7 minute read
Brain fi t
How to STAY SHARP
WE ALL WANT TO REDUCE OUR CHANCES OF LOSING OUR MEMORY AS WE AGE. THE SECRET LIES IN KEEPING OUR BRAINS HEALTHY
Dementia is the leading cause of death among Australian women and while there’s no guarantee that a healthy lifestyle will prevent its development or progression, it can defi nitely reduce the risk.
Dementia Australia chief executive Maree McCabe says some people follow a healthy lifestyle and still develop the disease, with more than 487,000 Australians living with dementia and 1.6 million people involved in their care.
“But we think that if they hadn’t followed those (healthy lifestyle) principles, they might have developed it earlier,” Maree says.
The message behind Dementia Australia’s Eat.Play. Rest campaign is to eat well, play often and rest regularly for a brain healthy lifestyle.
Maree explains rest is diff erent to sleep. “We need to remind people to rest, which is about taking time out to read a book, put your feet up for 15 minutes, meditate or go to a movie, so you come away feeling re-energised.”
Post-doctoral research fellow at Deakin University’s Food & Mood Centre Dr Nikolaj Travica says the Mediterranean diet is helpful in alleviating cognitive decline, depression, anxiety and bipolar.
“Individual nutrients such as leafy greens, blueberries, fatty fi sh, green tea, olive oil, whole wheats and dark chocolate can potentially help to slow down the accumulation of neurological pathologies and the shrinkage of your brain that begins at roughly 30 years of age,” Dr Travica says.
— Flex Mami
PHOTO YASMIN SUTEJA
Flex Mami — Author, podcaster, infl uencer
What began as an attempt by Lillian “Flex Mami” Ahenkan to better understand her 158,000 Instagram followers turned into a great brain exercise.
“I came up with a little card game called ReFlex, which poses questions such as ‘What is the worst advice you’ve ever been given?’” the author of The Success Experiment says. “I just thought it was recreational, so it was interesting to learn that it was also a good brain exercise.”
ReFlex was highlighted by the Eat.Play.Rest initiative as a good way to challenge the brain as it asks questions that encourage analytical and critical thinking.
“I wanted people to think actively, not passively,” Flex says. “Active is challenging and being conscious. Passive is just about existing.”
She notes people assume you don’t have to work at maintaining brain health — but you do. “(It’s) about preventative health: making small, actionable changes every day,” she says, adding her game encourages people to think for themselves.
“I don’t want my audience to rely on me to form and bolster their opinions, co-opting what I think without understanding it, because that’s a dangerous space,” she says. “To answer the game’s questions truthfully, you need to understand yourself and that takes reading and thinking, not just reading short form on your phone.”
— Jessica Nguyen
Jessica Nguyen — Cook, creator
Cooking used to be Jessica Nguyen’s favourite creative outlet. But when she was made redundant in 2020 from her beauty marketing job, cooking became her saviour. “Cooking used to be my way to decompress but now it’s my job,” Jessica says.
“I started sharing recipes on my
Instagram page … and then running cooking classes, hosting events and tablescaping (dressing tables).
I realised I needed a fun, creative outlet other than food.” Creativity has always been the greatest way she can exercise her brain, challenging her to come up with new ideas and projects.
Sometimes, just travelling to a totally diff erent part of the city, eating in a new cafe and working in a diff erent environment is all she needs to feel more mentally sharp.
“It makes me feel invigorated when I’m not on auto-pilot, working from my home every day,” she says.
“I get re-energised and refreshed.”
Her latest project is DIY around her house. “It allows me to switch off but still use my brain in a productive capacity,” she says. “I still get a fun, successful outcome, which is also why I love cooking. I’m seeing that with interiors, too, where I’m trying to channel my creativity into doing up my home. I didn’t even realise I was so creative until I came full circle by stopping the analytical work and coming up with new projects.”
Conor Curran — Chef He may be best known for his ice cream and cocktails, but Conor Curran’s Greek heritage is at the heart of his daily food choices.
“People think we eat a lot of lamb, beef, souvlaki but it’s not what we eat,” the MasterChef Australia 2021 contestant says. “We eat a lot of fatty fish, leafy greens and we dress our food with heaps of lemon juice. I always have a (salsa) verde (green sauce) in the fridge for a flavour bomb and, honestly, lemon is everything to me.”
He counts his Greek salad as the perfect food and eats it at least three times a week, though he realises few people see him eating that on his popular Instagram page. “I have to be focused every day, so my brain needs to be well fed and prepared,” he says.
Conor’s
TOP BRAIN FOODS AND HOW TO MAKE THEM EXTRA TASTY
OLIVE OIL This golden liquid is my go-to fat of choice and having a drizzle of it on most foods will not only elevate it but be good for you at the same time.
FATTY FISH I’m not a huge protein eater but when I do (eat it), it’s usually sustainably caught fi sh pan-fried with broccolini.
LEAFY GREENS I like to blanch and char them before hitting them with olive oil, fresh lemon, sea salt and fresh parsley.
EGGS Is the saying ‘if you have an egg you have a dish’? Well, it’s pretty much true. Eggs are the versatile queen of the kitchen. They feature a fair bit in Greek cooking but my favourite is avgolemono — a hearty winter lemon and egg soup served with poached chicken.
DARK CHOCOLATE As a long-black drinker, dark chocolate is my second favourite vice in the bitter category. I’m not really a snacker, so I’ll eat one piece of dark chocolate and be happy.
BRAIN-HEALTHY GREEK SALAD
• ½ red onion, thinly sliced • ¼ cup white vinegar • ½ lemon, juiced • 2 pinches sea salt • 1 Lebanese cucumber • 4 tomatoes • 20 Kalamata olives, pitted • 2 garlic cloves, minced • 3 cracks black pepper • Handful dill leaves • ¼ cup olive oil • 200g feta • 1 tbsp dried oregano
Start by making the dressing. Place the red onion, white vinegar, lemon juice and sea salt in a bowl. Mix together thoroughly to help break down and slightly pickle the onion and take away that raw onion heat.
Chop the cucumber and tomatoes and put pieces into a large salad bowl. Add the olives.
To finish your onion dressing, add in the garlic, black pepper, dill leaves and olive oil. Stir the dressing, pour it into the salad bowl and toss the salad.
Add the block of feta to the top of the salad and finish with a dusting of dried oregano.
For more brain-healthy food and lifestyle ideas visit eatplayrest.org.au
Alyce Tran — Brand strategist, entrepreneur
Not just busy with multiple tasks, Alyce Tran also has to be constantly bright, sociable and switched on.
It takes a lot of mental and physical energy to attend multiple events at night, generate marketing concepts for brands on LTK, where Alyce works as a part-time strategist, and manage her homewares brand, In the Roundhouse.
“For me, keeping fi t and healthy is very important,” Alyce says. “I don’t like feeling anything less than being in peak physical condition. I’m a very busy person. I do a lot of work, and staying fi t enables me to perform in the work I do.”
— Alyce Tran
