The Best Diet For Your Brain with Max Lugavere

This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep, Rupa Health, and InsideTracker. We often think of eating well in terms of managing our weight or heart health, but what about supporting the brain? There are so many foods we can eat to support better cognition, reduce the risk of neurodegenerative diseases, and feel sharper, smarter, and happier every day. Along those same lines, many of the processed foods in our Standard American Diet are sabotaging our brain health with loads of excess sugar and other sneaky ingredients. I’m excited to sit down with Max Lugavere to explore what it looks like to eat a diet that specifically benefits the brain. If you’re thinking you don’t need that focus in your personal diet, think again: these habits and foods are benefiting your entire body, too. Max Lugavere is a health and science journalist and the author of the New York Times best-seller Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life, now published in 10 languages around the globe. His sophomore book, also a best-seller, is called The Genius Life: Heal Your Mind, Strengthen Your Body, and Become Extraordinary. Max is the host of a #1 iTunes health and wellness podcast, called The Genius Life. His new cookbook, Genius Kitchen, just hit shelves yesterday. This episode is brought to you by Eight Sleep, Rupa Health, and InsideTracker. To check out Eight Sleep’s Pod Pro mattress or mattress cover and save $150 at check out, go to eightsleep.com/mark. Rupa Health is a place where Functional Medicine practitioners can access more than 2,000 specialty lab tests. You can check out a free, live demo with a Q&A or create an account at RupaHealth.com. Right now, InsideTracker is offering my community 20% off at insidetracker.com/drhyman. Here are more details from our interview (audio version / Apple Subscriber version): How Max’s mother’s illness led him to understand the relationship between diet and brain health (5:38 / 2:30) Scientific evidence of how nutrition influences the brain (9:21 / 6:00) Superfoods for the brain (15:07 / 11:35) Why we overeat ultra-processed, but not nutritionally satisfying, foods (19:26 / 16:15) Health effects of meat consumption (33:12 / 28:15) Health benefits of eggs and some types of dairy (46:36 / 43:26) Dark, leafy greens and brain health (53:43 / 48:35) Cooking at home (59:05 / 53:49) Natural food sources of collagen (1:02:26 / 57:18) The best and worst cooking oils (1:04:53 / 59:46) Learn more about Max at maxlugavere.com and get his new book, Genius Kitchen, at geniuskitchenbook.com.