“To a degree, the brain is a creature of habit; using well-established neural pathways is more economical than elaborating new or unusual ones. Additionally, failure to train creative faculties allows those neural connections to wither. Over time it becomes harder for us to overcome thought barriers.” When people ask about my lifestyle and I reply with standard vegan logic, it’s exceedingly rare that someone will respond to any of my points with “intellectual courage.” More often than not, they ignore much of what I’ve said and walk away from the interaction thinking, “Camille loves animals. Isn’t that nice.” Those neural barriers are too reinforced.
On the other hand, we can use neural grooves to establish positive new eating habits. As vegan dietician Matt Ruscigno says, “It is really easy to stay in a rut and very difficult to get out of a rut. We forget that it takes time, and that it’s hard in the beginning… For those of us [vegans] who say it’s easy, it’s because we’ve developed new ruts.” The one true challenge is in resolving to forge that new neural pathway to start with; we just have to persevere to the point where a new habit feels as natural and comfortable as a longstanding one.
We hear doctors’ standard advice for slowing cognitive decline all the time: make a practice of doing things differently. Even good habits like cardiovascular exercise and oral hygiene should be practiced in new ways (like brushing your teeth in tree pose, for instance). Be deliberate about creating new neural pathways, they tell us—that’s how we stay sharp. What we don’t hear so often, though, is that changing your diet is the fastest, easiest way to a clear and fertile mind. It is a logical, specific change you can implement immediately.
Improving Your Input
Commit to a simple positive dietary change for at least one week: fresh juice or a smoothie in the morning (see page 195 for a list of my favorite combinations), a big salad rich in plant protein for lunch, or fresh fruit instead of cookies or ice cream (if you like to work at night). Each day make a note of what you ate or drank and how you feel, both physically and about how your work went that day (being as specific as you can in your observations). If you didn’t notice an appreciable difference, switch things up the following day: try a green smoothie instead of peanut-butter-and-banana, for example, or a three-bean salad with a tangy dressing instead of the vegan Caesar. Keep experimenting until you’ve found the foods that fuel you best.
Herbs and Spices to Light You Up
You probably already know that ginseng and gingko biloba are known to promote cognitive health, but the next time you’re at your local health food shop, look for gotu kola, which is scientifically proven to oxygenate the brain and activate neural pathways. Adriana Ayales, owner of the Anima Mundi Apothecary in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, suggests shaking a daily “herbal cocktail” with raw coconut water, 1 teaspoon gotu kola extract, and ½ teaspoon flax or borage seed oil (for omega-3s). You can also drink gotu kola as a tea by decocting in simmering water for fifteen to twenty minutes.
In a New York Times interview, Serbian artist Ana Kras shares her recipe for a morning chai latte she says boosts her immune system and brings mental clarity. Along with organic masala chai spice, ground vanilla powder, and homemade cashew cream, Kras recommends using Ayurvedic herbs like ashwagandha (dubbed the “Indian ginseng”), which several studies indicate may relieve stress and anxiety, and mucuna pruriens, a legume with anti-depressant effects; and powdered fungi like reishi and cordyceps. Kras, who is vegan, savors a cup of this “potion” along with toast and fig jam each morning before she gets to work. You’ll spend a good bit of money at the health food store, she says, but the powders last a long time, and the mental boost is totally worth it.
Nothing gets me feeling full, cozy, and ready to write like a nice hearty vegetable curry with tofu or chickpeas, and it turns out that turmeric—“king of the spices” and an essential ingredient in curry powder—may fight brain plaque and keep nerve cells active as we age. Along with cumin and coriander (which also go into curry powder), turmeric boosts digestion. Adding freshly ground black pepper maximizes your turmeric absorption, and you can also juice fresh turmeric root for a “golden milkshake” or latte. Studies indicate sage and lemon balm can also stave off cognitive decline, so use these herbs in your cooking (or drink in tea form). Ginger, juiced or added to a curry or stir-fry, is another effective digestive aid; after all, the smoother things are moving down there, the more energy and attention you have for your work!
Whatever you’re eating, make sure your meals are as colorful as possible—that’s how you know your food is rich in phytochemicals, which are powerful antioxidants. In general, as vegan “artivist” Sara Sechi puts it, “A positive and colorful diet makes a positive and energetic individual.”
© Nicola McLean, 100% MY Wool, acrylic, 2019.
Sticking point #5: “I feel like I’m riding in the passenger seat of my own career (and life).”
Several years back I made a friend—a fellow writer, enormously talented—who quite enjoys her bacon and sausage, and over dinner one night, we got to talking about disease and genetics. “I already know how I’m going to go,” she announced. (She was still in her twenties at the time.) “My family has a history of heart disease.”
“People say that, but it’s not your family medical history. It’s the fact that you’re all eating the same food,” I argued. “You won’t die of heart disease if you stop eating meat and dairy.”
I’ll never forget the look she gave me: the wide puppy-dog eyes, hands palm up, an exaggerated shrug. It was a gesture of utter helplessness. No, really, it’s out of my control. Then she calmly took another bite of her shepherd’s pie.
And I swallowed my frustration. My friend is every bit as intelligent as I am. I could have offered her plenty of scientific research to support my claim, had she asked for it: depending on which source you consult, only 5 to 10 percent of all cancers are genetic, and even if you do have a genetic predisposition for cardiovascular illness, physicians like Dean Ornish and Neal Barnard have proven that eliminating animal protein will flip the figurative switch, even in cases where the disease has begun to manifest. Plant foods contain no cholesterol and tend to be low in fat. It doesn’t matter if what you’re eating is “lean,” or “white meat,” or “grass-fed free-range organic”—all animal protein promotes these diseases.
Why wouldn’t my friend listen to reason?
Because as Jessa Crispin points out in Why I Am Not a Feminist, it’s “[e]asier to think we are rendered absolutely powerless than to think we choose powerlessness because it is more convenient.” For many people, cutting out what have been comfort foods from childhood is too grave an inconvenience to contemplate. As my teacher Victoria Moran writes in The Good Karma Diet, “If you have the necessary information and you’re still saying, ‘I could never give up…,’ listen to yourself. You’re affirming weakness. There you are, created, the Bible says, in the image and likeness of God, and you’re brought to your knees by a scoop of French vanilla.” The celebrated South African novelist J.M. Coetzee elaborates on this ubiquitous phenomenon of psychological enfeeblement in the foreword to Jonathan Balcombe’s Second Nature:
Ordinary people do not need to have something proved to them scientifically before they will believe it. They believe it because their parents believed it, or because it is accepted as so in the circles in which they move, or because figures of authority say it is so. Mostly, however, people believe what they want to believe, what it suits them to believe. Thus: fish feel no pain.
This voluntary disempowerment happens
