Vegetables: Your Neurological Hero! We all know vegetables are important.

It’s drilled into us from childhood: “Eat your veggies or there’ll be no dessert”. Or in my case, “Finish your greens or no staying up to watch Better Homes and Gardens”. Anyone else? No? While we may not drool over the thought of kale or steamed carrots, we know they’re good for us, so we do our best. After all, everybody wants to avoid getting sick, have good skin, and keep ourselves regular. But what you may not know is how vegetables can actually affect your brain and may help aid neurological disorders.

Let’s start from the start:

Neurology relates to the function of the nervous system, which includes your brain, spinal cord, nerves, and muscles. It’s like our own personal electrical wiring. So whether you’re a millennial or a boomer, we all want to be taking good care of our nervous systems in order for our brains and bodies to function properly and effectively. Neurological disorders can include Alzheimer’s disease and dementia, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, and migraines, to name a few. The good news is that most of these are developed rather than inherited, which means that there are things we can do to prevent them. The even better news is that there are also ways of improving such disorders once you have been diagnosed. Ready to spark up those wires? 

Vegetables are your heroes!

They are certainly viewed this way in all the research, and we mean all the research. The Mediterranean diet is one that you’ll see in almost any study about nutrition because it is so heavily plant-based and pretty much devoid of yucky fats, refined sugars, and processed food. Eating one serve of leafy greens like spinach, lettuce, broccoli, kale, cabbage, bok choy, etc. each day has shown to improve brain function and slow down its decline as we get older. Diets high in vegetables and vegetable fats have also been used to aid epilepsy and prevent stroke and improve symptoms of multiple sclerosis and… well, I could go on. I know it might sound a bit ‘sciencey’, but all you need to remember is: veggies are your heroes, especially for those of us living with neurological disorders.

Lettuce wrap this up (heh)

At Nourish'd we love a Greek Briami or Corned Beef and 3 Veg, and now that we know this kind of food can reduce risk and rates of Alzheimer’s disease, dementia, stroke, and cognitive impairment… let’s just say it’s a dangerous time to be a vegetable, cause we are coming for ‘em. How about you?

Read more about one of our other super-veggie faves in Sweet Potato - Why It's Just So Damn Good For You!