The importance of healthy fats for brain health is certain. You might be surprised to find out that fats are absolutely essential for your brain function. Cognition, Memory, Neuroprotection, Focus, Alertness, you name it. Ready to optimize your brain performance?

One important question is which fats are good for your brain. Besides the best dietary sources of healthy fats, omega 3 vs. omega 6 ratio, you’ll also find some important brain-supportive nutrients, the role of cholesterol in hormone secretion, and how healthy fats aid in neuroprotection.

The Fatty Structure of The Brain

It is no secret that the brain is a vital organ. It is the extremely complex organ which controls most functions in our body. From temperature regulation, mood and neurotransmitter secretion, thinking, memory, focus, movement, up to the speed at which your heart pumps out blood.

Your brain is the fattiest organ in your body, made up of around 60% fat. In terms of weight, water makes up more than two-thirds, while brain lipids only make for 10-12% of total brain weight.

For optimal brain function, many components of the brain and different neural cells need to work in sync. Your brain (and nervous system) contains neurons, astrocytes, glia, oligodendrocytes, and microglia.

This is where healthy fats come into play. Since they make up a large portion of the brain, they’ll affect the way the brain functions and ages. Optimally, most people would benefit from consuming more omega 3 rich foods, considered brain-supportive healthy fats.

Sugar vs. Fats for Brain Fuel

Both glucose and fats can provide fuel for the brain. The brain can utilize glucose or ketones for energy, but the energy is different. Glucose is the main source of energy for the brain. In sugar-starvation mode, the brain can function on ketones, which occurs with keto diet or intermittent fasting. (1)

To say that glucose isn’t important, and we can live completely off of fats, is simply not true. Even if you don’t eat carbs, the liver will break down protein (amino acids) to create glucose, and support some parts of your brain, through a process called gluconeogenesis.

That being said, what difference does it make whether we primarily fuel our brains on glucose or ketones?

As posted in Scientific American, Ketones offer more efficient fuel for the brain, per unit of oxygen, than glucose. It creates less oxidative stress. Ketones can also improve the function of your mitochondria, which means even more energy. (2)

• Ketogenic diets have also been shown to increase the activity of glutathione peroxidase, which fights against oxidative stress. (3)
• Keto-eaters have also stated feeling positive effects of ketones, in terms of brain function. The one that stands out is alertness improvement and reduction in energy crashes.

We can’t neglect the importance of glucose, too. Eating carbohydrates will provide your brain with energy, support its functions, improve short-term memory, attention span, and performance. (4)

Simple Sugar and Brain Performance

Just as fueling your brain with bad sugar, you can have even more detrimental effects fueling you’re brain with unhealthy fats. Trans fats in processed meat, candies, frozen pizza, French fries, doughnuts, sausage, ham, bacon,.. can do even more damage.

With healthy fats fueled brain, benefits range from reducing inflammation, improving alertness, sustainable energy, up to improved learning + neuroprotection.

With a glucose-fueled brain, we can be faster, sharper, have better short-term memory, get a quick mood boost, etc. Too many simple sugars will cause energy crash, asking for a refill. This is why you’d want more complex carbohydrates, that give you the energy that lasts.

The Importance of Fats for Brain Health

Healthy fats are essential for maintaining the integrity of the brain. They also provide support for the maintenance, regeneration, and development of the complex nervous system structure including all its cells, mediators, neurotransmitters, hormones, etc.

Your brain needs (and is made up) of both saturated and unsaturated fats. Lipids are important to create a balance between the fluidity and structural integrity of the brain.

Fats are therefore involved in supporting many brain functions. Here’s a quick list:

• Fats are a source of fuel (energy) for your brain, although glucose is important too.
• Unsaturated fats can reduce inflammation and aid in neuroprotection
• Fats are essential for the creation of hormones like Testosterone, Estrogen, and Progesterone
• Fats provide the structure for your brain (and nervous system), they are essentially building blocks for the brain.
• Fats are crucial for Cholesterol synthesis, an important precursor for sex hormones, bile acid, and Vitamin D.
• Fats are essential for the secretion of neurotransmitters, chemical messengers involved in neural signaling. (dopamine, GABA, glutamate…)
• Brain-fueled on fats may be more alert, less reactive, have better memory, and have fewer energy crashes or sleepiness.
• Fats are very important in mediating processes involved in learning, brain adaptation (neuroplasticity), and memory.

Fats, Cholesterol and Hormone Creation

Fats play a major role in the creation of hormones, temperature regulation, cholesterol synthesis, cellular integrity, energy fuel, and many others. Increasing the uptake of healthy fats can not only reduce inflammation but is tightly related to Cholesterol, which is very important for your brain.

