A short podcast micro-class by Brian Johnson highlighting brain nutrition inspired by Daniel Amen’s work. It emphasizes that the human brain weighs about 3 lb (2–3% of body weight), consumes 20–30% of daily calories, and that reducing sugar and avoiding processed foods is the primary nutritional recommendation to optimize brain function and overall life outcomes.
Chapters
You're listening to Optimize with Brian Johnson. More wisdom in Less time. Hi, this is Brian. Welcome back to another micro class. This one's on youn Hungry Brain. It's inspired by Change youe Brain, Change youe Life by Daniel Amen, Maryland. Here you are. Hello, you. Here's your brain. How much do you think your brain weighs? What would you guess? It's about £3. And depending on how big or small you are, that's about 2 to 3% of your total body weight. But get this, your brain is hungry. Your brain uses 20 to 30% of the calories you consume. Imagine that 20 to 30% of the calories you consume go right there. Tiny but expensive piece of real estate. And knowing this, if we want to optimize our lives, actualize our potential and change our brain so we can change our life, we better pay attention to what we eat. Dr. Amen makes the point very clear. Doesn't matter how much you meditate, how much you exercise, how much you do whatever, if you're not feeding your brain well, you will not be optimal, period. If you're continuing to eat a lot of processed foods, fake foods, artificial sweeteners, pesticides, all these things, you're not going to thrive. In my interview, I asked him what his number one tip was, nutrition wise. Can you guess what it was. To reduce sugar? Number one tip to feed your hungry brain as well as you possibly can is to reduce the amount of sugar that you consume. Remember, 20 to 30% of the calories you consume go to feed your hungry brain. And also know that as your size grows, so as your size of you grows and grows like that and like that. And that's your body weight, right? As your size grows and you put on more weight, the size of your brain actually shrinks. Dr. Amen calls this something like the dinosaur syndrome or something. Huge body, tiny brain. Rick Warren, the pastor of the super megachurch with whom Daniel Amen wrote a book called the Daniel plan. He watched Dr. Amen on a PBS special and saw this idea, the dinosaur brain thing, right? And the idea that the bigger you get, the smaller your brain gets. Can you believe that? The bigger you get, the smaller your brain gets. That's not a good equation. Anyway, Rick Warren saw this, reached out to Dr. Amen and they wrote a book together about it for now. Remember, tiny, 3 pounds, 2 to 3%. But it consumes 20 to 30% of your calories. What's one thing you can do? One thing. That's it. That's the number One thing that you could do to boost Your calories nutrition by 5%. You don't need to go nuts. You can if you want to, but what's a tiny thing you can do to feed your hungry brain? Better get on that. Let's not be a dinosaur. Have an awesome day. See ya. Hi, this is Brian. I hope you enjoyed that micro class. If so, I think you'll enjoy everything else we offer at BrianJohnson. Me. Two basic things one our free newsletter. It's called the Optimizer. Over 50,000 people start their day with it and they tell us it's pretty awesome and 2 our optimal living membership program. This is where I put all my best stuff. 10 bucks a month for a ton of wisdom. Two primary things in there philosopher's notes plus optimal living 101 classes. When you sign up, you'll get instant access to 250 philosopher's notes, which are basically six page PDFs and 20 minute MP3s where I capture my favorite big ideas for from great books. The PNTV episodes are kind of a mini version of all that goodness. You'll also get instant access to all my Optimal Living classes. This is where I take all the ideas we cover in the Philosopher's Notes and boil it down to the most practical stuff you can apply today. Classes include Confidence 101, Getting Stuff Done 101, Relationships 101 Habits 101, et cetera. You'll also get access to what we call micro classes that I think you'll love. We aim to astonish and we're blessed to have thousands of members telling us we're helping them change their lives and that this is the best 10 bucks they invest in themselves every month. Go to BrianJohnson ME membership to learn more. Thanks for your support and have an awesome day.
