Andrew Huberman on foods and supplements that support brain health and cognitive performance
A solo episode of Huberman Lab Essentials in which Andrew Huberman covers the key foods, nutrients, and supplements that support brain function, and explains the neuroscience behind food preference and how to reshape it.
Summary
Andrew Huberman, neuroscientist and professor at Stanford School of Medicine, presents a focused overview of the nutritional building blocks of brain health. He identifies six key compounds — omega-3 fatty acids (EPA/DHA), phosphatidylserine, choline, creatine, anthocyanins, and glutamine — explaining the biological mechanisms by which each supports neuronal structure and function. He then shifts to the neuroscience of food preference, describing three distinct channels through which the brain and body determine what we want to eat: conscious taste perception, subconscious gut-to-brain signaling via neuropod cells, and learned belief-based associations. A central claim is that what we perceive as food preference is largely a conditioned dopamine response tied to metabolic outcomes, not simply taste — and that this system can be deliberately rewired within as little as seven to fourteen days.
Key Takeaways
FULL TRANSCRIPT
Introduction and overview
Andrew Huberman: Today we are talking all about food and the brain. We are going to talk about foods that are good for your brain in terms of focus, in terms of brain health generally, and the longevity of your brain — your ability to maintain cognition and clear thinking over time. We are also going to talk about why and how you prefer certain foods to others. And I'm going to talk about the three major signals that combine to drive your food choices.
One of those signals comes from your gut and is completely subconscious. These are neurons in your gut that are sending signals to your brain — signals you are unaware of — about the nutrient contents of the foods that you are eating. The second signal is how metabolically accessible a given food is, meaning how readily that food can be converted into energy that your brain — not your body, but your brain — can use. And the third signal is perhaps the most interesting one. It's the signal of belief. It's the signal of what you perceive and believe the food that you're eating to contain, and what you think it can do for you health-wise and energy-wise.
The structural foundation of brain health: fat and essential fatty acids
What are the things that directly impact brain health, and what are the foods that we can eat that will support brain health? Generally, when we think about neuron function and brain function, we default to a discussion about fuel — the fact that neurons use glucose, which is blood sugar, and that they require a lot of it. But before we can even consider the fuels that neurons use in order to function, we have to talk about the elements that actually allow those neurons to be there and to stay healthy. What actually makes up those neurons?
And that brings us to what I would argue is the most important food element for brain function, and that is fat. That might come as a surprise, but unless one considers the water content of the brain — which is very high — a lot of our brain, and a lot of the integrity of the nerve cells, the so-called neurons in our brain and the other types of cells, comes from fat. That's because nerve cells and other cells in the brain have an external layer. It's what's sometimes called a double-layered membrane — essentially two thin layers that serve as a boundary between those cells. That boundary is very important because how things pass across it actually regulates the electrical activity of neurons, which is the way that neurons fire and communicate and keep you thinking and acting and doing all the good things that those neurons allow us to do. And those membranes are made up of fats — but not the fats that are around our belly or around the other organs of our body. They're not made up of storage fat. They are made up of structural fat. Maintaining the so-called integrity of that structural fat — meaning the health of those neurons — is going to come in large part from the foods that we eat.
So what type of fat is it, and what should we eat in order to support that fat and those neurons? The answer is the so-called essential fatty acids and phospholipids. Those are more or less the same thing, but I want to make a very large literature very crystal clear. Essential fatty acids can include the so-called EPA variety or DHA variety. You hear about omega-3s and omega-6s. Most people are getting enough omega-6s from their diet. However, most people are not getting enough omega-3s in their diet to support healthy brain function in the short and long term.
What are foods that are high in omega-3s that we should all probably be consuming at least on a daily basis? The number one is fish. I don't know about you, but I'm not eating a lot of fish — I will from time to time — but that's one reason why one might want to supplement with EPAs from another source. EPAs are also found in chia seeds, in walnuts, in soybeans, and other plant-based foods. You can look these up online and you'll immediately see that there are a lot of sources of EPAs. Many of the foods I listed off might be appetizing to you, some might be unappetizing, or some you might be neutral about. But it's very clear that eating foods that are rich in omega-3s and/or supplementing with omega-3s to get above 1.5 grams — and ideally up to two or even three grams per day of EPA — can be very beneficial for cognitive function in the short and long term.
Phosphatidylserine
The other compound that has been shown to be directly supportive of neuronal function is phosphatidylserine, which is abundant in meats and in fish. So for those of you that do consume meat and fish, provided you're getting enough fish, you're probably getting enough phosphatidylserine. For those of you that are interested in supplementing with phosphatidylserine, it's a relatively inexpensive supplement that is lipid-like — so it's mimicking some of the same things that you would get from food, but in higher concentration.
