Brain Health
Brain Food
Choline and iron are your brain's fertilizer—two essential nutrients that dramatically improve memory, focus, and cognitive performance.
Brain Health
Choline and iron are your brain's fertilizer—two essential nutrients that dramatically improve memory, focus, and cognitive performance.
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Are you forgetful, struggling to remember simple things, or finding yourself needing extra time to think? Does thinking feel like loading a YouTube video on a slow internet connection? The wheels are turning, but somehow nothing comes out.
That's exactly what a deficiency in choline and iron might feel like. These two substances are fundamental to good brain function. :-) That's precisely why they don't just prevent cognitive decline—they help your brain perform at its best.
Choline has three major roles in the brain:
Acetylcholine enables information transfer between synapses in the hippocampus. The hippocampus is essentially your brain's learning center, where new information is processed and transferred to long-term memory.
And: Acetylcholine is the most important neurotransmitter outside the central nervous system—because it enables communication between nerve cells and muscle fibers. In other words, you can only move thanks to acetylcholine.
The myelin sheath surrounds nerve cells and ensures smooth and rapid signal transmission. The breakdown of this protective layer is characteristic of multiple sclerosis—its symptoms are well-known.
Furthermore, in famous experiments by Richard Wurtman (MIT), it was demonstrated that choline dramatically promotes synapse formation.¹ The more synapses we have, the better communication between nerve cells.
These are needed for regulating gene expression. This means that through methylation, genes are switched on or off. This includes genes that are crucial for learning, memory, and cognitive function.
Let's be clear: choline is brain superfuel!
Let's take a brief dive into the underwater world: As we know, seafood is especially rich in valuable omega-3 fatty acids—specifically the two highly unsaturated fats, DHA and EPA.
These are particularly important for your brain. They keep nerve cell membranes nice and fluid. That's why DHA is found in such high concentrations in the brain's most critical structures: the cerebral cortex ("higher centers"), the prefrontal cortex (smart decisions!), the retina (vision!), and the hippocampus (learning center!).
Overall, DHA makes up approximately 20% of all fats in the brain. But this DHA needs to reach the brain somehow. Research shows: DHA bound to phosphatidylcholine (PC-DHA for short) reaches the brain most efficiently.²
Seafood is rich in this—here, up to 50% of omega-3s exist as PC-DHA.³ Behind this complex name lies simply a combination of choline and the essential omega-3 fatty acid DHA.
It's even suspected that phosphatidylcholine-DHA can prevent the development and progression of a genetically-determined variant of Alzheimer's disease. Carriers of the so-called ApoE4 gene variant appear unable to absorb free DHA sufficiently into the brain, whereas DHA bound to phosphatidylcholine crosses the blood-brain barrier without issue.
Once there, DHA could reduce the formation of the characteristic plaques, improve sugar uptake, and thus protect against Alzheimer's.⁴
But wait, there's more!
The next power nutrient for your brain is iron. As highly metabolically active tissue, the brain depends heavily on good oxygen supply. Special oxygen transporters accomplish this, binding and transporting O₂ with the help of iron.
Mental clarity depends significantly on iron. Beyond its role in oxygen transport, which is especially critical for the brain's high energy demands, iron is also required for the production of the neurotransmitters noradrenaline, dopamine, serotonin, and melatonin.
Dopamine is why we find life attractive: good conversations, attractive people, great vacations, parties, good food—this basic feeling is mediated by dopamine.
Noradrenaline creates "drive." Thanks to noradrenaline, we push through tough exam periods and daily work. Serotonin, in turn, creates inner contentment—and melatonin is responsible for helping us sleep well.
Brain energy supply also suffers without iron. The protein complexes in mitochondria that produce ATP, the universal energy carrier (energy!), depend on iron as a cofactor.
Without iron, no energy. Without energy, no efficient thinking.
And that's far from all. Iron is also directly involved in proper myelinization of our nerve cells and thus essential for good signal transmission—which in daily life may also manifest as inner calm.
To boost your brain performance, you need to ensure adequate supply of choline, DHA, and iron. You can do this through supplementation, or the tasty way—with eggs, a serving of wild salmon, or a good grass-fed steak :-)
There's a reason why animal products, especially fish, were historically associated with the dramatic expansion of our brain volume.⁵,⁶ If you want to do things differently today, you'll need to put in a bit more effort—for example, through supplementation.
