Often, we hear that certain foods and herbs are good for brain health.

But this axiom was turned on its ear in the past week when ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), an herb long thought in traditional medicine as a brain tonic, was found in a 3,000-patient, 6 year-long clinical trial to do nothing to prevent or alter the course of Alzheimer's disease.

Read the press release here, click!

And the research abstract here, click!

Even for natural products thought to be benign and relatively safe, the same criteria for gaining a health claim apply for scientific acceptance ... just like for the more demanding process to approve drugs.

Specifically, this means the following

1. the agent must be known to have a defined biological mechanism of action demonstrated in vivo (ginkgo does not)

2. the agent must be known to cause a certain effect in the human body, or more specifically, to prevent or alter a disease like Alzheimer's (ginkgo does not)

3. the agent must be prescribed with a defined Dietary Reference Intake value (ginkgo does not)

From these criteria – which are established for essential nutrients and criteria 1-2 for drugs – ginkgo and other natural products (even berries and superfruits) do not yet have sufficient scientific evidence to pass the test.

 

Rubus berries: blackberries, red raspberries, boysenberries.

It's possible most of their health value comes from

vitamin C, vitamin E (in their seeds), and dietary fiber -- not so

much from anthocyanins and other polyphenols

 

Focus on nutrients, not antioxidants

Proof of a nutrient's value to human health comes from defining loss of health when that agent is specifically absent from the diet over a long time.

In other words, if ginkgo biloba were not in the diet, would the otherwise normal, healthy human become sick with Alzheimer's disease?

Simply by intuition, we could answer that question ourselves without even implicating something as complex as a clinical trial: the answer is “of course not.”

This is the difficult challenge for manufacturers of natural health products involving berries or superfruits implicated with health claims:

are a fruit and its constituents sufficiently

powerful to actually deter diseases?

With those highly rigorous criteria required, it's easy to see that the focus we as consumers should have on fruit products we choose and lifestyles we practice must be on foods and nutrients known to provide health.

Like with the ginkgo-Alzheimer's trial, no plant antioxidant polyphenols have been shown to provide any benefit at all in humans in scientific studies conducted to date!

 

Five Friends of Brain Health

 

1, 2 and 3. The known antioxidants from food that do have essential roles in the human body are vitamins A, C and E – the “ACE” vitamins.

4. Omega-3 fats.

5. Prebiotic dietary fiber.

 

 

 

How do they help the brain?

 

1, 2 and 3. For the antioxidant roles of the ACE vitamins, think of it this way:

A and E (alpha-tocopherol) are fat-soluble so locate in brain lipids like nerve sheaths, cell membranes and organelles.

C is water-soluble so distributes everywhere else in the extra- and intracellular fluids.

Read a recent Berry Doctor summary on vitamin C!

 

4. Omega-3 fats are EPA and DHA which are critical to the structure of brain and nerve cell membranes.

Read an article on omega-3 fats from the

Harvard School of Public Health

 

5. Prebiotic ("fermentable") dietary fiber helps the brain by reducing the deposits on inside surfaces of brain arteries caused by circulating cholesterol whose blood levels are decreased by diets rich in prebiotic fiber.

 

Where do we get them?

 

Whole plant foods are best: fresh, dried, frozen, canned and some fortified juices and other beverages like soy milk.

 

Vitamin A: colors of orange, yellow or red, such as squash, pumpkin, navel orange, grapefruit, mango, carrot, sweet potato, tomato, to name a few

 

Vitamin C: all brightly colored plant foods including berries, navel orange and orange juice, red bell pepper, kiwifruit, broccoli

 

Read an article on recommended vitamin C intake

from the Linus Pauling Institute

 

Vitamin E: nuts, seeds, salad oils with soy, olive, or canola

 

Omega-3 fats: salmon oil capsules or fresh/canned salmon, trout, mackerel

 

Prebiotic fiber: baked beans, prunes, whole oat and barley products, like oatmeal, cold whole grain cereals and fiber supplements containing psyllium, inulin or wheat dextrin

 

Read an article on plant food content

for your diet from

the Harvard School of Public Health, click!