Cholesterol is a lipoprotein, which means a combo of protein + lipid (fat). Although we get cholesterol through food, we can also synthesize it in the liver. It is found floating in the blood and as part of the cellular membranes. It is very important for hormones production, fluid regulation, skin health, and neural integrity.

Cholesterol plays many roles in the body, but essentially these are the 5 main functions: (5)

What we eat affects our cholesterol levels. But contrary to popular beliefs, cholesterol is essential for our body and supports many of its functions. It’s not the enemy. While increasing cholesterol consumption can raise your cholesterol levels in the blood, the body itself still synthesizes the majority of it.

But there is a difference between eating an avocado, flax seeds, or salmon for that matter, compared to a strip of bacon, doughnuts, or sausages. Not all cholesterol is made equal, hence why we’ll discuss LDL vs. HDL cholesterol briefly.

LDL vs. HDL Cholesterol

I don’t have to tell you LDL is known as “the bad cholesterol” while HDL is “the good cholesterol”, you already knew. But what’s the difference? Lipoproteins have a ratio of lipids to proteins. The denser the cholesterol, the more protein (and less fat) there is. This is why HDL is the High-Density Lipoprotein because it has more protein. This is a good thing because too much fat can accumulate and cause plaque (problems) and inflammation.

The function of lipoproteins (LDL, HDL) is to transport cholesterol, triglycerides, phospholipids (basic fats) from the liver to peripheral tissues. (6) (7)

HDL, LDL, VLDL, IDL Cholesterol

This being said, to live longer and have a better functioning brain, you’d want to improve cholesterol ratio, meaning increase HDL and reduce LDL cholesterol.

Which foods can do this? We’ll look at saturated vs. unsaturated fats, to debunk some myths, and also bring up the importance of consuming olive oil, avocado and flax seeds, instead of doughnuts and bacon strips, sorry.

Saturated vs. Unsaturated Fats for Brain

Although saturated fats have been demonized in the past, they’re essential. A good nutritious diet needs to have monounsaturated, polyunsaturated and some saturated fat too. The enemy you want to avoid is trans fat.

There are many fatty foods full of healthy fats, which contain saturated fats. Grass-fed beef, red meat, whole-dairy, raw milk and hard cheese, grass-fed butter, coconut oil are just a few examples. Even avocados and eggs have saturated fat, tell me that’s unhealthy.

Indeed, you’d not want to overdo your saturated fats. Focus more on unsaturated fats to protect against inflammation and oxidative stress.

The American Heart Association recommends aiming for 5-6% of calories from saturated fat. (8)

Many experts believe if you get your saturated fats from healthy sources *foods above, going above the 5% mark can be healthy and beneficial. Of course, there will be no place for pastries, cakes, cookies, and red processed meats.

Science supports the potential benefit of omega 3 fatty acids, for improving cardiovascular health, reducing inflammation, reducing high blood pressure and cholesterol. (9) (10)

DHA and EPA, also omega 3’s have shown beneficial for immunity, development, reducing inflammation, cardiovascular health, etc. They are considered potent antioxidants, and omega 3’s are essential fatty acids. (11)

Trans Fats – Unstable Fats

Now for the enemy. Trans fats – unstable fats. This means they oxidize quickly and become toxic. This increases inflammation and oxidative stress in the body. It is detrimental to your heart health, brain health, metabolism, and many physiological functions. It accelerates aging, causes DNA damage, increases LDL and lowers LDL cholesterol, etc. (12) (13) (14)

The trans-fat foods you want to stay away from are: French fries, margarine, baked or frozen goods like pizza, cookies, pies, microwave popcorn, processed and dried red meat (salami, hot dog, bacon, sausage), doughnuts, deep-fried foods, mozzarella sticks,… you get the point. (15) (16)

Brain Aging, Neurodegeneration, and Neuroprotection

As we age, our brain does too. Oxidative stress and chronic inflammation in the brain accelerate neurodegeneration. This translates to poor brain performance, which over time develops into Dementia, Alzheimer’s, and other neurodegenerative diseases.

Healthy fats, especially omega 3’s which we can get from food, seem to play an important role in brain function, but also provide potential neuroprotection.

Increasing dietary fats, especially omega 3’s can potentially improve brain function. Combined with exercise and antioxidants, research shows healthy fats (dietary) can help with the maintenance of physiological conditions, even during metabolic stress. (17)

Research has shown that in some preclinical models, DHA which is an important omega 3 FA was shown to: (18)

• increase Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), which plays important role in maintaining brain integrity, and neuron growth, and differentiation maturation.
• act as a potent antioxidant, and reduce brain inflammation
• have neuroprotective and anti-apoptotic effects
• improve blood flow, circulation in the brain, which means more oxygen and energy, less plaque.

EPA/DHA, Caloric Restriction and Exogenous Ketones

Caloric restriction has also shown potential effects in neuroprotection and brain aging, as it stimulates autophagy. This helps with the removal of dysfunctional brain cells and accumulated plaque in the brain. Partially, high fat low-carb diet is a type of sugar-fasting.

• Some of the reasoning behind incorporating more healthy fats into one’s diet to save or preserve the brain is their anti-inflammatory properties. Reduced risk of Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease is associated with a higher intake of omega 3 FA’s. (19)
• EPA, DHA, and DPA have an important role in brain function. Research shows that EPA and DHA deficit is linked to neurodegenerative diseases. (20)
• Although more research is needed for individual roles of all three fatty acids, so far, it’s quite obvious that EPA and DHA have beneficial effects on the brain.
• Adding exogenous ketones, which enhances our ability to shift in ketosis faster, has also shown potential benefits for neurodegeneration. (21)

Alertness, Mental Clarity and Focus

The brain runs both on glucose and fats. Glucose is used as a primary source, when there isn’t enough, the brain uses ketones. This is the keto-fueled brain. Some say keto may improve brain health and function, and in some aspects, this is true.

As seen in eMetabolic, most people state that the keto diet or high-fat low-carb eating improves mental clarity, energy, focus, and alertness. (22) But is this true?

Ketone Fuel, Mitochondria and Cutting Sugar

Ketones will be more energy efficient as a source of fuel for the brain, compared to sugar. Simply put, per unit of oxygen we get more energy by burning ketones. Seems logical since 1g fat equals 9 kcal, and 1g carbohydrates equals 4 kcal.

A Keto diet is known to improve mitochondrial function in the brain. If you didn’t know, these are your “energy power cells” where energy is produced. It seems that using ketones supports brain metabolism and helps improve cognitive function, such as memory. (23)

Now it’s important to note, that some of these benefits will come with cutting sugar all along. You don’t necessarily have to be in ketosis for all the benefits. Fasting from processed sugar, and increasing your healthy fats intake, maybe in a less restrictive diet like LCHF or Paleo, can still come with some potential effects.

Why? Because excessive sugar consumption causes metabolic issues in the brain, and increases oxidative stress and inflammation which increases the risk of Dementia and other neurodegenerative diseases. (24) (25)

MCT, Keto vs. Glucose Brains and Memory

Keto diet, specifically MCT or medium-chain triglycerides (which help us get into ketosis faster) has been shown beneficial in diabetic patients for cognitive performance. (26)

• In people with mild cognitive impairment, the keto diet enhanced cognitive function, partially due to improved energy metabolism (fuel) and its anti-inflammatory properties. (27)
• When glucose metabolism is dysfunctional, brain performance and energy will be reduced. Shifting towards ketones in such cases, had positive effects on inflammation, oxidative status, and energy. (28)

Keto-fueled brains aren’t superior to Glucose-fueled brains, they just may be better at different things. While the brain that runs on glucose may be faster, sharper, have better short-term memory, and perform better under stress, the keto-fueled brain has higher energy stability and efficiency, improved learning and alertness, and less inflammation.

Keto-fueled brains are better at removing excess glutamate, and converting it to glutamine. Glutamate is an excitatory neurotransmitter; it hinders GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter. If so, the keto brain can fight stress, prevent hyperexcitation and improve focus. (29)

In terms of memory, in people with mild cognitive impairment ketosis improved verbal memory performance, plus there was a correlation between higher ketone levels and memory performance. (30)

Nutrients for Brain Health

Many nutrients can support brain function, improve blood flow and reduce inflammation. These are some of our favorite brain-supporting nutrients found in fatty foods.

Conclusion

• Healthy fats are crucial for optimal brain health and function. They maintain the structural integrity of the brain, are involved in cell signaling, reduce inflammation, improve blood flow and help with neurotransmitter release.
• While trans fats like processed sugars and meats are detrimental to you, some saturated fats (grass-fed beef and butter, raw milk, coconut oil, salmon) are good for you and support your brain health.
• The absolute winner that has shown neuroprotective and cognitive-enhancing effects are unsaturated, omega 3 fatty acids (EPA, DHA, ALA).
• Eat your avocados, olive oil, flaxseeds, grass-fed beef, chicken, walnuts, eggs, and most importantly, seafood (salmon, crab, herring, mackerel).