Exceedingly Easy Six for 2026 Diet & Lifestyle Makeovers for Brain Health
- Brainz Magazine
- 3 days ago
- 6 min read
Written by Kate Taylor, Registered Nutritionist
Kate is a Registered Nutritionist and the Founder of Eat Drink Think Nutrition Limited. Kate supports systemic health & wellness through personalised nutrition, diet and lifestyle strategies & recommendations, and particularly specialises in Brain health, cognitive function and Dementia risk-avoidance.
With the traditional month for New Year's Resolutions having been and gone, some intentions will have survived (hooray!), whereas others may already have succumbed to the to-do list archives and been perpetually overshadowed by overseeing and administering the necessities of everyday life.
But now that the immediate pressure of the New Year has somewhat abated, why not take a breath and take stock of a simple new hack you can gift to yourself for your health? It does not have to be complicated, it does not need to be profoundly transformative (progress is often cumulative rather than instantaneous), and if you miss a day, that does not mean you have failed, simply pick up where you left off and restart.
The best-kept intentions tend to be the diminutive-but-consistent ones. Therefore, making them as easy as possible significantly increases your chance of success. Remember, you are doing this for you. You can tell everyone to hold you accountable, or you can tell nobody, go with whichever proclamation method best suits you. So whether you are a public declaration person or a connoisseur of confidentiality, here are six straightforward and sustainable Nutr’isms to get you started in up-healthing your daily diet in 2026 (and beyond).
Eat (at least) one green leafy salad or vegetable with every main meal, every day. These foods are rich in B-Complex Vitamins (and a plethora of other nutrients such as fibre and Magnesium) which support Neurotransmission (messaging) and have the added benefit of regulating (lowering) excess homocysteine build-up. (If hyperhomocysteinemia is unregulated, the elevated homocysteine status may trigger subsequent cognitive decline by exacerbating damage to the Brain’s vasculature.) Adding green salads & vegetables does not have to be complicated. A side salad of cucumber, rocket or watercress, a teaspoon of dried herbs, a palm-sized portion of classic vegetable greens, broccoli, cabbage, chard, kale, and/or peas is an excellent start. The extra textures and flavours you will gain from adding a salad or vegetable also give you an opportunity to remove any ultra-processed, ultra-flavoured dressings/sauces on food, which do very little to nothing for your health. So, however you can, adding greenery to your 2026 is an investment in your Brain health & Brainspan.
Try not to be too dependent on Artificial Intelligence. It is vital that we keep our Brains active, challenging, and stimulating them as often as possible within the realms of what is feasible for our personal lifestyle. Relying on AI may exacerbate the tendency to outsource Brain power, with potential risk of unnecessarily limiting Neuroplasticity (neurone-connection-forming learning). So if you don’t have to use AI to script a document/presentation, or if you can go shopping in-person rather than clicking a button online and relying on a third party to bring shopping to your door, then do meet, greet, interact, acquire steps, and exercise your Brain by using it, counteracting the risk of losing it.
Nibble on a square-or-two of 85% cacao chocolate every day. Research suggests this is surprisingly nutritious (containing notable quantities of antioxidant polyphenols, fibre, magnesium, and more), and that this percentage of cocoa flavanols is the ‘sweet spot’ to convey Brain health and cognition benefits. It also supports gut health through its lower-sugar-to-higher-fibre-content ratio, and since it possesses more of a bitter taste than what we consider ‘typical’ chocolate, there is less chance of craving and over-indulging and more chance of supporting Brainspan (and Gutspan).
Invest in sleep, your Brain’s Savings Bank. Somewhat paradoxically, sleep can be considered both an investment in and a drain for your Brain. Sleep is your Brain’s optimal time to detoxify via the Glymphatic ‘waste disposal’ system (hence the ‘drain’ reference). Optimal sleep is typically defined as achieving seven hours (unbroken) sleep per night, and chronically getting fewer hours may increase the risk of cognitive decline. There are various sleep hygiene practices you can try to improve your sleep quantity & quality. Seek professional recommendations for personalised techniques, but a few general sleep investment ideas include air filtering in your bedroom, full darkness in your bedroom, and no television or mobile device in your bedroom. (I am a great advocate of reading a book as this may achieve two things, you may learn something new or at least some new vocabulary, which benefits Neuroplasticity, and/or the act of reading a book may gently encourage sleepiness). Prioritising sleep as best you can truly is an investment in your Brain health, so if anyone challenges you on why you are going to bed early, tell them it’s for your Brainspan!
Include a source of Omega-3 essential fat in your daily diet. The Brain is approximately 60% fat, so it needs nourishing with beneficial dietary fats. Oily fish (such as herring, sardines, anchovies, trout, mackerel) is the richest dietary source of Omega-3, but for variety (and if you do not particularly like fish) then seeds (chia, flax, hemp), nuts (Walnuts) and Omega-enriched eggs (also excellent sources of Brain-beneficial Choline), are also rich in Omega-3 essential fatty acid. When you can, do mix & match your Omega sources, after all, variety in itself is good for Brain health.
Exercise: not too little but not too much. There are a few ways to approach this. Resistance/weight training has been endorsed for supporting cognitive function, and unless you feel particularly Herculean, this could take the gentle form of purchasing some light wrist/ankle weights or dumbbells and getting into the habit of completing a few lifts each morning. If this does not appeal, research also suggests that briskly walking as few as 3,800 daily steps may offer supportive benefits for Brain health & Brainspan. (Although greater movement and number of steps do confer Brainspan support, it is no longer considered vital to achieve the often-cited 10,000 steps per day.)
As an aside, exercise in all its forms encourages the generation of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (a natural ‘fertiliser for the Brain’) and may support your sleep too. So movement in a capacity that suits you is seemingly a win-win for whole-body & Brain health.
I hope you enjoyed these light-hearted Nutritional Therapy tips and can see yourself carrying them on throughout 2026. If a functional medicine perspective to nurturing, nourishing, and supporting your Brain health and cognitive function is of interest, the time to act is now, why postpone what could be actioned today? Investing in your Brain health and Brainspan could be the wisest decision you ever make.
Please note that these are general Nutritional Therapy Functional Medicine recommendations. They are not personalised, and they are not tailored to account for or include recommendations for any existing health imbalances or medical conditions. In these cases, please consult a medical professional and/or a Nutritionist/Dietitian expert if you have a particular health or dietary requirement.
Read more from Kate Taylor
Kate Taylor, Registered Nutritionist
Kate is an advocate of proactive and preventative healthcare through optimising and personalising the basics, nutrition, diet, and lifestyle. Kate's experiences watching those around her develop and decline from Dementia instilled in her a mindset of 'prevention is better than cure' and that, particularly when it comes to Brain health and Dementia risk-avoidance, the perception 'false hopelessness' should not triumph over health optimism. Whilst sensitive to the fact that Brain health and Dementia risk-avoidance is multifaceted and cannot be solely addressed by nutrition, Kate's professional nutritional aspiration is to empower & inspire people that diet and lifestyle are integral foundations to health, healthspan, and importantly, Brainspan.
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