Brain Health Starts Here: Your Hungry Brain and the Nutrients it Needs

Did you know that your brain is an energy and nutrient hog? It makes up just 2% of your body weight but it burns through 20% of your daily energy and requires a constant supply of nutrients. That's an enormous nutritional demand, and most just don't know whether we're actually meeting it.

Vitamins, minerals, protein, fats and carbohydrates aren't just healthy eating catchwords. They're the literal building blocks and fuel your brain runs on and are crucial at every step of brain building and function. Without the right nutrients, nerve growth and maintenance slow down, neurotransmitter production and nerve signalling may be hampered, and oxidative stress and inflammation can creep in. All of this can show up as problems with mood, fatigue, or cognitive function.

What exactly does it take for your brain function well?

Energy Production

Energy is required for all body processes, especially for your brain to function. And remember that your brain alone claims 20% of that energy. All of this energy is created in the mitochondria, the energy factories inside most cells in your body. Energy production in the brain requires glucose, oxygen and a long list of vitamins and minerals. Not having enough of any of these can slow down the whole process.

But that's not all. You've likely heard about foods high in antioxidants such as blueberries, being good for you. Using oxygen for energy creates free radicals, also known as "oxidants" or "reactive oxygen species," which can damage cells. So we also need nutrients that act directly as antioxidants, or as building blocks for the powerful antioxidants our bodies make on their own, such as glutathione and superoxide dismutase.

Required Nutrients:

Vitamins: B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, biotin, folate, B12, C, D, E
Minerals: calcium, copper, iodine, iron, magnesium, manganese phosphorus, selenium, zinc
Other nutrients: glucose, oxygen, polyphenols from plants

Oxygen transport

Oxygen is used for energy production by mitochondria. A number of nutrients are needed to get oxygen from our lungs into red blood cells and then into the mitochondria inside brain cells, where it's actually put to use. Not enough of these nutrients results in anemia, meaning not enough energy for the brain to function properly.

Iron gets the most attention when it comes to anemia, but did you know that adequate copper is needed for your body to use iron effectively? And many people take zinc supplements for immunity without realizing that long-term use can cause a copper deficiency.

Required Nutrients:

Vitamins: B6, folate, B12
Minerals: copper, iron

Brain structure

This is where things get architectural. Multiple nutrients are critical for the structure of brain cells, including the synapses - the connection points where brain cells communicate.

Vitamins and minerals are needed for:

Growth, structure and differentiation of neurons
Production of myelin, the protective, fatty substance that wraps around nerve cells and speeds up nerve signals
Synthesis of glial cells, which support neurons
Protecting neurons from oxidative damage

Required Nutrients:

Vitamins: A, B1, B5, folate, C, D, E
Minerals: copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, selenium, zinc
Other nutrients: omega-3 fatty acids, protein, polyphenols from plant foods

What about neurotransmitters?

Neurotransmitters are the chemical messengers that carry signals from one nerve cell to another, or to muscles and glands. Producing them requires vitamins that act as building blocks or enzyme helpers in the synthesis of serotonin, dopamine, acetylcholine, glutamate and GABA. This is also where protein shines. Neurotransmitter production depends on amino acids, which come directly from the protein in the food you eat.

Required Nutrients:

Vitamins: B1, B5, B6, B12, folate, C, D
Minerals: copper, iron, zinc
Other nutrients: choline, amino acids (tryptophan, methionine, and tyrosine or its precursor phenylalanine)

Sending nerve signals

Now we have nerves (the structure) and neurotransmitters (the messengers) — but we still need to actually move those messages along the "highways" of our nerve cells, a process called neurotransmission. Unsurprisingly, this takes still more nutrients.

Required Nutrients:

Vitamins: B3, B5
Minerals: calcium, iron, magnesium, selenium, zinc

B vitamin names vs. numbers: B1 (thiamine), B2 (riboflavin), B3 (niacin), B5 (pantothenic acid), B6 (pyridoxine), B7 (biotin), B9 (folate), B12 (cobalamin)

That's a lot of nutrients, all working together!!

Your brain needs a consistent supply of many nutrients, not just one or two.

But are people with depression, anxiety or cognitive decline actually not getting enough of these nutrients?

Often the answer is YES, and it's more common than most people expect. In my practice, I see this pattern all the time: bloodwork comes back "within normal range," but the brain still isn't getting what it needs to function well. If that sounds familiar, that's exactly the kind of gap a nutrition assessment is built to find.

Learn more about how I work with adults with depression and anxiety here and for healthy brain aging here.

I'll dig into the specific research on nutrient deficiencies in depression and anxiety in the next post — subscribe to my newsletter below to be notified when it is published.

Sources and further reading: