Something You Should Know - The Secrets of Nonverbal Communication & The Fascinating Connection Between Food and Brain Performance

Episode Date: March 12, 2018

If you flip a coin and it comes up heads a couple of times in a row, chances are you would bet the next flip will come up tails. That is the perfect example of the “gambler’s fallacy.” Because the next flip is NOT more likely to come up tails. It gets gamblers in Las Vegas in trouble but it can also get you in trouble if you let it enter in to your decision making process. (http://news.tamhsc.edu/?post=committing-the-gamblers-fallacy-may-be-in-the-cards-new-research-shows) You instinctively know about body language. When people act a certain way or don’t make eye contact with you – it causes you to make assumptions about them. Plus, how YOU act and carry yourself causes people to make assumptions about you. All this non-verbal communication is fascinating and Tonya Reiman, Fox News, contributor and author of The Yes Factor: Get What You Want. Say What You Mean (http://amzn.to/2Fuh7rp), joins me to offer some insight and advice to help you better use nonverbal communication to your advantage.  If you don’t have time to floss, maybe you should chew some gum. It seems that chewing gum can do a lot for your oral health but you have to chew the right kind of gum and you have to make sure you don’t chew it too long. Listen to hear the explanation. (http://www.medicaldaily.com/oral-health-hack-chewing-gum-removes-100m-bacteria-10-minutes-similar-flossing-319120 ) What you eat turns out to have a lot to do with how well your brain works. Eat the right foods and your cognitive performance increases. East the wrong foods and the opposite occurs. Neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Mosconi, author of the new book Brain Food: The Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Power (http://amzn.to/2HqihAA) explains the connection between food (and drink) and your brain and she offers her list of best and worst foods to eat if you want to optimize your brain’s performance. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today on Something You Should Know, if you like to gamble, you've likely lost money because of the gambler's fallacy. I'll explain what it is and how to protect yourself. Then, nonverbal communication. It's very telling, but you can't apply all the rules all the time to all people. That's one of the biggest problems that I think people have is that they'll go, oh, they didn't make eye contact, they were lying. Well, no, find out what's their normal behavior. Then you can determine pretty accurately if they might be trying to kind of get over on you.

Also, is chewing gum good or bad for your teeth? Plus, what you eat and drink has a bigger impact on your brain than you probably knew. The brain is very sensitive to dehydration, so even a very small loss of water, like a 2-4% loss, can cause brain fog, fatigue, confusion, and makes your brain shrink. All this today on Something You Should Know. As a listener to Something You Should Know, I can only assume that you are someone who likes to learn about new and interesting things and bring more knowledge to work for you in your everyday life. I mean, that's kind of what Something You Should Know was all about. And so I want to invite you to listen to another podcast called TED Talks Daily.

Now, you know about TED Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done TED Talks Daily. Now, you know about Ted Talks, right? Many of the guests on Something You Should Know have done Ted Talks. Well, you see, Ted Talks Daily is a podcast that brings you a new Ted Talk every weekday in less than 15 minutes. Join host Elise Hu. She goes beyond the headlines so you can hear about the big ideas shaping our future. Learn about things like sustainable fashion, embracing your entrepreneurial spirit,

the future of robotics, and so much more. Like I said, if you like this podcast, Something You Should Know, I'm pretty sure you're going to like TED Talks Daily. And you get TED Talks Daily wherever you get your podcasts. Something You should know. Fascinating intel. The world's top experts.

And practical advice you can use in your life. Today, Something You Should Know with Mike Carruthers. I've never been much of a gambler. I mean, the playing poker, blackjack in Las Vegas kind of gambler. I guess ever since I heard that the odds are always in the house's favor and over the long term you're most likely going to lose, it kind of lost its appeal to me. But I understand the appeal of beating the odds. I just choose to try to beat the odds other than in Las Vegas. But if you are a gambler, perhaps you've heard of the gambler's fallacy. It's the belief that after a long streak of losses,

you feel that your luck is going to change and you'll start winning, when in fact your odds of winning are no better than they were before. So why do people believe this? Well, you can blame the neurons in your brain. In a computer model of biological neurons, How do people believe this? Well, you can blame the neurons in your brain. In a computer model of biological neurons, researchers at Texas A&M University trained it with random sequences of a coin toss. And they observed that the neurons actually preferred the alternating pattern of heads, tails, heads, tails, heads, tails.

In other words, these neurons behaved just like a gambler in a casino. When the outcome of a fair coin toss is heads, they are more likely to predict that the following toss will be tails, despite the fact that either is equally likely. So why is this important? Well, it shows that the brain naturally leans towards the gambler's fallacy. And this can have a big implication for decisions you make that aren't just gambling decisions.

