3 Drinks A Neuroscientist Recommends For Better Brain Health

Think of coconut water as nature's original sports drink. The beverage, found naturally inside the coconut fruit, contains electrolytes without the synthetic sugar, artificial colors, and other additives found in commercial sports drinks.

I drink tea all the time. Not only do I love the taste, but I also find the act of making and consuming tea to be extremely relaxing—probably why it's been a ritual in parts of Asia for centuries. My favorite teas are organic green tea, peppermint, and decaffeinated cinnamon spice black tea.

Tea also has amazing benefits for your brain. Drink green, black, and oolong tea, and you may be able to thwart cognitive decline by as much as 50%5, according to recent research. Other studies have shown that green tea can lower anxiety, boost memory, hone attention, and improve overall brain function and connectivity6.

Drinking just a half cup of green tea daily may lower the risk of dementia and depression while slashing the body's production of the stress hormone cortisol7. In fact, people who regularly drink green tea can lower their depression by as much as 21%8, according to studies—researchers say that's the stress-busting equivalent of doing 2.5 hours of exercise per week.

You can credit tea's incredible cognitive advantages in part to epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), an antioxidant found primarily in green tea but also in black, white, and oolong. EGCG helps protect cells from oxidative stress while fighting inflammation9 and has been shown to produce brain waves associated with relaxation and alertness10. For these reasons, tea, especially green tea, has been shown to help prevent a variety of conditions11, including cancer, heart disease, diabetes, obesity, and neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's.

Green, black, white, and oolong tea also contain L-theanine, an amino acid that helps relax the central nervous system. And while they don't include anywhere near the amount of caffeine found in coffee, these teas have a small amount of caffeine, which helps to increase alertness and improve our mood.

I love green juice and drink one every day, no matter what—even if I have to send my fiancé, Mark, on a search to find one whenever we're traveling. Green juice is made by pressing whole, fresh green vegetables through a juicer. It's a rich source of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, enzymes, and phytochemicals, making it a nutrient-dense beverage choice.

Green juice is also packed with chlorophyll, the pigment that gives plants their green color, which helps detoxify and oxygenate the blood and lowers inflammation.

Your body also better absorbs the micronutrients in green juice than it does from the same green vegetables before they go into a juicer. That's because pressing veggies into juice breaks down cell walls and starches, allowing nutrients to be more readily absorbed. What's more, green juice doesn't contain fiber, which can bind to micronutrients and cause them to pass through our digestive tract without absorption.

Green juice is not a substitute for eating green vegetables. Instead, think of green juice as a good option when you want something flavorful, hydrating, and super healthy.