If you've ever wondered why your focus wavers or your energy crashes throughout the day, your diet may be a bigger factor than you think. The Daniel Amen diet plan, developed by Dr. Daniel G. Amen, a double board-certified psychiatrist and founder of Amen Clinics, is a focused eating plan that emphasizes foods rich in brain-healthy nutrients, healthy fats, and protein while eliminating processed and inflammatory foods. According to Dr. Amen, improving your diet can significantly reduce ADD symptoms and enhance overall brain function.
Understanding the Connection Between Diet and Brain Health
Considering that your brain uses about 25% of the calories you consume, it makes sense to address brain health specifically through nutrition. The Daniel Amen diet plan focuses on brain-healthy eating, replacing processed and inflammatory foods with nutrient-dense options that support optimal brain function.
Dr. Amen emphasizes that the ADD diet is not about deprivation but about abundance. It's about learning how to replace your favorite foods with brain-boosting alternatives that help your mind thrive.
Key Principles of the Daniel Amen Diet Plan
The Daniel Amen diet plan is built around several core principles designed to optimize brain health and function. These principles include:
1. Prioritize Protein in the Morning
One of the most important rules of the ADD diet is to eat protein first thing in the morning. Protein stabilizes blood sugar levels and boosts the production of dopamine and norepinephrine-neurotransmitters that use protein to wake up and enhance focus and attention. Eggs, lean meats, Greek yogurt, and plant-based protein options like quinoa or lentils are excellent breakfast choices.
Read also: The Daniel Fast: A Comprehensive Guide
2. Embrace Healthy Fats
Your brain thrives on healthy fats. Omega-3 fatty acids are known to reduce inflammation, improve cerebral blood flow, increase critical hydration levels, and improve cognitive function.
3. Eliminate Processed Foods, Artificial Dyes, and Preservatives
Processed foods, artificial dyes, and preservatives wreak havoc on brain function for anyone and can be especially exacerbating on ADD brains. Research suggests that food dyes and additives increase hyperactivity and worsen ADD symptoms in children and adults.
4. Consider Eliminating Gluten and Dairy
While not everyone with ADD is sensitive to gluten or dairy, more and more people notice significant improvements when they remove these foods from their diet. Consider trying a two-week elimination diet to see if cutting out gluten and dairy, or any other suspected food allergens, reduces your symptoms.
5. Choose Complex Carbohydrates
Not all carbs are bad. The key is to choose fiber-rich, complex carbohydrates that release energy slowly and keep blood sugar levels stable. Fiber-rich, complex carbs are essential for steady energy and brain function, especially for those with ADD/ADHD. Basically, simple carbs cause those mid-day after lunch sugar crashes while high fiber, whole food complex carbs stabilize blood sugar, improving focus, mood, and mental clarity.
6. Stay Hydrated
Staying hydrated is crucial for brain health. Dehydration can lead to fatigue, poor concentration, and irritability-all of which can mimic or worsen ADD symptoms. Your brain is 80 percent water. Anything that dehydrates it, such as too much caffeine or alcohol, decreases your thinking and impairs your judgment. Make sure you get enough water for your brain every day. Drink at least 84 ounces of water a day. It is best to have your liquids unpolluted with artificial sweeteners, sugar, caffeine, or alcohol. You can use herbal, non-caffeinated tea bags, such as raspberry or strawberry flavored, and make unsweetened iced tea. Green tea is also good for brain function as it contains chemicals that enhance mental relaxation and alertness.
Read also: Healthier Daniel Diet
7. Limit Sugar Intake
It’s safe to say that most people have a sweet tooth and ending a meal with something sweet isn’t something to feel bad about. However, too much sugar and refined carbs spike blood sugar levels and contribute to energy crashes, mood swings, and impulsivity. These foods offer a quick dopamine boost but ultimately leave your brain feeling sluggish. So, instead of cutting out sugar and sweets altogether, the goal should be to eliminate the high sugar foods and drinks to eat good-for-you sweets. Excessive sugar consumption is one of the worst offenders for brain health. High sugar intake has been linked to memory problems and decreased cognitive function over time. To improve memory and focus, swap sugary snacks for fresh fruits like blueberries, which are rich in antioxidants and have been shown to improve brain processing speed.