Choline and acetylcholine
After EPA fatty acids and phosphatidylserine, I would say third on the list of things that come from food that can readily support brain function would be choline, and that's because of the relationship between choline and the biosynthesis pathway for acetylcholine. Acetylcholine is a neuromodulator — not a neurotransmitter, but a neuromodulator — in the brain. It's kind of an electrical highlighter pen, by analogy. That is the basis of much of what we call focus, or our ability to concentrate on a particular batch of information coming in through our eyes, our ears, our nose, or even things that we're just thinking in our head. And not surprisingly, many of the treatments for Alzheimer's disease — which involves challenges with remembering things and focusing — are drugs that impact the acetylcholine pathway and are aimed at enhancing the amount of acetylcholine available to neurons.
The primary source for dietary choline would be eggs, and in particular egg yolks. Eggs are an incredibly rich source of nutrients for the brain, and that's because the egg, if you think about it, contains all the nutrients required for an organism to grow. If you're somebody who doesn't eat eggs or doesn't want to eat eggs, things like potatoes, nuts and seeds, grains, and fruit don't have as much choline as eggs, but they do contain choline. In general, most people should probably strive to get somewhere between 500 milligrams and a gram — so 1,000 milligrams — of choline per day.
Creatine
Next on my list of compounds that have been shown in peer-reviewed research to improve neuronal and brain function is creatine. Creatine can be derived from meat sources, and it can also be supplemented. Creatine can actually be used as a fuel source in the brain, and there's some evidence that it can enhance the function of certain frontal cortical circuits that connect to areas of the brain involved in mood regulation and motivation.
What is the threshold level of creatine to supplement in order to get the cognitive benefit? It appears to be at least 5 grams per day. The most typical form of creatine is so-called creatine monohydrate. It's interesting that creatine supplementation of five grams per day has been shown to improve cognition in people that aren't getting creatine from animal sources.
I personally take creatine — five grams per day — and have for a very long time. I can't say that I've noticed a tremendous benefit because I've actually never really come off it, so I've never done the control experiment. I take it more as a kind of baseline insurance policy. What I can say is that I generally consume things like EPAs, creatine, and alpha-GPC to set a general context of support for my neurons, for my brain. And of course I also pay attention to the foods that contain these various compounds. I don't actively eat additional meat just to obtain creatine. I eat a fairly limited amount of meat — I don't restrict it, and I do eat meat — but I don't actively seek out creatine in my diet. Rather, I use supplementation in order to hit that 5-gram-per-day threshold.
Anthocyanins in dark berries
Next on the list of foods that are beneficial for brain health is one that you've probably seen pictures of online, because there seems to be a practice of putting pictures of blueberries and other dark berries next to any title that says "foods that benefit your brain." There are a lot of foods out there that have been purported to improve brain function. The interesting thing about blueberries and other berries — blackberries, dark currants, any of these thin-skinned berries that are purplish in color — is that they contain what are called anthocyanins. Anthocyanins actually have some really nice data to support the fact that they improve brain function. Whether or not it is direct effects on neurons, or whether it is by lowering inflammation, or some other modulatory effect, isn't quite clear. But I think by now there's enough data to support the fact that eating a cup or two of blueberries pretty often — every day, or maybe you have blackberries or black currants — that these anthocyanins are good for us, that they are enhancing our overall well-being at a number of different levels.
Glutamine
So we've got EPA fatty acids, we've got phosphatidylserine, we've got choline, we've got creatine, and we have the anthocyanins. The last item I'd like to place in this list of food-derived things that can enhance brain function is glutamine. Glutamine is a very interesting amino acid. There's some evidence — although somewhat scant — that glutamine can enhance immune system function. People will supplement with glutamine, or people can get glutamine from foods. Foods that contain a lot of glutamine include things like cottage cheese. Glutamine is also rich in protein-rich foods: beef, chicken, fish, dairy products, eggs, but also — for those of you who don't consume animal foods — vegetables including beans, cabbage, spinach, and parsley. For people that supplement with glutamine, generally they will take anywhere from a gram to as much as 10 grams per day.
Why would they want to do that? There's also some evidence starting to emerge that glutamine can help offset sugar cravings. We all have neurons in our gut that sense the amino acid content, the fat content, and the sugar content of the foods that we eat, and signal in a subconscious way to our brain whether or not the foods we are eating contain certain levels of certain amino acids. We actually have glutamine-sensing neurons in our gut that have their little processes — their axons and dendrites, as we call them — in the mucosal lining of the gut. They're not just sensing glutamine, but when they do sense glutamine, they respond and they send signals to the brain that are signals of satiation, of satisfaction, and in doing so can offset some of the sugar cravings that many people suffer from.
