Genius Foods: Become Smarter, Happier, and More Productive While Protecting Your Brain for Life

by Max Lugavere, Paul Grewal M.D.

Overview

New York Times Bestseller

Discover the critical link between your brain and the food you eat and change the way your brain ages, in this cutting-edge, practical guide to eliminating brain fog, optimizing brain health, and achieving peak mental performance from media personality and leading voice in health Max Lugavere.

After his mother was diagnosed with a mysterious form of dementia, Max Lugavere put his successful media career on hold to learn everything he could about brain health and performance. For the better half of a decade, he consumed the most up-to-date scientific research, talked to dozens of leading scientists and clinicians around the world, and visited the country’s best neurology departments—all in the hopes of understanding his mother’s condition.

Now, in Genius Foods, Lugavere presents a comprehensive guide to brain optimization. He uncovers the stunning link between our dietary and lifestyle choices and our brain functions, revealing how the foods you eat directly affect your ability to focus, learn, remember, create, analyze new ideas, and maintain a balanced mood.

Weaving together pioneering research on dementia prevention, cognitive optimization, and nutritional psychiatry, Lugavere distills groundbreaking science into actionable lifestyle changes. He shares invaluable insights into how to improve your brain power, including

• the nutrients that can boost your memory and improve mental clarity (and where to find them);
• the foods and tactics that can energize and rejuvenate your brain, no matter your age;
• a brain-boosting fat-loss method so powerful it has been called “biochemical liposuction”; and
• the foods that can improve your happiness, both now and for the long term.

With Genius Foods, Lugavere offers a cutting-edge yet practical road map to eliminating brain fog and optimizing the brain’s health and performance today—and decades into the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780062562852
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	03/20/2018
Series:	Genius Living , #1
Pages:	400
Sales rank:	33,280
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.50(d)

About the Author

Max Lugavere is a filmmaker, TV personality, and health and science journalist. He is the director of the film Bread Head, the first-ever documentary about dementia prevention through diet and lifestyle. Lugavere has contributed to Medscape, Vice, Fast Company, and the Daily Beast, among others, and is a regularly appearing “core expert” on The Dr. Oz Show. He is a sought-after speaker, invited to lecture at esteemed academic institutions such as the New York Academy of Sciences and Weill Cornell Medicine, and has given keynotes at such events as the Biohacker Summit in Stockholm, Sweden. From 2005 to 2011, Lugavere was a journalist for Al Gore’s Current TV. He lives in New York City and Los Angeles.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

How to Use This Book 6

Part 1 You Are What You Eat 11

Chapter 1 The Invisible Problem 13

Genius Food #1 Extra-Virgin Olive Oil 25

Chapter 2 Fantastic Fats and Ominous Oils 27

Genius Food #2 Avocados 59

Chapter 3 Overfed, yet Starving 61

Genius Food #3 Blueberries 89

Chapter 4 Winter Is Coming (For Your Brain) 91

Genius Food #4 Dark Chocolate 115

Part 2 The Interconnectedness of it all (Your Brain Responds) 117

Chapter 5 Healthy Heart, Healthy Brain 119

Genius Food #5 Eggs 143

Chapter 6 Fueling Your Brain 145

Genius Food #6 Grass-Fed Beef 173

Chapter 7 Go with Your Gut 177

Genius Food #7 Dark Leafy Greens 209

Chapter 8 Your Brain's Chemical Switchboard 211

Genius Food #8 Broccoli 243

Part 3 Putting Yourself in the Driver's Seat 245

Chapter 9 Sacred Sleep (and the Hormonal Helpers) 247

Genius Food #9 Wild Salmon 267

Chapter 10 The Virtues of Stress (or, How to Become a More Robust Organism) 269

Genius Food #10 Almonds 297

Chapter 11 The Genius Plan 299

Chapter 12 Recipes and Supplements 323

Acknowledgments 343

Resources 347

Notes 351

Index 373

Editorial Reviews

The human brain doesn’t come with an owner’s manual, but Genius Foods comes close—except that it’s also fun to read, and written in a way that anyone can understand. Lugavere has done a great job of distilling the best-available evidence to fix or prevent a broken brain, while also bringing important new ideas to light.” — Mark Hyman, MD, Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine

“Max Lugavere has magnificently accomplished the task of bringing the leading edge of brain science to the table—literally. Genius Foods rightly portrays what we choose to eat as representing the most influential decision we make in terms of brain function as well as resistance to disease. Lugavere empathetically guides the reader to dietary choices that will clearly pave the way for a better brain.” — David Perlmutter, MD, Author, #1 New York Times bestseller Grain Brain and Brain Maker

“Genius Foods can help you reset your mental agility, cope with stress, battle brain fog, and even smack back dementia. What are you waiting for?” — Mehmet Oz, MD, Professor, Columbia University

“Genius Foods breaks down and connects cutting-edge topics like dementia prevention and gut health with humor, optimism, and ample enthusiasm. Max Lugavere excels at making the complex subject of nutrition one that anyone can follow and apply in their own lives.” — Maria Shriver, award-winning journalist and founder of The Women’s Alzheimer’s

“Max Lugavere has pursued a personal mission to learn and educate others in the increasingly-concerning issue of dementia and cognitive decline. In Genius Foods, he has compiled the most masterful summary of nutritional science relevant to brain health that I have ever read. Heartfelt, readable, and real, Max cuts through the misinformation that characterizes conventional dietary advice and comes to conclusions that are unexpected and powerful. If you are interested in preventing cognitive decline and dementia, Max’s book is an absolute must read.” — William Davis, MD, Author of the Wheat Belly series and Undoctored

From the Publisher

Max Lugavere has pursued a personal mission to learn and educate others in the increasingly-concerning issue of dementia and cognitive decline. In Genius Foods, he has compiled the most masterful summary of nutritional science relevant to brain health that I have ever read. Heartfelt, readable, and real, Max cuts through the misinformation that characterizes conventional dietary advice and comes to conclusions that are unexpected and powerful. If you are interested in preventing cognitive decline and dementia, Max’s book is an absolute must read.

William Davis

Max Lugavere has magnificently accomplished the task of bringing the leading edge of brain science to the table—literally. Genius Foods rightly portrays what we choose to eat as representing the most influential decision we make in terms of brain function as well as resistance to disease. Lugavere empathetically guides the reader to dietary choices that will clearly pave the way for a better brain.

David Perlmutter

Genius Foods can help you reset your mental agility, cope with stress, battle brain fog, and even smack back dementia. What are you waiting for?

Mehmet Oz

The human brain doesn’t come with an owner’s manual, but Genius Foods comes close—except that it’s also fun to read, and written in a way that anyone can understand. Lugavere has done a great job of distilling the best-available evidence to fix or prevent a broken brain, while also bringing important new ideas to light.

Mark Hyman

Genius Foods breaks down and connects cutting-edge topics like dementia prevention and gut health with humor, optimism, and ample enthusiasm. Max Lugavere excels at making the complex subject of nutrition one that anyone can follow and apply in their own lives.

Maria Shriver

  “Genius Foods is the result of pure genius, in the form of Max Lugavere! In one wonderfully readable book, Max has distilled usually hard-to-grasp scientific principles into a useable guide to everyday food and lifestyle choices that make maximizing your brain health (not to mention the rest of your body) an enjoyable and easy-to-accomplish daily feat. Take my advice and read this book!

Steven R. Gundry