It creates a bias in our thinking, like the gambler, which can get you in trouble if you're not careful. And that is something you should know. Interesting thing about nonverbal communication is that even if you've never studied it or read a thing about it, you know how to do it. At some level, you know how to read people, how to tell just by the way they're acting what to think of them. Well, how do you know that? It does seem to be an innate skill that human beings seem to have. And perhaps if we understood it better, we could use it to our advantage even more, not

only in reading other people's nonverbal cues, but projecting our own. Tonya Ryman has been fascinated with nonverbal communication for a long time. She has studied it. She speaks on the subject. She's been a contributor on Fox News. And she's author of a book called The Yes Factor. Get what you want. Say what you mean. Hi, Tanya. So what are the basics here? What should we be doing and looking for when it comes to nonverbal communication? Well, you know, when we're talking about the verbals versus the nonverbals, if we're talking nonverbals,

well, then we're going to talk about the basics like make sure you make eye contact, but of course that eye contact is cultural dependent. So I always say know the person you're talking to, what's their background, before you have a conversation with them so you can recognize what's appropriate for them and what's inappropriate for them. So once we know that information, you want to maintain appropriate eye contact. You want to have good posture because posture really says a lot about you. And what I mean by that is if I walk into a room and my shoulders are slightly slumped

over, I'm not going to give the impression that I feel confident. Instead, I'm going to give the impression that I'm kind of trying to hide. When you hunch your shoulders over and you tilt your body down, it gives the impression that you're trying to disappear as opposed to walking in a little bit faster than normal, shoulders back, and kind of owning the room. My deal is walk into the room and own it. Make sure that when you walk in, heads turn. And you do that by being charismatic, by walking in tall, strong, smiling,

feeling good about yourself, and making eye contact with the people in the room. I mean, I always tell the joke, which is when you walk into a crowd of room of people, even if you know no one, smile and wave, because it makes you look like the man, you know? It makes you look like the one who knows others, even if you don't. And we've all seen people do that, and I think you're right. When we see people who know other people, it makes them look more confident, more connected. I don't know what it is, but it's charisma.

The president does that so often. We were just watching a speech that he gave the other day, and I would imagine he knows a great deal of people as he walks into the room, but I would also imagine there are times he's just waving at the air, because what that does is it gives the impression that everyone wants a piece of you. And when everyone wants a piece of you, the rest of us tend to want a piece of you as well. We tend to kind of want to associate with the shakers, with the movers, with the powerful people. And when you see someone walk into a room and they start waving at invisible people,

but we don't know that, we think, wow, they're important and we want to hang around with them. What's interesting to me is that, you know, you talk about nonverbal communication and body language, but you also make a point of saying, you know, say what you mean, that the words you say are important. Well, you know, the whole reason I say that is because quite often we're somewhat intimidated to say what's on our mind. And when I say this, what I mean is you need to frame things in an appropriate context. So you have to say what's important, but say it in a way that's not going to be offensive and say it in a way that's going to be positively framed. So, you know, something as simple as, and the perfect example is, the glass is half empty versus the glass is half full.

You know, you want to talk about the glass, but yet you want to make sure that you frame it positively so that people feel good about being around you. Because we don't like to be around negative people. It brings us down. So when I say, say what you mean, say it, but say it persuasively so that people feel good about being in your surroundings. I suspect that you can overdo this whole body language,

nonverbal communication thing, that you can't trick people into thinking something about you by, you know, crossing your legs or looking up to the right or something like that. That just doesn't work. Right. Well, you know, the goal here is to get away from trickery. The goal here is to not manipulate others. Manipulate to me is a positive word, but because there's such a terrible meaning in the bigger picture to the word manipulate, I'll explain what I mean. When I say you want to

manipulate the environment, what I mean is you want people to see you as your best possible self, right? But what winds up happening is people try too hard, like you just said. They try to take six new tools and incorporate them all in a week. And instead of coming across naturally, instead of changing themselves, they look like they're trying to be someone they're not. So my goal for people is to not incorporate everything at once. It's to learn a new habit each and every week so that it's incorporated. And now instead of it being a trick, quote, unquote, it's now part of you. And these are all tools that aren't built to necessarily make someone feel like you're getting over on them.

