8 Herbs and Spices to Spice Up Your Brain and Help Prevent Mental Decline

                                                    Photo by Merve Sehirli Nasir on Unsplash

 8 Herbs and Spices to Spice Up Your Brain and Help Prevent Mental Decline

Mental or cognitive decline is on everyone's mind nowadays probably because all of the stress people are having to learn to manage. Taking good care of yourself and your brain is no easy feat. Some of the easy and creative ways to help your health care regiment can include some fun and interesting adds to your diet.

Eating more vegetables is something you've probably heard a lot about and it's a good idea. Vegetables and fruit contain polyphenols that are super helpful in getting rid of inflammation.  Polyphenols are also a class of antioxidants. When you hear antioxidants think anti-rusting in your body. These are chemicals in the foods that are naturally found there and are destroyed when food is processed.

Polyphenols are found in colorful foods like vegetables, fruit, and spices. Especially in spices where the flavors are concentrated. Adding a them to your diet on a daily basis an be a real boost to your health and brain goals. I'm right here with you, on an active mission to save my brain. Let's try adding these herbs and spices together.

1. Turmeric

Turmeric is a spice that contains curcumin. Turmeric is the main spice in Indian foods such as Curry. Curcumin has been shown to help brain function and cardiovascular disease by providing anti-inflammatory action on the blood vessels and your brain.

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2. Saffron

Here is another spice that has shown to have neuroprotective effects. Saffron is one of the more costly spices in that it is harvested by hand. It takes about 150 crocus plants to yield about 1 gram dried saffron threads.

3. Rosemary

Rosemary is a popular herb and widely used in Italian and Mediterranian cooking. It has memory-boosting effects and prevents cell death. This one is a goldmine.

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4.Sage

Sage has been shown to help improve learning and cognition in older adults.

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5.Cinnamon

Cinnamon has shown to prevent cognitive impairment in lab rats but also has an effect on regulating circulation and blood sugar levels.

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6.Nutmeg

Nutmeg may help improve memory and cognition. Just be careful not to have it in the inflammatory brandy and eggnog during the holidays. 

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7.Ginger

Ginger is known to help not only circulation and digestive issues, but it is also used to help to treat Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

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8. Pepper

The pepper you place on the table and season your food with it what we are talking about. There are Neuroprotective effects just waiting on our tables.

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This information sounds pretty good and we probably have those spices and herbs in our cabinets already. I think I'll look into recipes to utilize some of them. If you have a recipe I should try, I'd love for you to share it with me in the comments.

The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Volume 81, Issue 1, January 2005, Pages 215S–217S, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/81.1.215S