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How eating more fat can improve your memory
The ketogenic diet is about much more than weight loss
Your brain is the most advanced, sophisticated nerve centre on the planet. Or — depending on how you look at it — a wrinkled lump of fat, housed within your skull. Either way, it is the accumulation of millions of years of human evolutionary biology.
No other organ contains so much fat, or needs it so much. Without it, the brain simply cannot function. Memory loss is one sign of that.
The dry weight of the brain is 60% fat. It’s all there: saturated, monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fat. There’s also a good deal of cholesterol, a fat-like substance. As well as forming part of the structure of the brain, and providing fuel, these fats play a role in maintaining memory and other aspects of cognitive function.
By the same token, lack of the right fats plays a role in cognitive dysfunction, including poor memory and ultimately dementia.
Perhaps that’s why fat is so appealing. “Fat gives food flavor”, as chef and TV personality Julia Child once famously put it. Fat is filling, and instantly lights up your brain’s reward centres.
