit in a big comfortable chair and have a nice sleep for half an hour. Maintaining a continuous level of blood sugar is vital if we want to avoid these ‘dips’ of energy and brain function during the day.

For this reason, three meals a day may not be the ultimate way to nourish our bodies. Eating a large breakfast, lunch and evening meal will lead to a blood sugar low before each of these meals, as the body has used all its energy. A blood sugar high will then occur directly after eating – which always results in a Iowan hour or so later, depending on the content of each meal. If the carbohydrates consumed are carefully chosen then the major peaks and troughs can be avoided but often this is not the case.

During the Detox you should try to eat five or six smaller meals during the day in order to ensure the continuous levels of alertness required to fulfil your tasks.

You should limit (or, ideally, eliminate) some foods during the programme as these are likely to inhibit correct absorption of some essential nutrients – you don’t want anything to stop you from getting the best out of all your hard work.

The best way to achieve optimum nutrition is to change your current eating regime to incorporate the required nutrients – simply taking supplements is a lazy way to change your diet and we really are what we eat.

‘Everything in moderation’ is a very good approach when it comes to food. Our bodies respond badly when we overindulge in anything.

Here are some other tips that will help you keep mentally alert throughout your life-changing programme:

• Eat regular, small meals. Five or six small meals eaten regularly will keep you more mentally alert than two or three big meals.

• Eat breakfast. Low blood sugar in the morning adversely affects your memory and ability to concentrate. Breakfast will wake your brain. If you try to work without first eating a small breakfast then your body is likely to ask for short-term chemical stimulants – coffee, tea, sugar, chocolate, etc. If you have breakfast then you will satisfy your energy needs and your body can operate efficiently.

• Eat a mid-morning snack consisting of a slow-release carbohydrate such as wholemeal bread or oatcakes. (These are foods that release energy steadily over a longer period of time avoiding the energy surges and dips that come with sugary or refined foods like biscuits, cakes and white bread.) A slow-release snack will stave off any hunger pangs and keep energy at a constant level.

• Eat lunch as normal but make it light and refreshing, including lots of fresh, raw vegetables.

• Eat a mid-afternoon snack to prevent the ‘snooze’ requirement. Again, a healthy, low-refined sugar, slow-release energy food will make sure you don’t create any problematic highs and lows – fruit such as bananas, apples and pears are great for this.

• Supper in the evening should be kept healthy and not necessarily the largest meal of the day – equal portions for breakfast, lunch and evening meal will help keep your brain working efficiently, and the snacks should be lighter.

• A final snack before bed is fine but make sure it doesn’t contain anything that will prevent you from getting a good night’s sleep. If you know your own culprits, fine but generally avoid stimulants like chocolate, cheese and caffeine.

• If you have ever suspected that you may be intolerant of foods such as wheat or dairy products, this is the ideal opportunity to exclude them from your diet to see if you feel different as a result.

• Try to keep the foods as natural as possible (e.g. whole grains rather than refined) and try to cook them as little as possible. Obviously, fish and meat should be thoroughly cooked (unless you convert to eating lots of Japanese raw fish which would be great for the programme). Vegetables should be a balance of raw, lightly stir-fried or quickly grilled to keep all the nutrients in them. Fruit is easy to eat raw and you should eat at least five pieces a day. Pasta, rice, bread and potatoes, grains, pulses, etc should be cooked as directed but always so that you give your jaw a good workout. This means the goodness has not been completely boiled away and that you will get great muscle tone in your face from chewing them!

• Most stimulants and chemicals should be out of your life by now but here’s a full list, just in case any culprits have slipped through the net:

Caffeine: Limit your intake of any caffeine product (tea, coffee, cola, chocolate) to one per day – or cut them out altogether.

Alcohol: Limit your intake of alcohol to one unit per day – these units may not be ‘saved’. One or no units per day is the maximum permitted.

Sugary products: Cakes, biscuits, crisps, sweets, chocolate bars and all things ‘naughty’ should be eliminated or limited to one small slice/piece/packet/bar per day. These foods are high in calories and sugars – they will give you a boost but it will be swiftly followed by a drowsy ‘low’.

Fats: Products high in saturated fats (e.g. meat and cheese) should be avoided. Fat intake should be limited to polyunsaturates, oily fish, nuts and oils.

Smoking/Pollution: Airborne pollution and smoking – passive or active – should be avoided at all costs. If you smoke then give up now! And if you can avoid spending time in public areas that smokers use or outside areas that have heavy traffic then do. Smoking and pollution not only have the obvious side effects of nicotine/passive smoking/addiction, but they also prevent complete absorption of vitamins and minerals from foods, they dull your taste buds and damage skin tone, complexion and general health.

There are some specific nutrients that are reputed to have very definite effects on our brains. I have listed these below, with their natural food sources. It is much better to incorporate these foods in your diet, so that your body can assimilate them naturally, than to take expensive supplements and pills.

A balanced diet will give you all these nutrients, in the correct form. Taking supplements of these vitamins and minerals is not recommended unless you have first consulted a nutritionist or your doctor. You may also wish to see a nutritionist if you are currently taking any prescribed drugs or the contraceptive pill, as many medicines can prevent the body from absorbing essential nutrients or can deplete the body’s natural stores.

Having said that you should incorporate all these nutrients in their natural food forms, it is not always easy to include so many foodstuffs in your daily diet.

Start the day with stimulating energy food. Juicing, either by using a juice extractor or by simply peeling fruit and putting delicious combinations in a liquidiser, is great, and fruit is a must at breakfast. It is also good to have some protein (e.g. milk or yoghurt) to keep your energy levels up until lunchtime.