A 25-year Harvard Medical School study of more than 13,000 women showed that the participants who ate relatively high amounts of vegetables over the years had less age-related decline in memory. Cruciferous vegetables and leafy green vegetables had the biggest effect on helping women retain their memory during the course of the study. In another study, the phytochemicals, anthocyanin and quercetin, actually reversed some of the age-related memory deficits in laboratory animals.

All berries have high amounts of anthocyanin so eat plenty of them as well as cherries, black currents,  red, black, and purple grapes, plums, rhubarb, and also eggplant , red onion, red apples, red/purple cabbage, and red beets.

Some of the best foods for quercetin are: onions (red, yellow, white), kale, leeks, cherry tomato, broccoli, blueberries, black currants, elderberries, apricots, apples with skin, and red, purple, and black grapes. As you can see some of mother nature's gifts are on both lists!

To help you take advantage of one pretty potent fruit - here's a link to my favorite recipe for Blueberry Pecan French Toast - a great brunch dish!

Omega 3 fatty acids are also essential for brain function and development. These healthy fats are amazing brain boosters! A study conducted by researchers at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago followed more than 3,000 men and women for six years to see how diet affected memory. People who ate fish at least once a week had a 10 percent slower decline compared with those who did not eat fish, a difference that gave them the memory and thinking ability of a person three years younger. Yipee!