It's tools to make you a better person. And so an example of that would be, you know, somebody who's shy and they don't typically make eye contact. Well, that can really hurt them in the bigger picture. So what I tell people in that situation is, you know, you don't want to stalk or stare someone. You don't want to go in with your shoulders back, walk fast, stalk or stare. Those are all too many things to try to do at once. So instead, let's use eye contact for this week. And your goal is going to be to make eye contact with five people a day and hold that eye contact until it becomes second nature to you,

until you become comfortable with that. So now we're not talking about can you overdo it. We're talking about something that has now become habitual for you. Now this is something you do naturally so that it comes across natural. So with eye contact, if it's difficult for people to make eye contact, is that in fact telling you something? It's telling me, well, it can tell you several things. It could tell you that based on their culture, they don't use eye contact because it might be inappropriate. It tells me that someone is perhaps shy. It tells me that they're insecure. Or it tells me that they're perhaps an inexperienced liar. An experienced liar will have no problem with

eye contact. But an inexperienced liar, and we'll use children as a great example for that, an inexperienced liar sometimes will break eye contact. So it will tell me a host of different things. My next job is to baseline the person and find out which one of those things might be the appropriate answer. So are they shy? Are they deceptive? Are they insecure? Or maybe is this not what they feel is appropriate? It's more about not trying to find one signal and making a decision, but putting a whole host of different signals together and then determining based on that whole host of answers what kind of person they are. And that, of course, like I said, is called baselining someone. Because you can't jump to conclusions based on one little thing.

Absolutely not. That's one of the biggest problems that I think people have is that they'll go, oh, they didn't make eye contact, they were lying. Well, no, find out what their other signals are. You know, what's their normal behavior? Once you know what someone's normal behavior is, then you can determine pretty accurately if they might be trying to kind of get over on you. What about gestures?

What do gestures tell you, if anything? Typically, a person who makes smaller gestures tends to be slightly more powerful because powerful people feel they don't need to make big gestures. Powerful people keep their gestures nice, small, and tight because they recognize that people will go out of their way to pay attention to those gestures. You know, as a speaker, I can go out and kind of make sometimes very big gestures because my job is to keep the crowd interested in what I'm saying. My job is to draw them in.

But if I were the CEO of a company, my gestures would be small and tight because I want to make sure that people recognize I know I'm in charge and you need to just constantly keep your eyes on me. And what about the types of gestures that people make? I mean, can gestures sabotage your verbal message? Sure. If I'm talking to you and I'm using palms up gestures, which means you can see the palms of my hands, and I'm saying to you, oh, I really think this is a great deal. You're going to make tons of money. Well, palms up tends to be a submissive gesture. So that in and of itself might give you an indication that I don't even believe myself. I'm trying to sell myself on this idea. A better way to do it would be to have palms down because that's a more authoritative position to take. So I'm talking to you and I say, oh my goodness, this is a great deal. And as I say it, my palms are going down towards the floor. Well, here that's more congruent. You can see that I feel powerful and dominant about what I've just said. The same thing goes with shoulder shrugs. You know, I'm telling you how confident I am,

but I'm shrugging my shoulders. I'm lifting them up towards my ears, which is a sign of insecurity and doubt. So if I'm giving off those signals, you can tell it's incongruent. And then you might not consciously question it, but on an unconscious level, you might feel like, you know, the hackles start to stand up. I'm talking about nonverbal communication, and I'm talking about it with Tanya Ryman. She is author of the book The Yes Factor, Get What You Want, Say What You Mean. You know, my mother was a great cook, and so was her mom, and I like to cook too.

But the reality today is there isn't always time to prepare a great home-cooked meal from scratch, which is why I love Plated. Plated offers 20 chef-designed recipes every week and delivers everything you need to cook right to your door. So I get home, put on some music, pour myself a glass of wine, and just follow Plated's step-by-step recipes. This week I'm cooking lemon scallop risotto,

which I would never do if I had to do it from scratch, but with Plated it's easy and foolproof. Plated sources high quality ingredients, including sustainably raised meats and organic produce when possible. Plus, everything comes in just the right portion, so you have just what you

need to cook, no more, no less. The recipes are easy to follow, with plenty of pictures, which I like, because I always like to see if mine turns out the way the picture looks on the recipe card. And with Plated, it always does. I would really like you to discover your ideal dinner experience. Go to Plated.com slash something to get 25% off your first four weeks for a limited time only.

Terms apply. See Plated.com slash something for details. That's plated.com slash something. Since I host a podcast, it's pretty common for me to be asked to recommend a podcast. And I tell people, if you like something you should know, you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest. If you like something you should know, you're going to like The Jordan Harbinger Show. Every episode is a conversation with a fascinating guest. Of course, a lot of podcasts are conversations with guests, but Jordan does it better than most.

