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Topics: Food and Drink, Health, News, Social Media, Science
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Food and Drink, Health, News, Social Media, Science
There's a perfect combination people need to be incorporating into their diets in a bid to improve brain health and ward off dementia.
By the perfect combination, I don't mean ham and pineapple on pizza (a controversial choosing, I know) but two already healthy items that together create a 'brain protection powerhouse'.
While it's not regarding pizza toppings, you will be pleased to know that the two snacks in question do actually go well together and you don't have to start eating olives and strawberries together to keep your brain cells robust.
Revealing all is Dr Karan Rajan, a social media star who has garnered 1.8 million Instagram followers and 5.4 million TikTok followers for his health tips.
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One piece of advice he's given is about the food you should be eating to help prevent getting colon cancer — that food being kiwi.
"Kiwi is particularly rich in soluble fiber, which promotes softer stool and increases stool frequency without the associated side effects of some laxatives," he previously said of the fruit.
Now, Dr Karan has shared that to keep our brains happy and healthy, we should be eating blueberries and walnuts together, two items that have long been associated with a happy and healthy brain.
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"If you snack on blueberries and walnuts together, then the polyphenols from the blueberries combine with the omega-3s of the walnuts to become a brain protection powerhouse," the TikTok star said in video posted in April.
Blueberries are also said to help fight off toxins in the body as the tiny berries are 'loaded with flavonoids that support cellular repair'.
Backing Dr Karan's claims about walnuts and blueberries aiding our brains in particular, a 2020 Harvard University study found that blueberries (as well as apples and tea) were linked to lower dementia risk.
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Elsewhere, research from 2014 published in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease that daily consumption of walnuts 'helped to protect mice against behavioral and learning impairments common in animals that exhibit features of Alzheimer's disease', Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation reported at the time.
If you're not keen on blueberries, apparently, 50g of walnuts a day mixed into muesli and yoghurt also aids brain health. The recent study was conducted by researchers at The University of Reading.
Speaking on their findings, Professor Claire Williams, who led the research, said in February: "This study helps strengthen the case for walnuts as brain food. A handful of walnuts with breakfast could give young adults a mental edge when they need to perform at the top of their game. It's particularly exciting that such a simple dietary addition could make a measurable difference to cognitive performance."