(From Hy-Vee Health and Wellness)

The brain needs plentiful nutrients to function at its best. Good brain health includes the ability to concentrate, learn, and remember. Happily, heart-healthy foods are brain-healthy foods, as well.

Proteins found in fish, meat, soybeans, nuts, and dairy foods nourish concentration. The Omega-3 fats touted for a healthy heart serve similar purposes in the brain. Good blood circulation through healthy blood vessels supports optimal brain activity. Omega-3s are found in fatty fish (salmon, lake trout, tuna, sardines) as well as in walnuts and flax seed. It’s easy to add a tablespoon or so of flax seed to hot cereal, to batter for pancakes, waffles, and muffins, and even to hearty soups and pasta dishes.

Whole-grain varieties of food, including cereals, breads, pastas, and brown rice, provide a stable supply of brain fuel in the form of glucose. Refined grain sources such as white flour, white bread, white rice, and highly processed and sweetened cereals cause spikes in blood glucose rather than the steady stream the brain requires to operate best. Other good sources of glucose-rich complex carbohydrates are beans and other legumes.

To enable the brain to use glucose, it needs iron, which is also vital for bringing oxygen to the brain. Iron is most readily available from lean beef and lamb, but it is also found in spinach, chard, and other leafy, dark green vegetables. Vitamin C helps improve the absorption of iron, so a salad of spinach, oranges, and walnuts is a brain-healthy lunch.

Source: http://www.hy-vee.com/health/healthybites_article.asp?artID=1707