Recently, he had a fascinating conversation with a British woman who was recruited and radicalized by ISIS and went to prison for three years. She now works to raise awareness on this issue. It's a great conversation. And he spoke with Dr. Sarah Hill about how taking birth control not only prevents pregnancy, it can influence a woman's partner preferences, career choices, and overall behavior due to the hormonal changes it causes. Apple named The Jordan Harbinger Show one of the best podcasts a few years back, and in a nutshell, the show is aimed at making you a better, more informed, critical thinker.

Check out The Jordan Harbinger Show. There's so much for you in this podcast. The Jordan Harbinger Show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, this is Rob Benedict. And I am Richard Spate. We were both on a little show you might know called Supernatural. It had a pretty good run, 15 seasons, 327 episodes. And though we have seen, of course, every episode many times,

we figured, hey, now that we're wrapped, let's watch it all again. And we can't do that alone. So we're inviting the cast and crew that made the show along for the ride. We've got writers, producers, composers, directors, and we'll of course have some actors on as well, including some certain guys that played some certain pretty iconic brothers. It was kind of a little bit of a left field choice in the best way possible. The note from Kripke was, he's great, we love him, but we're looking for like a really intelligent Duchovny

type. With 15 seasons to explore, it's going to be the road trip of several lifetimes. So please join us and subscribe to Supernatural then and now. So Tanya, you talk about something that I've never heard anyone else who talks about non-verbal communication talk about, and that is smell, that your smell matters. Well, I guess, I guess it, of course it matters, but talk about it as it relates to this. Smell is very important, and, you know, one of the most important reasons is because we tend to try to cover up our natural, you know, odors, which is fine if somebody hasn't showered in a few days. But here's where it becomes important. Smell is one of the most important anchors. Okay. So, I mean, if you think about, you know, when you smell a particular smell,

whether it be apple pie, thinking, you know, if we're going the traditional route, thinking of grandma's house, then that might be a really good anchor and you might feel really good about it. As a matter of fact, you know, real estate agents do that all the time. They'll buy candles that will kind of give the impression that this is a house that's lived in. You know, they'll have vanilla candles or they'll have pumpkin pie spice candles, anything that kind of gives the impression that there are people who live here and cook here and spend time here, that

helps to sell the house, right? But what if you go for a job interview and you're the candidate and you're wearing, let's say, the perfume Red Door and the person who is interviewing you is going through this horrendous divorce, and suddenly he smells Red Door, and he stops thinking about the interview. What he's thinking about now is his wife, who took him to the cleaners for everything he had. So it can have a very bad effect based on an anchor as opposed to having a positive effect. Now, there are neutral smells like musk, vanilla, pumpkin, sandalwood. All these are kind of neutral smells, and those are the smells that I usually tell people to layer on.

They're good, powerful scents, and they're also maternal and paternal, so it feels good. If I stand next to somebody, especially a man, and I smell like baby powder or sandalwood, it's going to be attractive to me. I'm going to like that smell. Now, on a conscious level, I also might love Pierre Cardin, but we know from doing scientific studies that we tend to be more attracted to the smells we can't smell on a conscious level. That's interesting. Are there any things that people do universally, like pointing at someone when you're talking to them,

or anything like that that is just automatic turnoff? Oh, well, you just hit it. Pointing is one of the biggest turnoffs. It's very aggressive. The most important piece to me is getting into somebody's space. I mean, spatial awareness, I think, is one of the most important pieces of any interaction, especially when we're talking about people who don't like to have their space invaded. You know, doing what I do right now,

you can walk right up to me nose to nose and I'm fine. But what I've found over the years is people do not like to have their space invaded. And what winds up happening is I might step forward and perhaps you're somebody who has like a three-foot bubble that you like to keep. I step forward to you to tell you something and you feel I've invaded your space. And you don't realize you're doing this, but maybe you take one foot and you move it back slightly, right? And then I look and I think, hmm, maybe he can't hear me. So I take another step forward. And then you take another step back. And before you know it, we're doing this waltz where you're trying to tell me nicely, stay away. And I'm going, I don't get it.

Why do you keep walking away? So space invasion is one of the biggest issues. And what happens is when you invade someone's space, they feel like you're being overly aggressive. And that's one of the biggest deal breakers. I know you talk about not only, you know, what you do with your body, but where you put it, that positioning around a table and wherever else has an impact on what goes on. Oh, yeah.

Well, you know, because what you want to be doing is making sure that you're building bonds, building relations with people, as opposed to sitting across from them in a more confrontational style. So, you know, when I go into businesses, one of the things I try to tell them is make sure that you have your office set up so that it's conducive to a good meeting. You know, for instance, if you're going to interview a client, one of the things you want to be able to do is see their feet. You want to be able to see their legs. So I always say, you know, take them to a place where you're either sitting on the same side of them or on a couch, you know, like have a couch in your office so that you can see their legs.

