How to feed our brain | Émilie Steinbach | TEDxUNamur

Disclaimer: This talk is not a medical advice. It represents only the personal opinion of the speaker regarding nutrition and mental health.

"We can improve the way our brain functions with what we eat." Émilie Steinbach defends the idea that our lifestyle, such as stress, sleep, nutrition, has a real impact on the way our brain functions. As well as being interested in our first brain, she is also interested in our second brain: our gut. She studies intestinal microbiota, in other words, gut flora. This is an inspiring talk that encourages us to take care of ourselves and tells us the way to optimize our brain function with the help of nutrition.

Émile Steinbach has a Master's in Neuroscience (MSc, UCLondon) and Neuropsychology (MSc; Maastricht University), with a specialization in Neuro-Nutrition (SIIN, Paris). Today she is pursuing her academic career in the field of nutrition and intestinal microbiota (INSERM/ Sorbonne Université). Outside of her passion for scientific research, Émile has launched the website "Feed Your Brain" (http://feedyourbrain.eu).

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at http://ted.com/tedx

Okay, let me find someone

who will lend me their brain
for a few minutes.

You, over there, great!

I'll give it back to you.

Now imagine that
I have your brain in my hands.

What will I find inside it?

Water - I guess you all suspected that -

then some fat, wow! a lot of fat.

No worries, all brains are fatty ...
Don't judge, it's just normal.

A brain is very greasy.

If I had one in my hands,

you would certainly
hear "skwiitch! skwiitch!"

It's very fragile and mushy.

In fact, if you look at it like that,
it resembles the inside of our intestines.

Well, I've never held
intestines in my life,

but I have held a brain.

By the way, if I were
to leave it on a table

to go off to take a sample
of it for experiment,

when I'd return,

it would be a bit spread out and deformed.

So don't shake it up
too much, it's fragile.

This brain has fat,

but not the type of fat
you find in a bag of French fries.

Its fat is like the fat
you find in small oily fish.

It is a kind of fat that is very flexible,

that provides us
with unique neuroplasticity

and enables neurons to communicate
with each other so fast.

Maybe you are asking yourselves,

"Let's say I eat more sardines,
will I get smarter?"

My mum often said to me, "Émilie,
eat your fish, it will make you clever."

Well, she wasn't exactly right.

It is more complicated than that,
but today I can reply,

"Mum, did you know that
the consumption of small oily fish

inversely correlates with the
rate of psychiatric disorders,

especially depression and schizophrenia?"

Well, for the most part, you are probably
too old to develop schizophrenia

because the window is during adolescence.

But you're in the category of those
who can be hit by severe depression,

especially with our way of life today.

So eating a few small oily fish
could be good for your brain.

Now, if I continue looking
at what is inside this brain,

I will find proteins and amino acids.

So I will find water, fat,
and now proteins and amino acids.

To put it simply, a protein
is like a large pearl necklace,

and the amino acids are all the
little pearls that make up this necklace.

When I eat protein, chicken for example,

or a mix of lentils and quinoa -
that is probably not bad for you either -

then these necklaces break
into a multitude of small pieces,

and these small pearls are going
to do something inside my body:

they either form a nice structure
or carry out a function.

Right away you think: "Yeah, muscles."

Personally, I think "lovely
neurotransmitters and hormones."

A neurotransmitter is a molecule
that enables two neurons to communicate.

To give you an example, serotonin
is the neurotransmitter for happiness

because it is said to make people
see life through rose-tinted glasses.

For example, we have noticed
that in the case of depression,

serotonin levels are low.

So some companies have
manufactured beautiful medicines

that increase serotonin
levels in the brain

and alleviate the symptoms.

Some young people will say,
"Some drugs do the same."

And yes, these drugs manipulate
the level of serotonin in the brain.

The crazy thing is that this serotonin

that I will probably feel
in my brain this evening,

enabling me to sleep
with sweet dreams,

this serotonin is synthesized

through a precursor
I can only find in my food.

This precursor, this small pearl,
an amino acid, is called "tryptophan".

It is an essential amino acid.

It means that my body
is unable to produce it on its own

if I don't provide
the small bricks to build it.

Now let's resume
our observation of this brain.

I also find sugar or glucose in it.

Glucose is the fuel of the brain.

The brain is very small, it makes up
only 2% of this body's mass,

but it consumes 25%
of the energy that I eat.

So it needs a lot of fuel,
it is energy-hungry,

particularly when people
are smart - I am joking.

(Laughter)

I didn't want to say that,
but it just came out.

(Laughter)

So my brain does not
require that I feed it

loads of sweets
or a big glass of orange juice.

It prefers to have steady
and reasonable levels of sugar.

There are different types of sugars.

There are sugars called
"simple" or "fast",

and sugars that are rather
"complex" and "slow".

Simple sugars found
for example in small fruits -

which is not shown here -
let's say an orange,

when I eat an orange, a lot of simple
sugars enter my body at once.

These are small simple-structured
molecules that are digested very quickly.

So I have a burst of energy
entering my bloodstream,

and then, there is a crash.

That's why we feel drained sometimes.

