I’ve been studying the brain for 15 years. If you do just one thing for sharper memory, make it this​on February 11, 2025 at 1:56 pm

While the brain makes up only 2% of your body weight, it is responsible for over 20% of energy expenditure each day.

I’ve spent 15 years studying the brain, and five years as a medical director of a residential memory care facility. I am always reminding people to eat things that feed the brain, not harm it. You want to give your brain the nutrients it needs to heal, repair tissues, fight toxins and create neurotransmitters so that it can stay young, sharp and energized for as long as possible.

That means nutrient-dense, lower-carb foods. Nutrients to provide the building blocks, and lower carbs to help stabilize your blood sugar and even out the roller coaster of spikes and drops that create so many cognition-impairing side effects, including lightheadedness, anxiety, fatigue, irritability and a decrease in focus.

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So if you do one thing to improve your diet to protect the brain, start raising your carb-consciousness and begin swapping out some of the carb-heavy foods you eat most often for lower-carb alternatives.

A healthy amount of carbs to shoot for is around 130 grams per day (about 25% of calories in a 2,000 calorie diet).

But not all carbs offer the same health benefits, so the quality of the carbs you eat is much more important than the number. Consider that eating a higher carb fruit like grapes or watermelon after a high-fat, high-protein snack like greek yogurt will reduce how quickly and how much your blood sugar will go up.

Eat high-fat, high-protein foods first in your meal and save the higher carb options until later. Aim to snack on low-carb options like cucumbers, bell peppers, cheese, coconut yogurt, pecans or walnuts.

Sweets on an empty stomach will raise your blood sugar high and fast, then it will drop. Generally that drop in blood sugar feels bad and makes us act hangry, and over time it leads to diabetes, insulin resistance and cognitive impairment. 

That could look like:

• One piece of avocado toast for breakfast instead of a whole bagel or cereal.
• Soup and salad instead of a sandwich and chips for lunch.
• Swapping your side dish of potatoes or rice for quinoa or cauliflower rice at dinner.
• Berries with a little whipped cream or a few squares of dark chocolate instead of ice cream for dessert.

Don’t get too hung up on counting every gram of carbohydrates you consume, because it can be stressful and overwhelming (which is the opposite of what we want!).

But many times my patients don’t realize how many carbs they’ve been eating. Becoming aware of how many carbohydrates you’re eating in a day will help you eat less of them — after all, you can’t change a habit you don’t know you have.

Just this one change would do a ton of good — including bringing down glucose and insulin levels (and therefore reducing inflammation), and upping consumption of the nutrients that support brain health (protein, vitamins and minerals from vegetables and fats).

Dr. Heather Sandison is a naturopathic doctor specializing in neurocognitive medicine and the founder of Solcere Health Clinic, a brain optimization clinic, and Marama, the first residential memory care facility to have the goal of returning cognitively declined residents to independent living. Her latest book, “Reversing Alzheimer’s” is out now.

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Adapted excerpt from the book: “REVERSING ALZHEIMER’S,” by Dr. Heather Sandison. Copyright © 2024 by Dr. Heather Sandison. Reprinted courtesy of Harper Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.