And the reason you want to do that is because a lot of times body language leaks out of the lower half of the body. So someone could be looking you right in the eyes and you're thinking, well, great, great, great, but down below their feet are shaking or they're crossing and uncrossing their ankles or anything that's closing them up and we don't have an opportunity to see that. In addition, if I'm talking across a table, quite often that is seen as confrontational. And again, this isn't on a conscious level. It's not like the person you're talking to is going, oh, my goodness, they're being so confrontational. It just lends itself to feel more confrontational on that unconscious level. It's not like the person you're talking to is going, oh my goodness, they're being so confrontational. It just lends itself to feel more confrontational on that unconscious level.

And you don't find it as easy to bond with someone when you're sitting directly across from them. What's the best position to be at is kind of like a corner angle so that we're both angled slightly away, yet we can see full bodies. You know, it's interesting to me, it's always interested me, that when you go out on a date or you go out to dinner with your, you know, wife or husband or significant other, you sit across from each other. But when you go out with another couple, now you sit next to each other. And that changes how you communicate with that person, because now they're sitting next to you. They're harder to see.

You have to turn to look at them and talk to them. It's more of an effort. So maybe you talk to them less. It just changes the dynamic between you just because of where you sit. Yeah. You know, it's funny because early on in the dating scene, I find, and my husband and I included, when we used to go out to dinner, people would find it bizarre that we would sit next to each other. And, you know, with constant, you know, we were first dating, touchy, touchy, touchy, the legs all wrapped around one another. But what you come to find

over time is that you're constantly having to turn your head towards the person. You know, when you're in this intimate relationship and you're kind of sharing a table and your hands are reaching across, it can lead to great intimacy. But if that's not the situation, then it's tough to have any kind of communication over that table unless you can kind of really get to that angle where you're both seeing each other's eyes, whether it just be one eye or both eyes, or you're seeing bodies. So that's why right angle seating is the best. Like if you can have right angle seating, that's the best possible seating. I like your idea, your strategy that you talk about where,

like if you go out to a restaurant and it's an important meeting, that you sit with your back up against a wall so people just see you. They're not distracted by what's going on behind you. All they can see is you and the wall. Because what happens is when we go out to a restaurant, especially, we get distracted so easily. So, you know, I'm sitting in the corner and you're sitting across from me. A waiter is walking by. Perhaps he's good looking. He catches my eye. Maybe, you know, the woman is good looking. She catches my eye. A dish breaks. That catches my eye. So I'm constantly distracted. And although I'm paying attention to you, you don, the woman is good looking. She catches my eye. A dish breaks. That catches my eye. So I'm constantly distracted.

And although I'm paying attention to you, you don't have my full and utter attention. Okay? Now take the situation where I know what's going on and I know what I want out of this meeting. I'm going to sit in that same seat and I'm going to let the other person sit where all they have an opportunity to look at is me. Because I know that they, as far as I'm concerned, are the only ones in the room. That's the only person in the room. He or she will have my full and utter attention, and they have no choice but for me to be their attention. And it's really powerful because it just takes away any potential distraction.

I'm the only one they can see. Unless they're literally going to turn their head, it's all about me. And I make sure at that meeting that they are the only one that matters to me in the entire world. And I will not break for any kind of distraction. The person behind me could be dropping dishes. There could be a little fire two tables away. All that matters is the person I'm talking to thinks that he or she is the most important person in the world. And you know what? They are. At that moment, they are the most important person in the world.

And that's what you have to get across because making people feel like that is fascinating. And when someone feels fascinated, you're going to bond much easier. Well, it is interesting what a big impact nonverbal communication can have on any interaction and understanding it can really help you do it better. What a big impact nonverbal communication can have on any interaction, and understanding it can really help you do it better. My guest has been Tanya Ryman. She is author of the book The Yes Factor, Get What You Want, Say What You Mean. And there's a link to her book in the show notes.