8. Load Up on Vegetables and Fruits
Vegetables and fruits are rich in antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that protect your brain from oxidative stress and reduce inflammation. Eat a rainbow of fruits and vegetables. Compose your daily meals of natural foods of many different colors, such as blueberries, pomegranates, yellow squash, and red bell peppers. The American Cancer Society recommends five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Mixing colors (eating from the rainbow) is a good way to think about healthy fruits and vegetables. Strive to eat red things (strawberries, raspberries, cherries, red peppers and tomatoes), yellow things (squash, yellow peppers, small portions of bananas and peaches), blue things (blueberries), purple things (plums), orange things (oranges, tangerines and yams), green things (peas, spinach and broccoli), etc. The Best Antioxidant Fruits and Vegetables (from the US Department of Agriculture): Blueberries, Blackberries, Cranberries, Strawberries, Spinach, Raspberries, Brussels sprouts, Plums, Broccoli, Beets, Avocados, Oranges, Red grapes, Red bell peppers, Cherries and Kiwis.
9. Snack Smartly
Snacking is essential if you want to keep your energy and focus stable throughout the day. Dr. Amen recommends packing brain-healthy snacks for when you’re on the go. I love to snack; just like to munch on things to get through the day. When snacking it is helpful to balance carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Since I travel frequently, I have learned to take my snacks with me, so I am not tempted to pick up candy bars along the way. One of my favorite low calorie snacks are dried fruits and vegetables. Not the kind of dried fruits and vegetables stocked in typical supermarkets that are filled with preservatives, but the kind that just have the dried fruit and veggies.
10. Make Informed Choices When Dining Out
Dining out doesn’t mean you have to compromise your brain health. It’s all about choosing restaurants that offer a variety of healthy yet tasty options. Use healthy-eating restaurant guides to find brain-healthy meals and avoid the usual pitfalls of processed foods and sugary drinks. Go to tip for eating out: Ask questions, go for vegetables and proteins, sauce always on the side. Tell them no bread or alcohol before meals.
The 5 Types of Overeaters and Targeted Nutritional Recommendations
Based on brain imaging work with tens of thousands of patients, there are 5 types of overeaters, and each type needs its own weight-loss plan with targeted nutritional recommendations. People who struggle with their weight often have underlying brain issues that prevent them from following a healthy eating plan. Until the brain is optimized, it will be difficult to stick with a good diet.
Read also: How Daniel Craig Got in Bond Shape
- Compulsive Overeaters: The most common brain SPECT finding in Type 1: Compulsive Overeaters is increased activity in the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG), which is commonly caused by low levels of serotonin. People with this type tend to get stuck on thoughts of food. They hear the ice cream in the freezer calling their name… over and over and over again. They often feel compulsively driven to eat and might say they have no control over food. Compulsive overeaters tend to get stuck on thoughts or locked into one course of action.
- Impulsive Overeaters: Type 2: Impulsive Overeaters typically have too little activity in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Impulsive overeating is common among people who have ADD, which has also been associated with low dopamine levels in the brain. Research suggests that having untreated ADD nearly doubles the risk for being overweight. Impulsive overeating may also be the result of some form of toxic exposure, a near-drowning accident, a brain injury to the front part of the brain, or a brain infection, such as chronic fatigue syndrome.
- Impulsive-Compulsive Overeaters: In Type 3: Impulsive-Compulsive Overeaters, there is a combination of low PFC activity and high ACG activity. People with this type have a combination of both impulsive and compulsive features.
- Sad or Emotional Overeaters: Common SPECT findings in Type 4: Sad or Emotional Overeaters include excessive activity in the limbic system. People with this type tend to use food to medicate underlying feelings of sadness and to calm the emotional storms in their brains. For some people, these feelings come and go with the seasons and tend to worsen in winter. Others experience mild feelings of chronic sadness, called dysthymia. Still others suffer from more serious depressions.
