Kwik Brain Episode 122: 5 Minute Brain-Friendly Snacks with Liana Werner-Gray

Welcome back, Kwik Brain. This is all about, this episode, how do you make Kwik Brain-friendly recipes? Because you are what you eat, and what you eat matters, especially for your gray matter. You like that?

Yeah, that was great.

And we are here with a dear friend, and I'm excited to have Leanna, Leanna Werner Gray. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. She's a 3-time author. Her new book is right here. Cancer-Free with Food. Her other books, we have Earth Diet and also 10 Minute Recipes.

Yep.

And 10 minutes is really pretty much up my alley because this is the Kwik Brain Podcast, right? Bite-sized brain hacks and foods that give you maximum return on your investment of time. I love that. And so, is it possible to make food recipes that are both nutritious and delicious?

It is, yes, and that's why I'm here.

And that's why we're in the Kwik Brain kitchen. And so we're gonna make some— we're gonna make a recipe. We're gonna show people how— I'm all about simple, easy, fun, effective, maximum return of joy, of time and energy. And I also want to talk about your story and why you wrote this book, you know, your journey that it documents going through cancer and coming out on the other side and the role diet played in it.

Yeah, so I'm 10 years cancer-free this year.

That's amazing.

Yay!

That's so extraordinary.

So I was just at the end of 21 when I ended up in hospital. I had a biopsy done. I had a golf ball-sized tumor in my lymphatic system. It was early stages of cancer, so I was lucky for that reason. But my diet was horrendous.

What was it like?

It was the worst kind of diet you can imagine. I would eat gummy bears for breakfast. I would eat pizza for lunch. I would eat McDonald's for dinner. I would eat KFC. Like whatever craving I had, I fulfilled it. I didn't hold back. I was like, I'm craving cookies, I'm gonna eat cookies. And I didn't just eat 1 or 2, I ate like a whole lot of it. And it became this vicious cycle because my body got used to, so used to this dead matter that was providing it with no nutritional value.

Mm.

And it was just like, it was hungry all the time, even though I was eating so much food, 'cause my body wasn't getting any nutrients. So it was starving for real food. So I did that for 5 years before I ended up In hospital. And I just had a gut feeling, literally, that— You had a gut feeling. Yeah, that my diet was what caused this major blockage, this cancer, this tumor in my lymphatic system, which is the body's sewage system. And then of course, if that's blocked, it causes gut issues, you know, brain fog, leaky gut, all kinds of health issues.

You know, in our programs, we always talk about our brains being this incredible supercomputer. And we can teach software, like how to read faster, how to remember people's names, how to learn a language, but if their hardware, their biology is off tilt, you're not going to get the same kind of results. So when we talk about 10 keys for unlocking what we call your Kwik Brain, the number one thing we start with is a good brain diet.

Love that.

And that's what we're talking about here. And so, let's make something while we're talking.

Yeah, awesome. So this is the recipe that I used. when I was healing. And also this helped me to not crave the bad types of chocolate brownies. The chocolate brownies that had white flour and sugar and dairy and soy lecithin and non-organic eggs. That's just a recipe for disaster, right? It's like a brain bomb, an atomic bomb for the brain. So this is a healthier version of a chocolate brownie that is so delicious and so nutrient rich. And it's a legit Kwik Brain recipe, you guys. That is true. I retitled the recipe because of Jim Kwik.

Here we go. And we know this ingredient, chocolate. Tell us about chocolate and the brain because this is probably the best news for everyone watching. Yeah.

So chocolate lovers, great news. Cacao is actually a functional food and it can be eaten every single day as part of a very healthy diet. Isn't that awesome?

It's incredible. But it's not just any chocolate though.

Yeah. It has to be pure cacao powder. So cacao that comes from either Peru and it just comes straight from the cacao pod in little cacao beans and then it's sun-dried and ground up into a cacao powder. So this is the first ingredient in the chocolate brownie.

Now notice we're not talking about milk chocolate that's found at a convenience store or something by the register.