Thanks, Tanya. People who listen to Something You Should Know are curious about the world, looking to hear new ideas and perspectives. So I want to tell you about a podcast that is full of new ideas and perspectives, and one I've started listening to, called Intelligence Squared. It's the podcast where great minds meet. Listen in for some great talks on science, tech, politics, creativity, wellness, and a lot more. A couple of recent examples, Mustafa Suleiman, the

CEO of Microsoft AI, discussing the future of technology. That's pretty cool. And writer, podcaster, and filmmaker John Ronson, discussing the rise of conspiracies and culture wars. Intelligence Squared is the kind of podcast that gets you thinking a little more openly

about the important conversations going on today. Being curious, you're probably just the type of person Intelligence Squared is meant for. Check out Intelligence Squared wherever you get your podcasts. Hey everyone, join me, Megan Rinks. And me, Melissa Demonts, for Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong? you get your podcasts. we share our hot takes on current events. Then tune in to see you next Tuesday for our Lister poll results from But Am I Wrong? And finally, wrap up your week with Fisting Friday, where we catch up and talk all things pop culture. Listen to Don't Blame Me, But Am I Wrong on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. New episodes every Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday.

As you know, what you eat is important to your health. But most of the discussions about diet and health have been about diet and heart health, or diet and diabetes, or diet and longevity. But not so much about diet and brain health. But does what you eat really affect how well your brain works? And if so, is it that eating right helps your brain work better? Or is it that eating bad things makes your brain work worse? Or maybe it's a little bit of both.

Here to explore that is neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Moscone. She's the Associate Director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and author of the new book, Brain Food, The Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Power. Hi, Lisa. Welcome. Hi. Thank you so much for having me. So let me start by asking if you're saying that eating the right foods actually helps your brain work better, or are you saying that you have to be careful not to eat the wrong foods because eating the wrong foods makes your brain work worse? You're definitely optimizing your brain by eating healthier. Yes.

I think as a society, we really need to learn to eat for our brains. And the foods we eat, yes, they change the way we look, but they really change the way we think. And some foods, and this is my research and many other scientists' research, some foods will help us age gracefully, really, and achieve and maintain our top mental performance, whereas other foods will have the opposite effect. They will really, literally harm our brains and increase our risk of cognitive decline and dementia. So give me an example of a food, you pick one, or maybe a good one and a bad one, of what you're talking about and how this works.

Sure. So a good food for me would be fish. And if I can give you an even fancier food, I would say caviar. But I know it's expensive and it's not affordable. But just from a purely scientific and chemical perspective, and again, I'm a scientist, so I really like chemistry, but the thing is the brain needs very specific nutrients. What was really helpful to me was to understand that what the brain needs to eat is different

from what the rest of the body needs to eat. If you eat right for your brain, you're also eating right for your body, but not the other way around. So fish is something that your body and your brain need. And the reason for that, as far as the brain is concerned, is that the brain contains quite a little bit of fat, and it's a very specific kind of fat. It's called DHA. It's a kind of omega-3

fatty acid that the brain is not able to produce on its own and so it has to be imported from the diet and fish is the best natural source of DHA. Now caviar is the fancy word for just fish eggs and the egg is the part of the animal that is really optimized to produce a brain, first of all. So in that sense, eggs and fish eggs are really very helpful to the brain. So help me understand, though. So if I eat fish eggs, what's the benefit to my brain?

Am I going to be able to, what, do math better? I mean, what's the benefit? I will tell you what's to be able to, what, do math better? I mean, what's the benefit? I will tell you what's going to happen to you if you do not. There is evidence that people who consume less than two grams of DHA per day have twice the risk of future dementia as compared to people who eat more than two grams a day. So basically, if you don't eat it, your brain is going to age faster and worse. And when you're a little bit older, you're going to show memory impairment, reduction in attention span, you're going to have trouble with your language. A lot of people have trouble coming up with words. And it really increases risk of dementia down the line

because we're literally robbing the brain of the tools and the nutrients that it needs to stay healthy. And the brain is very resilient. It's a very resilient organ, and it can really withstand a lot of damage before we show symptoms. But once we do, then we're in trouble. So is it safe to assume that what we have been told is a healthy diet, that what the Heart Association and everyone else has said is a healthy diet

is a healthy diet for the brain as well, generally speaking? By and large, I would say there are common principles. I would also say that there are some foods that are helpful to the rest of the body that are not necessarily helpful to the brain. Like you mentioned meat, for example. Some people would think the high-fat foods are actually healthy for you. And I think what's coming, what's become clear as research progresses is that fatty foods are really not so helpful for your brain other than those that contain omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, so they're polyunsaturated kind of fatty acids.

There's evidence that some fats are actually good for the rest of the body, but they just cannot get inside the brain. Like, for instance, saturated fat. It looks like nowadays a lot of people are going on high-fat diets, and many people do that because they say, well, the brain is made of fat, so I need to eat this fat from my diet so that I can replenish the fat inside my brain. And that is correct for the polyunsaturated kind of fat, like the omega-3 and omega-6, but all other kinds of fat which just cannot get inside the brain.