- Anxious Overeaters: It is as if anxious overeaters have an overload of tension and emotion. They tend to predict the worst and often complain of waiting for something bad to happen. Certain behaviors and substances can exacerbate feelings of anxiety and make anxious overeaters more likely to eat in an attempt to make those feelings go away.
Good, Healthy Food is Brain Medicine
For people with all types of ADHD, nutrition can have a powerfully positive effect on cognition, feelings, and behavior. The right nutrients may even allow you to decrease your medication dosage. When I convince my patients to eat a brain-healthy foods, they notice better mood stability, stronger focus, and more stamina. They also report less distractibility, less tiredness in the late morning and mid-afternoon, and fewer cravings for sugary substances.
Always opt for high-quality food - and not too much of it. Thanks in part to impulsivity, ADHD is often associated with consuming more calories than needed1, which is a demonstrated danger to the brain. Swapping a 720-calorie cinnamon roll for a 400-calorie salad made of spinach, salmon, blueberries, apples, walnuts, and red bell peppers will supercharge your energy and perhaps make you smarter.
Seven Simple Brain-Promoting Nutritional Tips
Dr. Daniel G. Amen provides seven simple brain-promoting nutritional tips to get your diet under control and to use food as brain medicine:
- Increase Water Intake: Given that your brain is about 80% water, the first rule of brain nutrition is adequate water to hydrate your brain. Even slight dehydration can raise stress hormones which can damage your brain over time. Drink at least 84 ounces of water a day. It is best to have your liquids unpolluted with artificial sweeteners, sugar, caffeine, or alcohol. You can use herbal, non-caffeinated tea bags, such as raspberry or strawberry flavored, and make unsweetened iced tea. Green tea is also good for brain function as it contains chemicals that enhance mental relaxation and alertness.
- Calorie Restriction: Substantial research in animals and now in humans indicates that a calorie-restricted diet is helpful for brain and life longevity. Eating less helps you live longer. It controls weight; decreases risk for heart disease, cancer, and stroke from obesity (a major risk factor for all of these illnesses); and it triggers certain mechanisms in the body to increase the production of nerve growth factors, which are helpful to the brain. Researchers use the acronym CRON for “calorie restriction with optimal nutrition,” so the other part of the story is to make these calories count.
- Fish, Fish Oil, Good Fats and Bad Fats: DHA, one form of omega-3 fatty acids found in fish, makes up a large portion of the gray matter of the brain. The fat in your brain forms cell membranes and plays a vital role in how our cells function. Neurons are also rich in omega-3 fatty acids. DHA is also found in high quantities in the retina, the light-sensitive part of the eye. Research in the last few years has revealed that diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids may help promote a healthy emotional balance and positive mood in later years, possibly because DHA is a main component of the brain’s synapses.
- Lots of Dietary Antioxidants: A number of studies have shown that dietary intake of antioxidants from fruits and vegetables significantly reduce the risk of developing cognitive impairment. The research was done because it was theorized that free radical formation plays a major role in the deterioration of the brain with age. When a cell converts oxygen into energy, tiny molecules called free radicals are made. When produced in normal amounts, free radicals work to rid the body of harmful toxins, thereby keeping it healthy. When produced in toxic amounts, free radicals damage the body’s cellular machinery, resulting in cell death and tissue damage. This process is called oxidative stress. Vitamin E and Vitamin C and beta carotene inhibit the production of free radicals. The Best Antioxidant Fruits and Vegetables (from the US Department of Agriculture): Blueberries, Blackberries, Cranberries, Strawberries, Spinach, Raspberries, Brussels sprouts, Plums, Broccoli, Beets, Avocados, Oranges, Red grapes, Red bell peppers, Cherries and Kiwis.