Complex carbohydrates are bigger molecules
that are digested more slowly.

They provide energy throughout a whole
morning or afternoon for example.

We try to favor these types
of complex carbohydrates

when we want to be focused and clever.

So for breakfast, it may be preferable
to eat a slice of wholegrain bread

rather than multicolored cereals
just because we love them so much.

I could talk for hours
about your brain,

as though it was the meal
I was going to eat a while ago,

but I'll stop there.

Personally, what fascinates me
is the impact of my lifestyle on my brain.

It all started with nutrition.

When I was young, my dad used to say,

"Émilie is the child
who runs after butterflies."

He wasn't completely mistaken.

My brain has a lot of difficulty
in concentrating on a single task.

It twirls around all the time.

It is impossible to make it
focus for 30 seconds.

This brain was soon given a lovely label:

"Attention Deficit Hyperactivity
Disorder", in short, ADHD.

"Well don't worry, teachers,

Émilie is going to stop being unbearable.

Medicines exist even
for this type of situation."

So I was told at a very young age:

"It will do her good to take
medicine to alleviate symptoms."

And these drugs work very well.

It's like legal cocaine:
it stimulates your brain.

Still a little girl,
I went from 40% to 80%.

Is that why I was
able to go to university?

We don't know.

My writing became neat and rounded.

And at school, things were much better
because before, what was Émilie doing?

She is a child sitting on a chair

who fidgets so much
nobody wants to sit next to her,

who gets on the teacher's nerves,

who falls sometimes from her chair
from laughing so much

or watches a construction site from afar
for hours and suddenly goes,

"Wow! Look! The crane finally moved.
I've never seen anyone inside before!"

And the teacher says, "Émilie,
you forgot to take your medicine"

or "Émilie, you messed up again.

Shouldn't you ask your parents
to take your medicine again,

or maybe, double the dose?
Do you always take your medicine?"

And the teacher would say this
in front of the whole class.

So little by little, I started to feel
the first psychological side effects.

Obviously, today that makes
you laugh, me too.

But back then, I didn't find that funny.
I no longer had self-confidence.

I thought I would never
achieve anything.

I even thought I wouldn't be here today.

Thankfully, my family
took great care of me.

They took me to a team of professionals
who explained what ADHD meant,

who made me do plenty of tests

and really tried to prove to me
that I had great potential

because I didn't believe that at all.

Then my life continues,
I feel a bit better in my skin.

I understand.

But then, I started to feel
the other side effects.

If you take the kind of medicine
prescribed to kids like me

and read the package leaflet
on the side effects, you will see:

migranes, insomnia, digestive disorders,

loss of appetite, anorexia, depression ...

I had a few of those.

Incidentally when I'd stop
and ask someone to give me the medicine

because I had forgotten to get
a prescription for a few weeks,

I'd be hit with a massive migraine.

I'd suffer from Insomnia.

I'd no longer want to talk to anyone.

Instead of studying, I'd sort
my coloring pens by color

because all of a sudden, I'd feel
very focused on something else.

Bottom line, you may be already
thinking this does not sound good,

but this is nothing.

This is nothing compared
to the lovely withdrawal symptoms

that hit you after a school
year of being on this cute medicine.

So I had withdrawal symptoms

because I was like a drug addict
who had been taking drugs for a long time.

So indeed when you stop,
you have anxiety, dark thoughts,

you vomit out of distress.

And here again, there is a solution:
if you go to your doctor -

since they take you
to the hospital saying,

"Look at my child, she is so anxious" -

the doctor doesn't ask,

"Have you been taking
this medicine? What happened?"

No, they give you a small shot
of a blue substance

that makes you totally zen,
and then life goes on.

At that point, I said to myself,

"That's enough. Your brain
doesn't function properly.

Also, you are halfway to panic attacks
and on the verge of some unknown limit."

So I wanted to stop it all.

And before, during or after,
I don't know what happened

but I started to have intuitions
about different types of food.

My family gave me a nickname:
"Insatiable sable".

A sable is a kind
of small carnivorous ferret.

I could no longer eat white bread
with jam for breakfast.

I dreamed of the thick slice of salmon
my mum had prepared the night before,

and of the tasty vegetables
she had cooked.

Not long ago, when I returned
home to Brussels,

my Dad left me a Tupperware
in the fridge with a note:

"Leftovers for Insatiable Sable."

I did not see the link between this kind
of nutrition and my friends' diet.

My life went on and I started
my studies in neuroscience,

and that is when I understood it all.

I was only 27 years old,
I knew next to nothing,

I had a lot to learn, but I understood
what was happening to me.

And that is what I'm going
to tell you now.

ADHD meant that my little brain

had a hard time synthesizing
enough dopamine and noradrenaline,

two neurotransmitters that together
benefit our learning functions,

our ability to pay attention
and concentrate -

which I clearly lacked.

These two neurotransmitters
can be boosted with drugs

but also with the type
of diet I started to follow.

So by eating more protein at breakfast -
I didn't used to eat any at all -

I was ingesting the small pearls

necessary to create
those neurotransmitters in my brain.

