Hi All,
I just read an article about natural brain fog cures that I wanted to share with you. I read through it and think that this guy, Dr Axe, really seems to know what he’s talking about. I like his holistic approach and the way he links together a lot of wisdom that I’ve seen written elsewhere.
Happy reading -> Brain Fog Article by Dr Axe
Paul
Hi readers,
It’s now been 5 years since my brain fog began, and a little over 2 years since I began my road to recovery. I am now healthy and only suffer mild fog symptoms some mornings, but these are gone by about 8am.
The key to my recovery was the discovery that poor digestion was the cause of my fogginess, or my “spaghetti head”, as I like to call it. The challenge for me was that even after I’d learned that good digestion was critical to my recovery, I had to identify what worked for me and what didn’t. As I’ve discussed in my other posts, meat and dairy were the main causes of my poor digestion and resulting fogginess. But greatly reducing my intake of these food groups still didn’t leave me with perfect clarity each day. Getting 7.5-8 hours of sleep helps me, as well as going to bed and waking at a fairly consistent time (asleep at 10:30, awake at 6:10 is my usual routine). After all this time, I’m still not sure how much exercise really helps in reducing brain fog. However, exercise helps relieve any anxiety that may otherwise arise. Having said that, I still exercise 2-3 times a week because the health benefits and stress relief are virtually indisputable.
Even though I’ve changed my diet to become (very close to) vegan, there are still a few foods that disagree with me and even upon careful scanning of the ingredients, I cannot for the life of me figure out why they are causing me issues; one is pasta, even the buckwheat-based ones; the other is pizza bases. Does anyone have any idea as to why these would be a problem? It’s not gluten as I eat bread every day with no problems.
I have recently discovered a supplement which helps my digestion which I wanted to share with you. I have started taking a digestive aid and have noticed that my morning fog has improved even more. I have tried two different brands of digestive aid (Eagle Vegie Digestaid and Blackmores Digestive Aid), both are vegan-friendly. Although they both help relieve fog symptoms, I have found the Eagle product to be more effective. I take two tablets of the Vegie Digestaid with my dinner, and one with my breakfast each day.
I hope that anyone suffering from brain fog might find this post useful. If you’d like to add anything from your own experience, or would like more details about mine, feel free to post a comment (I’d love to get my first one!!!) or send me an email at spaghettiheadmaster@gmail.com.
All the best,
Paul
It’s been three years since I first discovered that my brain fog was being triggered by eating meat and dairy. From that point on, I eliminated dairy from my diet completely and began to reduce my meat consumption. It took me another year or so to realise that I felt much better when I completely eliminated meat from my diet. So I’ve been effectively vegan for the past two years and you’re probably wondering what do I actually eat each day to fill up and stay healthy. Well, here’s a run down:
Breakfast
Every morning I eat home-made muesli, made from as many of the following ingredients as I can muster:
I buy all the ingredients in bulk from the internet (from Sydney-based Honest to Goodness) and mix them once a month in a large Tupperware container. I add unsweetened almond and coconut milk or just almond milk and some honey. I’ll admit that it gets a bit boring sometimes so now I usually add some of my favourite “normal” cereals such as Special K or Weet-Bix.
I also make “green drinks” every morning in my Nutri Bullet. I try to use two types of greens, usually kale, silverbeet/chard and/or celery. In addition to these greens, I add 3-4 types of fruit, usually banana, apple, pear, orange, grapefruit, kiwi fruit, strawberries, blueberries, watermelon, papaya and/or paw paw. From what I’ve read, it’s pretty important to eat leafy dark green vegetables to maintain good calcium intake.
The final thing I eat each morning is some natural peanut butter (ie. just peanuts) and jam on dark rye bread. I don’t think this is quite as healthy as the muesli and green drink but it doesn’t cause me any problems and it’s yum (so bite me)!
Morning Snacks
When I first cut out meat and dairy, I found it very difficult to fill up at first but if you stock your pantry with the right ingredients, it’s not too hard. Here are the things I usually snack on at home or in the office:
Lunch
When I’m at home, I normally make a massive salad and try to keep in mind the guiding principle of “all the colours of the rainbow”. Here are my “go to” salad ingredients:
Do you know that tired feeling you get after you eat something like pasta or pizza for lunch? I guarantee you that you won’t feel any of that after eating a salad made from some or most of these ingredients. I’m not going to say you will feel amazing, you won’t, but you will feel pretty much the same as you did before you had lunch, just fuller.
I’m pretty busy with full-time work and a young family, so I don’t have time to make this salad every day, although when I make it, I always make enough for lunch the next day as well. But when I’m at work, I buy my lunch each day, and the following meals make up my repertoire:
After lunch I always have a couple of pieces of Lindt 70% dark chocolate, my refined sugar hit for the day. My afternoon snacks are pretty much the same as my morning snacks mentioned above, although I usually have some Ryvitas with humus instead of vegetable sticks. I generally also have some fruit, normally a banana or apple.
Dinner
Dinner is often not as well planned out as my other meals but I still have a list of “regulars” which make being vegan easier. I find that if you have to think too much about what you’re going to have for dinner, you either get a bit deflated by the limitations of being a time-poor vegan or you just start getting really hungry! So here are my regulars, which I usually have with a simple salad of mixed lettuce leaves, tomato, cucumber, avocado and spanish/red onion with olive oil:
Dessert
I guess I don’t get all that excited by dessert any more, although you can buy or make some pretty tasty vegan treats. I usually just have a little bit of chopped fruit.
In terms of keeping brain fog away, I have found that I feel better the next day if I don’t overeat at dinner time. In fact, the earlier I eat the better, as it gives my digestive system more time to process the food before morning. And, as I’ve mentioned in another post, the mornings are always the worst in terms of feeling foggy.
Let me know if you’d like any more detail about my diet. I’d also love to hear from anyone who has any easy-to-make suggestions to add to mine.
Happy (and healthy) eating!
PK
The Fog Blog 