- Balance Protein, Good Fats and Carbohydrates: The more balanced diets, such as The Zone by Barry Sears, Sugarbusters by H. Leighton Steward and a group of Louisiana based physicians, the South Beach Diet by cardiologist Arthur Agatston, and Powerful Foods for Powerful Minds and Bodies by Rene Thomas make sense from a body and brain perspective. The main principles to take away from these programs is that balance is essential, especially balancing proteins, good fats, and good carbohydrates. Having protein at each meal helps to balance blood sugar levels; adding lean meat, eggs, cheese, soy, or nuts to a snack or meal limits the fast absorption of carbohydrates and prevents the brain fog that goes with eating simple carbohydrates, such as donuts. At each meal or snack, try to get a balance of protein, high fiber carbohydrates, and fat.
- Pick Your Top 24 Healthy Foods and Put Them in Your Diet Every Week: In order for you to stick with a “brain healthy” calorie restricted nutritional plan you must have great choices. I am fond of the book Super Foods Rx by Steven Pratt and Kathy Matthews. It lists 14 top food groups that are healthy and reasonable in calories. I am going to add several other choices that are especially good for the brain. Choose between these 24 foods each week. They are healthy, low in calories, and help us reach the goals of consuming powerful antioxidants, lean protein, high fiber carbohydrates and good fat. The American Cancer Society recommends five to nine servings of fruits and vegetables a day. Mixing colors (eating from the rainbow) is a good way to think about healthy fruits and vegetables. Strive to eat red things (strawberries, raspberries, cherries, red peppers and tomatoes), yellow things (squash, yellow peppers, small portions of bananas and peaches), blue things (blueberries), purple things (plums), orange things (oranges, tangerines and yams), green things (peas, spinach and broccoli), etc.
- Fish - Salmon (especially Alaskan Salmon caught in the wild, farmed fish is not as rich in omega-3-fatty acids), tuna, mackerel, herring (also listed under fats)
- Poultry - chicken (skinless) and turkey (skinless)
- Meat - lean beef and pork
- Eggs (enriched DHA eggs are best)
- Tofu and soy products (whenever possible choose organically raised)
- Dairy products - low fat cheeses and cottage cheese, low fat sugar free yogurt and low fat or skim milk
- Beans, especially garbanzo beans and lentils (also listed under carbohydrates)
- Nuts and seeds, especially walnuts (also listed under fats) - Great recipe: soak walnuts in water and sea salt overnight, drain and sprinkle with cinnamon (natural blood sugar balancer) and low roast 4 hours at 250 degrees - makes them easier to digest.
- Berries - especially blueberries (brain berries), raspberries, strawberries, blackberries
- Oranges, lemons, limes, grapefruit
- Broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts
- Oats, whole wheat, wheat germ - oatmeal needs to be the long cooking kind as instant has a higher glycemic index since the manufacturer has broken down the fiber to speed cooking time and basically make it a refined carbohydrate. Same goes for bread, look for at least 3 grams of fiber. Remember unbleached wheat flour is white flour, it must say whole wheat.
- Red or yellow peppers (much higher in Vitamin C than green peppers)
- Spinach - works wonderfully as a salad, or a cooked vegetable, adds fiber and nutrients
- Yams ** Beans (also listed under proteins)
- Extra virgin cold pressed olive oil
- Olives ** Salmon (also listed under protein) ** Nuts and nut butter, especially walnuts, macadamia nuts, Brazil nuts, pecans and almonds (also listed under protein)
- Snacking: I love to snack; just like to munch on things to get through the day. When snacking it is helpful to balance carbohydrates, proteins and fats. Since I travel frequently, I have learned to take my snacks with me, so I am not tempted to pick up candy bars along the way. One of my favorite low calorie snacks are dried fruits and vegetables. Not the kind of dried fruits and vegetables stocked in typical supermarkets that are filled with preservatives, but the kind that just have the dried fruit and veggies.