So they're not helpful for brain health. You mentioned that caviar and fish eggs and fish are helpful. What are the other foods, kind of your top five, top ten foods, that if you ate these would be really good for your brain? And then what are some of the foods that you say really hurt the brain? So my top five foods would be fish would be my number one. Number two, dark leafy greens like spinach, Swiss chard. I personally am Italian. So dandelion greens are quite popular there and they're very healthy and they're very good for you. But really all sorts of greens. They're full of minerals and vitamins and fiber and all sorts of disease-fighting nutrients

that are needed for a healthy nervous system. Then I would say berries. Like berries are packed with antioxidants that really support memory, especially as we get older. They're also a really good source of fiber and glucose. And glucose is the main energy source for the brain. So they're sweet, but they also have a low glycemic index. So they actually help regulate sugar levels.

They don't impact your insulin levels, which is good for you. And also, most people think blueberries, but in reality, blackberries have a higher antioxidant potential. They're not as popular in the news, but they're possibly more helpful than just blueberries. And then the last one, actually the second to last, I would say extra virgin olive oil. There's been a lot of research done on these oils

and also clinical trials showing that extra virgin olive oil really is good for the heart and good for the brain. It's really packed with anti-aging nutrients like omega-3s from plants, in this case, but also vitamin E. So it's a very special natural blend that is particularly helpful to the heart and the brain. And my last one is not considered a food, but I'm going to say it anyway. I would say water.

A lot of people underestimate how important water is for brain health. The brain is mostly made of water. Over 80% of the brain's content is water, and we cannot store water inside our bodies and brains, so we really need to replenish that every single day. And that's crucial because every chemical reaction that takes place in the brain needs water to occur, including energy production, like no water, no energy. And this is very serious.

The brain is very sensitive to dehydration. So even a very small loss of water, like a 2% to 4% loss, can cause neurological symptoms, like brain fog, fatigue, dizziness, confusion, and even worse, some brain imaging studies have shown that even mild dehydration makes your brain shrink. You don't want your brain to shrink. No, I don't. I don't want my brain to shrink. Exactly. And that's really just simply drinking water is incredibly helpful for the brain. How much? And the problem, it depends on age and geographic location and physical activity.

So people, if we get older, we need more water than when we're younger. So usually, let's say between eight and ten glasses of water a day is a good amount. But if we get older, we need a little more. If you're in California, good for you. The weather is so wonderful. You may need a little bit more when it gets warm outside. And also people who exercise a lot obviously need more water than those who do not. But the thing I wanted to say is that in the United States, many people drink water that is just not nutritious.

They drink purified water that doesn't have any minerals and any electrolytes in it. They've been literally removed from the water. Or so many people drink seltzer or club soda. It's just not, it doesn't qualify as water.

We need what we call hard water, which is actually natural water like spring water, mineral water, water from a lake, tap water, if it's good enough to drink. If instead we drink filtered water, then we really need to take a mineral supplement along with that and some electrolytes. Okay, so what about the foods that are bad for you? Processed foods, fast foods, and deep-fried foods. And also excess foods that contain a lot of fat, like saturated fat and trans-saturated fat. Those are really not helpful for the brain. Processed foods, fast foods, and fried foods, in general, what they do is that they really increase inflammation everywhere in the body and also in the brain.

And that's because they contain ingredients that are just not healthy, like transaturated fatty acids, like partially hydrogenated and hydrogenated oils, too much white refined sugar, too much white refined grains. These are all foods and nutrients that are just not healthy in the body in general. Research has shown that especially trans-saturated fats are very bad for you and increase risk of cognitive decline and dementia. And it takes very little trans fats in the diet to actually develop cognitive impairment.

There have been studies showing that people who consume two grams a day of trans saturated fats have twice the risk of dementia as compared to those who eat less than two grams. And two grams is not much. So these would be foods like? I'm going to start with donuts because it's the first thing that came to my mind. Didn't anyone even want this morning? So commercial donuts, cakes, pie crusts, biscuits, frozen pizza, snack foods like cookies,

but also crackers, the margarines, commercial cheeses, commercial meats like deli meats sometimes, or creamy products like coffee creamers, for example. Is it all or nothing? Is a little okay? It seems like a little bit would probably be okay. So I would say try to minimize them would be the best strategy. And making sure that you replace them with foods that are actually nutritious and healthy. That's probably the best strategy. I find, you know, as a mom with a young child, I ask other moms,

like, why do you buy processed foods? And they say, because it's convenient, because I don't have time, because it's cheaper, because I can find them easily. And that's very true. So I think it's very important to re-educate the public to look for healthier alternatives that are just as convenient and easy to find. I cook all the time to make sure that my daughter doesn't start craving those foods. The other day, her friend was having french fries from something like McDonald's,

and they said, no, sweetheart, I'm just going to make them for you from scratch. And so I got an actual potato, I cut it really thin, extra virgin olive oil, in the oven instead of frying it, and you can make chips. And they're delicious, and they're healthy, and she had a bag and never asked for it again.

