Essentials: Food & Supplements for Brain Health & Cognitive Performance

Andrew Huberman frames the relationship between food and the brain as two connected questions: what supports focus and cognitive health over time, and what makes particular foods appealing. His account moves between nutrients, unconscious signals from the gut, the brain’s ability to obtain usable energy, and beliefs about what a food contains. Food preferences, he argues, reflect both biological needs and learning.

He begins by shifting attention from fuel to structure. Although neurons use substantial amounts of glucose, their ability to function also depends on the membranes that maintain their boundaries. These membranes contain structural fats, which he distinguishes from storage fat around the abdomen and organs. The movement of substances across these boundaries regulates the electrical activity through which neurons communicate. This is his rationale for putting dietary fats near the beginning of a discussion of brain health.

Huberman emphasizes essential fatty acids, including EPA and DHA, and argues that most people obtain enough omega-6 fats but insufficient omega-3s for short- and long-term brain function. He identifies fish as a leading source and also names chia seeds, walnuts, soybeans, and other plant foods as sources of EPA. His stated intake target is above 1.5 grams of EPA per day, ideally reaching two or even three grams, through food and/or supplementation. He presents this range as potentially beneficial for cognition; the excerpt does not identify individual studies or distinguish the supporting evidence for each dose or food source.

Next is phosphatidylserine, which he describes as directly supportive of neuronal function and abundant in meat and fish. People who consume enough fish, he suggests, are probably obtaining enough. He also describes supplementation as relatively inexpensive and as providing a higher concentration of a lipid-like compound available from food. He supplies no numerical intake target for phosphatidylserine in this excerpt.