Foods to Avoid for Brain Health
The Standard American Diet (aptly referred to as “SAD”) is filled with foods that are loaded with unhealthy ingredients and artificial chemicals that are detrimental to mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Some foods are weapons of mass destruction because they are destroying the health and happiness of America and the world, as they are being exported around the globe. These are foods that make you happy now but make you feel bad, tired, anxious or stressed later.
- Foods Sprayed with Pesticides: When your body, brain, and organs are being assaulted by pesticides, they can’t function at optimal levels. Eat organically grown or raised food as much as possible. Eat free-range and grass-fed meat that is hormone- and antibiotic-free. In addition, eliminate food additives, preservatives, and artificial dyes and sweeteners. This means you must start reading food labels.
- High-Glycemic Foods: Scheming food manufacturers may try to convince you that the sweet stuff delivers happiness, but it’s actually a mood killer. All forms of sugar-even natural honey or maple-cause blood sugar levels to spike and then crash. This negatively impacts mood; increases anxiousness, irritability, and stress; makes you feel fatigued; and causes cravings.
- Artificially Colored and Sweetened Foods: Artificial dyes, preservatives, flavoring, and other additives have been associated with mood disorders as well as other issues. For example, monosodium glutamate (MSG)can trigger depressive and anxious symptoms among other disturbances, according to research. The evidence about Red Dye 40 is even more alarming. Studies have linked aspartame (NutraSweet, Equal) to depression, anxiety, irritable moods, and insomnia, as well as a host of other neurophysiological issues.
- Processed Foods: Processed foods like chips, frozen meals, and fast food are loaded with unhealthy fats, sodium, and preservatives. These ingredients can cause inflammation, which negatively affects brain health. For better memory help through diet, focus on whole foods that center on nutrient dense ingredients like dark leafy greens, lean proteins, berries, nuts, and seeds.
- Trans Fats: Trans fats, often found in baked goods and margarine, are notorious for harming physical and brain health. Recent research highlights how trans fats can impair learning and memory by triggering oxidative stress in brain cells and decreasing brain-protective protein activity. To boost memory and focus, avoid products with “partially hydrogenated oils” on their labels.
- Excessive Alcohol Consumption: Excessive alcohol consumption can have a profound negative impact on the brain, impairing memory, decision-making, and focus. To protect your brain, limit alcohol intake and seek encouragement from a support group or trusted family and friends.
- Excessive Caffeine Intake: While caffeine in moderation can improve alertness, excessive amounts can lead to anxiety, restlessness, and disrupted sleep-all of which harm cognitive function. If you’re looking for things to boost memory, try reducing caffeine intake and switching to herbal teas like chamomile, honey lavender, and peppermint to promote relaxation and mental clarity.
- High-Sodium Foods: Foods high in salt, especially from canned and processed foods, can lead to high blood pressure, which reduces blood flow to the brain. Choosing low-sodium options has been proven to significantly improve brain performance in older adults. One of the best ways to enhance memory is to replace those super salty snacks with fresh foods like raw vegetables dipped in hummus or sliced apples with unsalted almond butter.
- Gluten: There are scientific reports of people whose brains and stomachs get better when they eliminate wheat and other gluten sources (such as barley, rye, spelt, imitation meats, soy sauce) from their meals.
The Power of Community Support
For Pastor Rick Warren, Dr. Daniel Amen and Dr. “Change Your Brain, Change Your Life”. “It was the power of the community. The community was the medicine … powerful to show how they can help each other. They shop together. together - ate together. love factor was what helped people change. However, it’s not just about support.
Dr. Amen's Daily Diet
Morning beverage: Pumpkin spice cappuccino - unsweetened almond milk with half-caff coffee, with pumpkin spice and Sweet Leaf chocolate stevia. I make this for my wife every morning. My thoughts on coffee in a nutshell: A little is okay, a lot can be trouble.
Energy / afternoon snack: I created ‘Brain on Joy’ bars for my snack - sugar-free chocolate and coconut.
Dinner is most often… Tonight was cauliflower mashed potatoes, grilled rosemary chicken, and butternut squash, pomegranate, apple salad.