Summary of brain-supporting nutrients
That more or less completes the list of things that, at least by my read of the literature, are supported by at least three and in some cases as many as hundreds of studies in various populations — explored in mouse studies often, but also in a number of human studies.
I want to emphasize again that all of the things I listed — whether it's EPAs, whether it's phosphatidylserine, whether it's choline, whether it's the various compounds that are in berries — all of those can be extracted from food. There is no law that says you have to get them from supplementation. Supplementation can help you get to very high levels of those things if you want to work on the higher end. Obviously check with your doctor before taking anything or removing anything from your diet or supplement regime. But in general, you can get these things from foods. It just so happens that for some of these compounds, the foods that contain them — like fish — are not foods that I particularly enjoy, and so I rely on supplements in order to get sufficient levels. But again, you can get these levels from food.
The reason I made this list, the reason I emphasize these things in this particular order, is that they support the structure of neurons. They support the structure of the other cells of the brain that make up our cognition and that are important for our focus and our ability to remember things. They are less so in the category of so-called modulatory effects — though they will also have modulatory effects on sleep, on inflammation, on cardiovascular function — all of which I believe are positive effects. Everything in this list is directed towards answering the question: what can I eat, what can I ingest by way of food and/or food supplement, that can support brain function in the short term and in the long term?
The three channels of food preference
So now, having talked about some of the foods and micronutrients that are beneficial to our immediate and long-term brain health, I'd like to shift gears somewhat and talk about why it is that we like the foods that we like. We've all heard before that we are hardwired to pursue sugar and to like fatty foods, and that calorie-rich foods are attractive to us for all sorts of reasons — surviving famines and things of that sort. And while that is true, the actual mechanisms that underlie food-seeking and food preference are far more interesting than that.
There are basically three channels in our body and nervous system by which we decide what foods to pursue, how much to eat, and whether or not we will find a particular food attractive — whether or not we will want to consume more of it, whether or not we want to avoid it, or whether or not it's just sort of so-so. What I refer to as the yum, yuck, or meh analysis. And indeed, that's what our nervous system is doing with respect to food.
Channel one: taste perception
The first channel is an obvious one. It's taste in the mouth — the sensation that we have of the foods that we eat while we're chewing them. Those sensations are literally just sensory touch sensations. The palatability of food as it relates to the consistency of food is important. And as you've all heard before, we have sensors on our tongue and elsewhere in our mouth that detect the various chemicals contained within food and lead to the senses of taste, which we call bitter, sweet, umami, salty, and sour.
The umami receptor is a receptor that responds to the savory taste of things — what you might find in a really wonderfully rich tomato sauce, or for those of you that eat meat and like meat, a really well-cooked steak. Umami is present in both plant and animal foods and gives us that sensation of savoriness.
So we have those five basic tastes. Those are chemical sensors on the tongue that transduce those chemicals — the chemicals in food literally bind to those receptors, and that binding is converted into an electrical signal that travels from the tongue along what's called the gustatory nerve, then synapses — meaning it makes connections — in our brain stem in the so-called nucleus of the solitary tract. There are other nuclei back there — nuclei are just aggregates of neurons — and then it sends information up to the so-called insular cortex. The insular cortex is an incredible structure that we all have that is mainly concerned with so-called interoception, or our perception of what's going on inside our body. It could be the amount of pressure in our gut because of how much food we've eaten, or the acidity of our gut if we're having a little bit of indigestion, for instance. And not surprisingly, the taste system sends information up to the insular cortex to give us a sense of what we've ingested and whether or not what we're tasting tastes good or not.
What this means is that your perception of what you like is a central — meaning deep within the brain — phenomenon. It's not about how things taste in your mouth. But as we'll see in a few minutes, it turns out that is not a direct relationship that is hardwired. You can actually uncouple the preference for particular tastes from the reward systems in the brain. It's actually possible to rewire one's sense of taste and preference for particular foods. But the most important thing to understand is that, like with our hearing, like with vision, like with smell, taste is an internal representation that has particular goals for you. Your sense of what tastes good is related to particular things that are occurring in your brain and body and that are likely to give your brain and body what it needs. It is not simply a matter of what you quote-unquote like or what tastes good or doesn't taste good.
Channel two: subconscious gut-to-brain signaling via neuropod cells
Let me give you a relatively simple example of how your body and your brain are acting in a coordinated way to make you prefer certain foods and pursue certain foods more. Your digestive tract isn't just your tongue — it's also your throat, it goes all the way down to your stomach, and of course your intestines. It's a long tube of digestion. All along that tube there are neurons. Some of those neurons are responding to the mechanical state of whatever portion of the digestive tract they happen to be in — for instance, how full or empty your gut happens to be, whether or not something you just ate is hot to the touch, or whether or not it's spicy hot, whether or not it's soothing, whether or not it's kind of hard to swallow. So you have neurons all along your gut that are responding to the mechanics related to food and digestion, and that are related to the chemistry of food and digestion.
There's a population of neurons in your gut that are exquisitely tuned to the chemistry of whatever is in your gut. These are neurons called neuropod cells. They respond to amino acids, sugars, and fatty acids. So as your food is digested, as food lands within your gut, neurons there are sensing what types of foods are available and what types of things are making their way through the gut environment. And these particular neurons send electrical signals up into the brain through a cluster of neurons that we call the nodose ganglia. The nodose ganglia then send their own processes up into the brain and trigger the release of dopamine — a molecule that inspires motivation, reward, and more seeking for whatever it is that led to their activation.
These are super interesting neurons because what they're essentially doing is providing a subconscious signal about the quality of the food that you're eating, what it contains, and then triggering the release of dopamine within your brain that leads you to go seek more of those foods.
Channel three: learned belief associations and the dopamine system
So now I've mentioned two of the three mechanisms by which we prefer certain foods. One is from the actual taste — the taste on our tongue and in our mouth and the sensations that make us go "mmm" or "hmm" — the yum, yuck, meh responses as I referred to them earlier. And then there's this subconscious signaling coming from the gut that's really based on the nutrient content of the foods. There's a third pathway, which is the learned association of a particular taste with the particular quality or value that a food has. And this is where things get really interesting, and where there's actually a leverage point for you to rewire what it is that you find tasty and that you want to seek more of.
We have mechanisms in our brain that make us motivated to pursue more of what brings both a taste of sweetness but also actual changes in blood glucose levels. We are motivated to eat sweet things not just because they taste good but because they change our blood sugar level — they increase it. What your brain is seeking when you eat is not taste, is not dopamine, is not even a rise in blood glucose. What you're seeking, even though you don't realize it because it's subconscious, is things that allow your neurons to be metabolically active. And this is fundamentally important for understanding why you eat what you eat and how you can change your relationship to those foods.
Now, in biology and in neuroscience we talk about something being hardwired or softwired. Hardwired meaning it's there and it's immutable — it cannot be changed. Softwired meaning it's very amenable to change. The taste system and this general system of seeking particular foods is hardwired to obtain certain types of nutrients. It tends to like sweet things. Most children naturally like sweet things, some more than others, so there's some hardwiring of preference. But there's also some softwiring in the system that allows it to change.
The experiments that beautifully illustrate this show that you seek out particular foods because of the way they taste, because of their impact on blood glucose levels, but also because of their impact on the dopamine system — even if your blood glucose levels don't change. Here's the experiment. One group of subjects is given a sweet-tasting substance that also raises blood glucose levels. Blood sugar goes up, and dopamine goes up, not surprisingly. In a second condition, separate subjects consume an artificial sweetener or a non-caloric sweetener. It is not preferred much over other substances, but it is sweet, so it's preferred somewhat — and it does not cause an increase in blood glucose levels. Not surprisingly, dopamine levels don't go up.
So initially we don't tend to like artificial sweeteners that much. However, if subjects continue to ingest artificial sweeteners — even though there's no increase in blood glucose level and therefore no increase in brain metabolism — dopamine levels eventually start to rise. And when those dopamine levels eventually start to rise, you've essentially conditioned or reinforced that artificial or non-caloric sweetener, and then subjects start to consume more of it and actually get a dopamine increase from it. So that's interesting. It says that consuming more of these artificial sweeteners can start to tap into the dopamine system and lead us to seek out or consume more of them.
Now there's another condition that's been explored, and that's the really interesting one. It's the condition where an artificial sweetener is paired with a substance that can increase blood sugar — but not because it tastes sugary like a normal sweet substance. The natural-world scenario where this would happen would be drinking a diet soda, which contains no calories and therefore would not increase blood glucose but is sweet, alongside a food that increases blood glucose. When that happens, what you're essentially doing is tapping into the dopamine system. This non-caloric sweet taste is paired with an increase in neuron metabolism, so you have all of the components for reinforcement. As a consequence, you get — in a sort of Pavlovian conditioning way — a situation where later, when you ingest that artificial sweetener, you actually get not only an increase in dopamine but alterations in blood sugar management.
