June 20 2025: Eating for choline & alcohol on brain size

Welcome to this week’s edition of Boost Brain Health, sharing two healthy habits, a lesson, and an inspirational quote.  

Two Brain Health Habits

Move. Movement boosts blood flow to our brains, delivering more oxygen and nutrients. It also promotes the release of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), which helps to lay down new neurons or nerve cells.

Eat for choline. Choline is rarely mentioned yet it is critical to make acetylcholine, THE most important neurotransmitter. You’ll find choline in eggs, fish and cruciferous vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower and brussel sprouts.

One Lesson

We’ve known for some time that heavy drinking of alcohol (3-4 drinks a day) shrinks our brains. But a recent study has shown that even low to moderate consumption of alcohol (an average of 1-2 drinks per day) has a negative effect on brain size.

The study results came from brain imaging of over 36,000 healthy middle-aged and older adults from the UK BioBank. It found shrinkage in both grey matter, the neurons, and white matter, responsible for connections.

You can read the results here.

One Quote

“People who say it cannot be done should not interrupt those doing it.”

Attributed to George Bernard Shaw