Sublime

Eat dark chocolate. Compounds in dark chocolate (called polyphenols) have been shown to boost brain perfusion, or blood flow to the brain. As we learned with Genius Food #4, stick to 80% or higher for the cocoa content (ideally 85% or higher–this means less sugar), and make sure the chocolate has not been processed with alkali, which degrades antio

Our brains are massive oxygen consumers. Twenty-five percent of every breath you take is going directly to support the ravenous metabolic needs of your brain, and ensuring that your blood lipids are healthy is one way of keeping your cognitive power supply free of interruption. Thankfully, there are some other ways of increasing healthy blood flow

when your prefrontal cortex starts to shut down, if you’ve ever had a potato chip, if you’ve ever had sugary cereal, if you’ve ever had ice cream, your brain knows that it can find a quick source of glucose in those things and shuttle it back to where it is needed.

Eliminate or reduce grains, sugar, and starch. Allowing your brain to run on fat, or more specifically ketones, may increase blood flow to the brain by as much as 39 percent.14 More on this in the next chapter.

In the case of the brain, consuming cocoa has been shown to improve circulation for two to three hours after consumption. This makes having a Phil’s Bar or other cocoa snack a valuable asset before an important meeting, a long drive, or for students taking tests. But this idea can backfire if eating a high glycemic product, which can impair brain f