Yeah. And it isn't that hard because I've made those kind of fries too. It's not like it takes a lot of time. I mean, yes, it takes more time than going and asking for a large bag of fries at a fast food place, but it's not like it's hard. I agree. I agree. We just don't think that way.

You know, I always say, when you're about to reach for the brownie, just think about a piece of your brain being made of that brownie. Would you like that? And maybe some people would and find it funny, but, you know, in the long term, you want your brain to be made of good materials. But I think that it's a difficult sell because I don't think people see the connection, obviously, that as they do with people know that if they eat fat, that it can affect their heart because we've learned that. But we haven't learned this yet.

We haven't learned about the connection between the food and between food and the brain. And plus, you know, it isn't all 100% true, because there's always going to be those cases of people who eat like crap and still do just fine. So people will always point to those people and say, well, see, look, this guy drank a pint of whiskey every day, smoked cigarettes, and ate donuts, and he's just fine. Well, that may be true for some people, but it's not true for the average person. And my way of demonstrating that is by using brain imaging. Like we have scanned hundreds of people and we can look at their brain structure and whether or not their brains are showing signs of aging and dementia and is your brain shrinking

basically. And we can look at brain activity and we can also quantify presence of Alzheimer's plaques in brain. And that's a very strong motivator, I find, because when you take people who are like middle-aged, you know, not even elderly, but more like 40s, they're in their 40s or 50s. And if you separate them into those on a Western diet and those on a Mediterranean-style diet, you know, more fruits, more veggies, whole grains, fish, olive oil, and very little processed foods and very little fast food, if you compare their brain scans,

on average, those on the Western diet show 15% more brain shrinkage than those on the Mediterranean diet. So people on the Western diet, their brains are aging worse, for sure, they show like an extra three, four, five years worth of aging in their brains as compared to people of the same age. And that's a very strong motivator. You can literally show people, look, maybe you're the lucky one who's not going to show this, but on average, your chances of your brain shrinking are very high as compared to somebody who's simply eating better. Well, what's interesting to me is that really until the last few years, I've always thought that your lifestyle could do harm to your brain. That, you know, drinking and drugs or eating bad food or whatever could accelerate dementia or Alzheimer's disease

or do harm to you, but that there wasn't a lot you could do to improve your brain. And clearly, diet is one of the things that really does seem to make a difference. Neuroscientist Dr. Lisa Moscone has been my guest. She's the Associate Director of the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and author of the new book, Brain at the Weill Cornell Medical College in New York, and author of the new book, Brain Food, the Surprising Science of Eating for Cognitive Power. Thanks, Lisa. Thank you so much for having me. It was a real pleasure.

You know that flossing is an essential part of good oral health. However, if you can't or refuse to floss, chewing gum may be just as good, at least when it comes to removing bacteria from your mouth. In a study, participants were asked to chew gum for different lengths of time. After about 10 minutes, the gum contained about 100 million bacteria, which was then disposed of when the gum is spit out.

Now, while your mouth has a lot more bacteria in it than that, getting rid of 100 million is still significant and beneficial. Now, to be fair, it should be noted that the study was funded by Wrigley, you know, the gum people, but even the dean of the dental school at the University of Pennsylvania says that gum chewing does have real benefits. Chewing gum shouldn't be viewed as a permanent flossing alternative, rather just another way to improve your oral health. And by the way, the gum has to be sugarless, and chewing the same piece for more than 10 minutes can cause the bacteria to be released from the gum back into your mouth. And that is something you should know. We are on Facebook. We are on Twitter. Follow us there to get additional content as well as reminders when new episodes post. I'm Mike Carruthers. Thanks for listening today to Something You Should Know. Welcome to the small town of Chinook,

where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro,

who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot,

and someone is watching Ruth. Chinook, starring Kelly Marie, and someone is watching Ruth. Chinook. Starring Kelly Marie Tran and Sanaa Lathan. Listen to Chinook wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Jennifer, a founder of the Go Kid Go Network. At Go Kid Go, putting kids first is at the heart of every show that we produce. That's why we're so excited to introduce a brand new show to our network called The Search for the Silver Lining,

a fantasy adventure series about a spirited young girl named Isla who time travels to the mythical land of Camelot. Look for The Search for the Silver Lining on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts.