If you want to be at your very best when you arrive at your office desk every morning, you need to pay attention to what your body wants. By feeding your body the vitamins and minerals it requires, you’re feeding your brain, and when you feed your brain, magical things happen!
Our bodies require certain vitamins and minerals for overall health and wellbeing, aside from the major food macros that we require for functions, such as carbohydrates, fats, sugars, calories, etc. The vitamins and minerals for brain health are often not as well as known as the major macro groups, but they’re just as vital to overall health and wellbeing. It doesn’t matter how comfortable your boardroom leather chairs are, if you’re not feeding your brain what it needs, you’re not going to come up with any creative ideas!
It’s a good idea to become healthy food savvy, and that means you can make better choices when it comes to meal and snacking. For instance, keeping a few healthy worktime snacks in the drawers of your office tables will help you stay on track throughout the day, without experiencing sugar highs and lows.
To give you the very best in brain power, make sure you’re packing your diet with the following vitamins and minerals.
Vitamin B
Vitamin B 12, B6, B3 and B9 are particularly useful for boosting brain health, and they help to strengthen the neurotransmitters within your grey matter, e.g. communicating and transferring information from place to place. Chow down on foods such as fish, eggs, and meat to get a full spectrum of B vitamins.
Choline
Choline is a type of B vitamin, and is also fantastic for your overall brain health, memory and also for learning new tasks, ideal for when you’re at a work-related training course. Many people who go on to develop Alzheimers have a deficiency in a type of choline, called acetylcholine. Whilst this is mostly produced by the liver, you can also boost it with your diet, including wheatgerm, peanuts, almond, quinoa, fish, types of organ meat, and shiitake mushrooms.
Magnesium
Magnesium is a vital vitamin to support mental health, and can be found in many different types of fruits and vegetables. Magnesium helps to support transmission between nerves, but also hydrates the brain and helps to boost concentration and focus.
Zinc
Another mineral you need to add into your diet is zinc. You can find plentiful zinc from meat, shellfish, legumes, seeds, nuts, eggs, wholegrain and dairy, making it quite easy to add to your regular diet. Zinc helps to boost brain metabolism, and therefore increases health and power of concentration.
Omega 3 Fatty Acids
You will certainly heard about omega 3 fatty acids, which usually come from oily and fatty types of fish, such as mackerel, salmon, etc. Many people use fish oil or krill oil supplements to get their daily amount of omega 3, especially if they’re not the biggest fish lovers, but natural is always the best way to go. By chowing down on plentiful omega 3s, you’ll strengthen your brain function and improve memory.
Making sure you get enough regular vitamins and minerals in your diet will ensure your overall health and wellbeing, but you also need to get plenty of exercise too. Did you know that walking for just 10 minutes can be enough to boost your concentration and focus? It’s true! When you return to that comfortable executive office chair you’ll be like a new employee!
Focus is obviously about more than just your diet, but by looking after your body and your mind you’re giving yourself the very best foundation on which to build. Ensuring that your workspace is comfortable and supportive, with quality office furniture choices, is also a vital part of the puzzle. When the pieces of the jigsaw all come together, you’ll be firing on all brain cylinders!