To put this in a natural-world context: if you ingest an artificial sweetener — say, drink diet soda — while consuming foods that increase blood glucose, then later, even if you just drink the diet soda, it has been shown that you secrete much more insulin — the hormone that regulates blood glucose — in response to that diet soda. The simple practical tool from this is: if you're going to consume artificial sweeteners, it's very likely best to consume those away from any food that raises blood glucose levels. So if you're going to enjoy diet soda, do it while not consuming food — in particular, foods that raise blood glucose — because what these studies show is that they can disrupt blood sugar management by way of the insulin-glucose system.
The belief effect: how perception alters physiology
Studies by my colleague Alia Crum in the psychology department at Stanford have explored the bodily response — in terms of insulin release and the release of other food- and eating-related hormones, as well as overall feelings of satisfaction — in groups of people that drink a milkshake and are either told that it's a low-calorie shake containing various nutrients that are good for them, or a higher-calorie shake that has a lot of nutrients. What they found was that the physiological response — the insulin response, the blood glucose response, and the subjective measures of whether or not people enjoyed something — were heavily influenced by what they were told was in these milkshakes. Blood glucose would go up and insulin would go up when people were told it was a high-calorie shake with lots of nutrients, and less so when people ingested a shake they were told had fewer nutrients — when in reality it was the identical shake.
This is incredible. This is a belief effect. This is not placebo. A placebo effect is different — it's where the control condition actually influences outcomes to the same or some degree as the experimental condition. This is a belief effect, where the belief and the subjective thoughts about what a given food will do has a direct impact on a physiological measure like blood sugar and blood glucose.
How to leverage these pathways to adopt healthier foods
So let's zoom out from this for a second and think about how we can incorporate this into adopting consumption of healthy foods that serve our brain health in the immediate and long term. What this means is that you obviously want to consume foods that you like. But because brain health is very important, and many of the foods that promote brain health perhaps are not the most palatable or desirable to you, if you want to eat more of a particular food because it's good for you, pair it with another food that provides a shift in brain metabolism — because that's really what your brain and you are seeking, even though you don't realize it.
How long will this take? The data really point to the fact that even within a short period of time of about seven days — but certainly within 14 days — that food will take on a subjective experience of tasting at least better to you, if not good to you.
I believe this has important implications for much of the controversy and food wars that we see out there. Food wars being, of course, these groups that ardently subscribe to the idea that their diet and the things that they are eating are the foods that are good for us and that are the most pleasurable and that everyone should be eating. We see this with every community within the nutrition realm. What's very clear, however, is that what we consume on a regular basis — and what leads to increases in brain metabolism — leads to increases in dopamine and thereby our motivation to eat those foods. So what this really says is that what we tend to do regularly becomes reinforcing in and of itself. And I think this can in large part explain the fact that for certain people, a given diet not only feels good but they heavily subscribe to the nutrient and health-beneficial effects of that diet.
What this emphasizes is that foods impact our brain and its health, but they also impact how our brain functions and responds to food — and that is largely a learned response. We can't completely override the fact that certain foods evoke a strong yuck component. Certain foods are truly putrid to us. But it's also true that if we continue to eat foods that are progressively sweeter and sweeter and highly palatable, it shifts our dopamine system — because it activates our dopamine system — to make us believe that those foods are the only foods that can trigger this reward system and make us feel good. But after consuming foods that are perhaps less sweet or even less savory — foods that are not what we would call highly palatable, or what I would say nowadays are super-palatable foods — we can adjust our sense of what we perceive as an attractive and rewarding food. And indeed, the dopamine system will reward those foods accordingly.
Put simply, we don't just like sweet foods because they taste good. We like them because they predict a certain kind of metabolic response.
Recommended reading on food reward
If you want to learn more about food reward and food reinforcement — because it turns out those are slightly different things — there's a wonderful review written by Ivan de Araujo, with a middle author Mark Schatzker and Dana Small. It's called "Rethinking Food Reward" and it was published in the Annual Reviews of Psychology. You can find it very easily online. It was published in 2019 and it's a beautiful deep dive — although quite accessible to most people — about how different foods and the way that we perceive them impact our brain and body, and why we like the things we like and how to reshape what we like.
Closing summary
So once again we've done a fairly extensive deep dive into food and your brain. We came up with a relatively short list of what I would call superfoods. And we also talked about food preference — why particular tastes, particular events within the gut, and particular events within the brain combine to lead us to pursue particular foods and to avoid other foods, and how you can leverage those pathways in order to pursue more of the foods that are going to be good for you — good not just for your brain but for your overall body health — and to enjoy them along the way.