And by avoiding quick or simple
sugars at all costs,

I was preventing those pearls
from being deflected elsewhere

or from having difficulty
to enter my brain.

When I learnt all of this and realized

that I could have avoided
all those small pills and big anxieties

by just having a healthier lifestyle,

I thought I needed to share
this information around me.

So I started with social media.

I spoke about it
to my family, my friends.

Then I ended up speaking in companies.

And today, I am inside this big
red circle telling you about it.

Now I would like to give you
three small bits of advice

that are really very simple.

You may say that they are bogus,

but I'm sure that you are not
implementing them right now.

These three advices are:

first, try to maintain a stable
and moderate blood sugar level;

second, pay attention
to your second brain;

and third, try to
have a healthy lifestyle.

Sorry, I also have lots of allergies,
my genetics aren't that great.

(Laughter)

As for the first one, maintaining a stable
and moderate blood sugar level, why?

Well, because Nature is very well made,

but our lifestyle today isn't so good,
at least mine, I don't know about yours.

For a better understanding, let's say
that I'm a prehistoric man or woman.

and on my way, I eat some berries,
some grain, maybe some legumes.

From time to time, if I'm strong enough,
I manage to kill an animal and eat it.

Fortunately, when I eat
sugars, for example,

a cool hormone get synthesized in my body
that helps store excess sugar as body fat,

which enables me, if I don't find
food for two or three days,

to have something to survive on.

That's pretty cool.

Another great mechanism is when
I no longer have enough sugar in my blood,

I release good stress hormones
that allow me to hunt that lion -

I don't know if we once hunted lions,
it's the example that came to my mind -

to be aggressive,
run very fast, and kill it.

Today, I don't know
about you but personally,

I lay down sometimes
in my sofa like a doormat

and press the keys
of my phone to order a pizza.

So, my insulin no longer
serves its survival purpose,

nor its fat storage purpose in case of
starvation since it doesn't happen often.

So, this type of lifestyle is not the best
for our metabolic health,

neither is it for our family.

I don't know if you have children
who are unbearable when they're hungry,

or partners who make your life
a misery when they're famished.

Let me share with you a funny study:

a group of researchers took
one hundred couples or so.

They gave them little
voodoo dolls and said,

"Once a day, you can insert
between 1 and 51 needles

to show how much
you are upset by your partner."

Then, they were able to successfully
correlate those people's blood sugar

with the number of needles inserted.

So if you have unbearable
people in your family,

do not give them donuts
so that they will experience no high

and no crash during which
they could become insufferable.

Rather, feed them like a man
living in prehistoric times,

with this type of thing, for example.

The second advice is about
paying attention to our second brain.

The second brain is your gut

and the whole load
of guests living inside.

You may not know it but you've an enormous
amount of bacteria in your gut.

This realm was there
before your first brain,

so perhaps it should
actually be called the "first brain".

These bacteria are not there
just to do nothing,

eat what you eat
and take advantage of their host.

In fact, they play an important
role in your health,

your immunity and your mood.

I was talking previously
about serotonin.

Well, a big majority
of our serotonin is synthesized

thanks to the bacteria
that live in our gut.

Another study - because I love
this type of study

that allows people to fully
understand what I'm taking about -

was carried out,
and I find it fascinating.

They took twins, one obese,
the other diabetic.

The microbiota of these twins
was transplanted into mice.

The mice who inherited the microbiota
of the obese subjects

developed the same phenotype.

The others remained slim.

When the slim mice were permitted
to eat the feces of the obese one,

they undoubtedly grew in size.

Yes, mice are coprophagous
and eat the feces of other animals.

Don't try to eat the feces
of a thin person, you could die

(Laughter) ... by the way.

Now these bacteria,
what do they like to eat?

Fruit, vegetables, plenty of vegetables,

wholemeal products,
grains, legumes.

They do not like heavily
processed foods.

Now for my last piece of advice,

I want to ask you first to raise your hand

if you are able to sleep
around eight hours each night,

not six but eight hours every night

systematically
and at strict regular times.

Raise your hand
if that's the case for you.

Yeah, no luck ...

Sleep is the foundation of health and
more important than sport or nutrition.

All of your functions are improved
by a good night's sleep

or reduced by a bad night's sleep.

My mum often say to my sister,

"In a bad mood? You partied
too much last week-end."

She's right.

In studies, when half a group
is deprived of sleep,

and the other half is allowed to sleep,

the first group better remembers the bad
things that happened the day before,

whereas the other is able
to process their emotions.

If I make you sit for an exam tomorrow,

and you, I keep waking
you up all night

and you, I let you sleep,

and I ask you to use the knowledge
that you learnt the day before,

you, you will generally perform
40% worse than you.

So they will succeed, and you,
you will completely flunk.

If you want your children to succeed
at school, pay attention to their sleep.

Now I will finish with this:

ADHD,

lack of sleep can mimic ADHD symptoms.

I would like us to be more careful
concerning our lifestyle,

so that we feel better
in our body and in our head.

I hope that these few words
will inspire you to take care of yourself.

That's it, thank you!