Many organizations advocate for the adoption of a plant-based diet as the ultimate solution for health. While consuming a diverse array of colorful plants offers undeniable benefits, solely relying on a vegan diet can pose challenges in meeting essential nutrient requirements crucial for optimal brain function and mood. Nutrients such as complete protein, DHA, zinc, and iron may be insufficiently supplied by a strictly plant-based diet.
What Is A Brain-Healthy-Diet?
Dr. Georgia Ede, a Harvard-trained psychiatrist specializing in nutrition science and brain metabolism and author of Change Your Diet Change Your Mind, told the Epoch Times that the deterioration in mental health correlates significantly with the decline in dietary quality observed over the past 75 years. Particularly concerning to her as a psychiatrist are plant-based diets, including vegan and vegetarian regimes. With extensive knowledge of the brain’s composition and function, Dr. Ede underscores the critical importance of essential nutrients for optimal brain health.
For any diet, whether plant-based or animal-based to be ‘brain-healthy,’ it must accomplish all three of these objectives, according to Dr Ede:
- Nourish: It should nourish the brain by providing all essential nutrients. The only way to accomplish this goal (without fortified processed foods or supplements) is to include some animal-source foods in the diet.
- Protect: By excluding damaging ultra-processed ingredients, most importantly refined carbohydrates (such as sugars, flour, and cereal products) and refined vegetable oils (such as soybean oil, sunflower oil, and corn oil) you’ll be protecting the brain.
- Energize: Brain metabolism should be protected over the lifespan, which means keeping blood sugar and insulin levels in a healthy range.
Dr Ede explains that the mental health risks of vegetarian and vegan diets depend on how these diets are constructed. A well-planned, properly supplemented, whole-food vegetarian diet that includes eggs may be safe and healthy for the brain and the rest of the body, but vegan diets have serious nutritional holes that are difficult to fill even with careful supplementation.
Crucial Elements for Optimal Brain Function and Health
DHA
The brain is made up of two-thirds fat, with 20 percent of that fat being comprised of the essential omega-3 fatty acid known as DHA. Dr. Ede highlights DHA’s vital role in the proper development of the human frontal cortex, emphasizing its significance for cognitive function, infant brain development and overall mental well-being. A 2019 review in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition showed DHA’s essential role in optimal neuronal function. The Framingham Heart Study also revealed a noteworthy correlation between higher plasma DHA levels and a reduced risk of developing all-cause dementia. Remarkably, individuals within the top quartile of plasma DHA level experienced a substantial 47% decrease in dementia risk.
Dr. Ede underscores a concerning reality: plant-based foods contain no DHA whatsoever, leaving individuals reliant solely on animal-derived sources for this essential nutrient. While plant foods do contain ALA, an omega-3 fatty acid, the conversion of ALA into the crucial DHA that the brain requires is exceedingly challenging, if not impossible.
Supporting this assertion, a clinical trial documented in the British Journal of Nutrition revealed that adult males exhibit very low or even absent capacity to convert ALA to DHA.
Further insights emerged from another study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, which investigated healthy young women. Interestingly, the findings suggested that women possess a slightly greater capacity for ALA to DHA conversion compared to men. This heightened capacity in women may serve to meet the demands of fetal development and lactation during pregnancy.
When comparing the plasma levels of omega-3 fatty acids among meat eaters, vegetarians and vegans, the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition published a study showing that
DHA levels were 31 percent lower in vegetarians and a significant 59 percent lower in vegans than in their meat-eating counterparts.
Animal Proteins and Fats
In her book Vegetarianism Explained, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride, a medical doctor with postgraduate degrees in neurology and human nutrition, suggests that a significant portion of our body’s essential nutrition comes from animal foods. According to her research, fat and protein are the primary constituents of the human body (excluding water), serving as vital building blocks for organs, bones, muscles, and the brain. Animal-derived fats and proteins are deemed optimal for human physiology and structure. The brain, in particular, necessitates more than just glucose for optimal function; its cell regeneration processes rely on high-quality fat and protein. In her clinical observation, strict adherence to plant-based diets often correlates with deteriorating brain function. Individuals may experience declines in sharpness, humor, memory, and learning capacity, accompanied by a tendency towards binary thinking and behavior. Mental health issues such as depression may also manifest in such cases.
