Your healthy brain checklist
Happy last day of April! Welcome back to One Day Better, where we explore small steps that can help make today just a little better than yesterday. This newsletter is free and reader supported so please share it with a friend! This week, I’m writing about:
A checklist for healthy brains
Protein, protein, protein!
Plan a vacation, live longer
More joy scrolling!
Your healthy brain checklist
Let's talk about brain health. Most of the time when we talk about healthy living we focus on things like weight and heart health. But there are real things you can do right now to protect your brain as you age.
An exciting and massive new research study published last week in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry offers a useful checklist of brain do's and don'ts. After analyzing the findings of 59 meta-analyses, the researchers identified 6 protective factors and 13 risk factors that can affect your risk of dementia, stroke and late-life depression. I’m going to share all of them but let’s start with the good stuff — the six simple things you can do right now to take care of your brain.
Brain workouts: Mental stimulation — like doing puzzles, reading and learning new skills — is like a workout for your brain.
Rainbow on your plate: Food really does affect your brain health. Think vegetables, fruits, fish, dairy and nuts. Pro tip: Go big on purple and blue fruits and vegetables. They are packed with anthocyanins, which give them their vibrant color and help improve blood flow to the brain and support neuron function. Blueberries, in particular, have been linked to better working memory and executive function in older adults.
Active lifestyle: Walking, gardening, swimming, running, taking the stairs, housework — it’s all movement, and it all counts. Bring movement into your daily activities and your brain will thank you.
Interact with others: Your brain likes company. Frequent social interactions are associated with healthy brain aging.
No to (more) alcohol: Less than one drink a day is best. Cutting back = better brain health. Bonus: You’ll save a lot of money!
Your “why” matters: Having a sense of purpose in life protects your brain. Think about these three questions for a fast way to connect to purpose: When do I feel most energized? What kind of impact do I want to have? What am I proud of at the end of the day?
Bonus brain quiz: Did you spot the acronym? I was looking for a way to help everyone remember this advice and came up with BRAINY which stands for Brain workouts, Rainbow on your plate, Active lifestyle, Interact with others, No to alcohol and know your Y or purpose. (BRAINY™ pending!)
There were also 13 brain risks on the “don't” list.
High blood pressure. This was the top risk factor.
High body mass index (BMI)
High blood sugar
High cholesterol
Depression
Unhealthy diet (high in red meat, sugary drinks, sweets, sodium)
Hearing loss
Kidney disease
Chronic pain (especially pain that limits activity)
Poor sleep
Smoking history
Loneliness or social isolation
Chronic stress or experiencing major stressful life events
Don’t fret if you check a few items on this list. Focus on getting treatment for chronic conditions, get your hearing checked, manage your stress and focus on the things you can control like the six BRAINY must-do’s listed above.
Key takeaways:
Physical activity and social connections are especially powerful brain protectors. So call up a friend and go walking or rock climbing, take a fitness class, a cooking class (cooking counts!), join a gardening club. Movement + Social is your best healthy brain strategy!
Mental stimulation also plays a major role — and is even better when done socially. Take a friend to a lecture, an escape room, trivia night (drink mocktails), a line dancing class etc. See a social pattern here?
It’s never too late to start working out your brain. Midlife is the best time to make changes, but improvements at any age can help.
More protein ponderings
Everyone’s talking about protein these days. The New York Times coined a new word — the “proteinification” of snacks. The Wall Street Journal notes that Americans are obsessed with protein. Axios wrote about the fact that the NYT and the WSJ are writing about protein, calling it "proteinification nation." So either I’m really late to this story — or the voice of reason you’ve been waiting for. You decide!
Here’s what I think you need to know about protein:
Know your protein servings: Most of us need about three servings of protein a day, and we’re probably getting enough. The key is knowing what a serving is. If you’re eating meat, chicken or fish, a portion is about the size of a deck of cards. (That’s not very big!) For cottage cheese or Greek yogurt, a protein serving would fill a coffee mug. A golf-ball sized blob of peanut butter, a cup of lentils or 3 eggs all count as a serving of protein.
Upgrade your protein: If your main source of protein is red meat — rethink that. Cut back a few servings a week and swap in alternate sources like fish, beans, edamame or Greek yogurt.
Mix and match vegetarian proteins: If you’re vegetarian or a mostly plant-based protein eater, variety is key. Most plant-based sources of protein (like beans, grains, nuts and vegetables) are incomplete proteins — they don’t contain all nine essential amino acids your body needs. When you combine different plant proteins — like rice + beans, hummus + whole grain pita or peanut butter + whole wheat bread — you create a complete protein with all the essential amino acids. You don’t need to eat them all in one meal, just within the same day. Your gut microbiome likes variety too, so win-win.
Eat more protein if you’re on a weight-loss journey: If you’re on a GLP-1 drug or another weight-loss plan, you can truly benefit by increasing your protein intake. When we diet, we tend to lose muscle, so combining extra protein with a few days of strength training each week is essential.
Shop smart for protein powders: Not everyone needs a protein powder supplement. But if you’re vegan, taking a weight-loss drug or a super-exerciser, a protein shake might be a good way to increase your protein intake. Look for whey, soy or hemp protein on the ingredient list and make sure the label says something like “full amino acid profile” or “complete protein.” This great advice is from my colleague Tess Bredesen, Cognitive Nutrition Director at Thrive Global.
Don’t forget the fiber. All this protein talk has fiber feeling seriously left out. Just remember, “more fiber, fewer problems” — from blood sugar to bathroom breaks. Your gut microbes are begging for fiber too. Feed them! (Fiber means vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, beans, legumes and whole grains.)
Why travel keeps you young
There are lots of good reasons to travel, but now you can count “defying aging” as one of them. Researchers from Edith Cowan University in Western Australia propose that positive travel experiences may actually slow down the aging process, helping to maintain physical, mental and emotional well-being.
The bottom line is that travel may help you age more slowly. Exploring new places, engaging in physical activities like hiking or walking and connecting with others can activate your body’s self-healing systems — promoting resilience, lowering stress and boosting immune function. Travel that includes meaningful activities, personal growth or mindful engagement (like wellness retreats or yoga tourism) may have a stronger impact on the body's regulatory systems and brain health than passive or overly hectic trips.
I’m sold. Let’s all plan healthy vacations. What do you recommend? A wellness retreat? Biking in Vietnam? A hike in Norway?
Joy scroll with me!
Here’s my weekly roundup of good news and fun links to counteract the gloom.
“Your body’s looking like a June 15th tulip.” On Instagram, the popular influencer Caitlin Murray aka @bigtimeadulting has her own hilarious promotion of protein. (Profanity alert, but it made me laugh.) Watch the video.
A joyful 7-minute workout with your kids. Fitness writer Gretchen Reynolds coined the term “7-minute workout,” starting a world-wide trend several years ago. Now she’s working with Chris Jordan, the scientist behind the original 7-minute workout, to create the 7-minute family workout with input from Jordan’s kids, Charlie, 11, and Charlotte, 5. Like all the 7-minute workouts, the routine involves 12 exercises, each done for 30 seconds with a brief break in between, no equipment needed. Do the workout.
A cure for earworms: If you’ve ever been infected with an earworm (the Rick Roll kind, not the RFK Jr. brain worm kind) you know how maddening it can be to get a song playing endlessly in your head. Earlier this year I could not get APT. by ROSÉ and Bruno Mars out of my brain. (Sorry for spreading that one.) Thank goodness for neuroscience writer Richard Sima’s Brain Matters column. He does a deep dive into earworms and even offers a cure. Click for a fun read.
My favorite advice columnist levels up: Carolyn Hax of the Washington Post has always given sage advice, but her new video advice series is next level. I could not love this more. Listen to her advice to a woman whose husband stole money and cheated on her, about a family who ignores a shellfish allergy and a woman who must choose between her cat and her boyfriend.
Chewy the street dog finds a home: The stray pup with missing teeth was abandoned by his owner. The residents of an assisted living facility engineered a group adoption. Read more here.
Scientists crack the code to perfect cacio e pepe: Truly one of my best food memories is eating cacio e pepe in a piazza in Rome. I’ve never been able to make it myself. Now a group of Italian scientists have figured out why cacio e pepe so often goes wrong in home kitchens. Although the recipe calls for only three simple ingredients — pasta, pecorino cheese, and black pepper — the sauce frequently ends up lumpy rather than smooth and creamy. Their article “Phase behavior of Cacio e Pepe sauce” was published in the journal Physics of Fluids. Using fluid physics, the researchers found two key factors:
Starch content: A 2–3% starch-to-cheese ratio helps emulsify the cheese and water.
Temperature control: Letting the water cool before mixing in the cheese prevents protein denaturation and clumping.
To create a foolproof version, the team recommends using precisely measured powdered starch (like potato or cornstarch), blending it with cheese, and gently heating the mixture before combining it with pasta and pepper. Let me know if you try this at home. Read more.
Thanks for reading, and see you next week. Let’s keep the conversation going! Send me your comments and ideas. Drop a note in our subscriber chat or message me directly on Substack!
Every week, the One Day Better newsletter celebrates the power of small steps. If you enjoyed reading, please share it with a friend. This newsletter is free and reader-supported. If you’d like to support my work, you can make a contribution here.
Tara Parker-Pope is an Emmy Award–winning journalist who shared in the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service for coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic. Learn more at taraparkerpope.com