In her book, Dr. McBride says that “misguided vegetarianism and veganism are becoming an important cause of physical and mental illnesses in our modern world.”
The Bioavailability of Plant Foods
Dr. Ede delves deeper into the nutritional disparities between animal-based and plant-based foods, emphasizing that only non-dairy animal foods, including meat, seafood and poultry provide every essential nutrient in its most bioavailable form. In contrast, plant foods not only lack certain key nutrients like B12, vitamin K2, EPA, and DHA, but the forms in which they do contain nutrients can pose challenges for human utilization.
Adding to this complexity, Dr. Ede highlights the presence of anti-nutrients in plant foods, which impede our ability to absorb nutrients not only from plant sources but also from animal-derived foods. For instance, grains, beans, nuts, and seeds are rich in phytate, an anti-nutrient known to inhibit the absorption of essential minerals such as iron, zinc, calcium, and magnesium. These minerals are crucial for various functions, including dopamine synthesis, neurotransmitter production, and energy metabolism, all of which are vital for optimal brain health and function, Dr. Ede says. “Just because a plant food contains a nutrient doesn’t mean we can access it,” said Dr. Ede.
For example, our eyes, brain, and immune system rely on Vitamin A for their function and structure. While plants contain carotenoids, which can be converted into retinol (the functional form of vitamin A), in a healthy body, there are challenges to this conversion process. Environmental toxins and nutritional deficiencies can hinder this conversion, leading to vitamin A deficiency despite consuming carotenoid-rich plants like carrots, sweet potatoes, and kale, says Dr. McBride.
How to Improve Bioavailability of Plant Foods
The bioavailability of micronutrients from plant-based foods can significantly be improved with prudent cooking practices, the use of ideal combinations of food and sprouting and fermentation. Sprouting and fermentation have specifically been shown to enhance the bioavailability of iron and B-carotene from plant foods, according to a 2016 review in Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition.
Dr Ede adds that with careful meal planning and proper supplementation, it is theoretically possible for adults who eat a vegan or vegetarian diet—and who are not pregnant or breastfeeding—to meet their requirements for all essential nutrients.
What is the Role of Plant-Based Foods?
If plant-based foods aren’t the primary building blocks for the brain, what role do they serve, and why do many individuals report feeling good when consuming predominantly plant-based diets? According to Dr. McBride, plants primarily function as cleansers for the body. While they may not provide substantial nourishment on their own, they excel at internal cleansing. In their natural state, plants contain detoxifying compounds that aid in the removal of harmful chemicals and toxins accumulated in our bodies. However, it’s essential to reintroduce animal-based foods after a cleanse to prevent the body from deteriorating and experiencing starvation.
Make Your Diet Work For You
Dietician, Shani La Grange, told the Epoch Times that both animal and plant-based foods play a role in optimizing brain health. Fibre found in plant-derived food, stimulates the production of short-chain fatty acids which in turn stimulates the production of serotonin. To encourage the production of serotonin, fibre intake is as important as protein, she says. A higher intake of plant-based food could promote a more anti-inflammatory effect which, in contrast to high animal protein intake, could promote healthy brain aging and decreased risk of certain conditions like dementia. However, strict plant-based diets pose the risk of vitamin B12 and iron deficiency (if not supplemented), which in turn could be detrimental to neurological and cognitive health, and impair cognitive functioning, she adds.
She further explains that a very high intake of animal proteins – especially red meat – over extended periods has been linked to sub-optimal brain health. In moderation, however, protein found in animal-based products plays an important role in overall nutrition. In general, both an omnivorous diet and a strictly plant-based diet can encourage good brain health if both are high in fibre, have sufficient amounts of protein, low in saturated fats, high in omega 3 fats, and meet certain micronutrient requirements, she says.
A version of this article has been published by the Epoch Times newspaper.