Right. Obviously, don't go out and eat conventional milk chocolate at, you know, 7-Eleven. That is not the kind of healthy chocolate we're talking about. In fact, that chocolate will help destroy your health like it did mine. So this is a chocolate recipe that's actually healthy and tastes good at the same time.

Nutritious and delicious.

Yeah.

What qualities of chocolate make it good for your mind?

So cacao powder actually helps release blood flow to the brain, which is awesome. That's a good thing. Which is why most people, when they have a chocolate craving, they get really excited, right? And then when they eat chocolate, it's like, whoa, it's like a party food. It's like a party in your brain.

And what's good for your mood tends to be good for your mind also as well.

Yes. And there's actually some great studies on this too that show how good it really is for women, especially because of all that magnesium. So it relaxes our body, but at the same time, our body and our brain. And so oftentimes, you know, I live in New York City as well. If I have a deadline that's due and I'm like, I need to work until midnight. Okay, I'm gonna eat some real chocolate. It's gonna get me through to midnight. I'm excited and happy and I'm good to work. You know, I'm good to keep going. Whereas if we try and suppress that, like, oh, chocolate is bad and I shouldn't have chocolate, then it's like, oh, it's like straightaway depression and like, oh, now I'm tired. I'm gonna go to bed early. You know, so this can help to keep us going.

I love this thing can be— and this is a meta-message for everyone who's watching this. If you happen to watch this, we are in my kitchen. If you're listening to this on audio, then we'll describe the actual process. But I will put in our show notes links to all the scientific studies also as well.

Awesome. Yeah. And I've got some great ones I'd love to share with you as well, some great studies that you guys will appreciate, I'm sure.

Well, your book has— I mean, it was amazing recipes. I mean, how many recipes are in the book?

195 recipes in the book. And 26 of those pages are endnotes in the book for those of you who do like science and research. But the recipes are all recipes that I use to help heal and also help me to get off the junk food addiction and addiction to sugar. And also, there are some new recipes that are very cancer-focused. So from all the research I did, I wanted to find out the top anti-cancer foods that exist on earth. So I put those together in a lot of new recipes as well. And then I have some other contributors like Chris Walk, Chris Carr as well. Got a recipe in there from Dr. Oz. And yeah, and also some cancer survivors that when they were going through chemo, some of the recipes that they used to help protect their brain. So there's a recipe in there called the Chemo Brain Buster Smoothie. So that helped protect her brain when she was going through chemo.

Chemo Brain Buster Smoothie. That's big. What I love about this again is like everything that we teach, it's just, it's high return on the most valuable thing you have, which is your time. And rather than eating out in restaurants all the time, and we, you know, we like to do that every so often, you never can control actually what's going on. You don't know what's going on back there.

You don't know what's in the food. Exactly, yeah. You don't know if they're adding sugar. And I mean, people add sugar to everything. That's the quickest way to make a recipe taste good. is like, oh, let's throw in some white sugar.

Okay. And so what are we making today?

Okay, so here we go. This is the Kwik chocolate brownie.

The Kwik chocolate brownie. It's a brain brownie.

It is.

Like little brain bites.

Yeah, do little brain bites. I love that.

Because that's what it is. We're talking about whether it's the information or the inspiration or the recipes here, they're bite-sized, digestible, easily to digest.

Yeah, and that's perfect. And give that a smell. How rich and amazing does that cacao powder smell?

I love it that it could be fun also. People, like, when we do our memory training, we have these kids or these adults and they're celebrating, they're like using their imagination, they're playing. And people don't realize that education could be fun, that food can be fun also as well.

Yeah, and it should be for sure. Okay, so I'm just going to add some cacao powder to the bowl. Now the exact measurements of Of course, in the book. So there we go.

I'm getting excited. You know when you've been looking forward to something for a while and you're just like thinking about it?

Yeah.

That's what I'm going through right now.

Okay.

And— So what's the second ingredient?

The second ingredient, so we need a base. So I'm using tigernut flour.

Okay.

So the tigernut flour is a root vegetable. It's my choice of flour. People could also use almond flour or coconut flour. And it's basically just, we don't want to Eat white sugar, white flour, right? So we wanna avoid white flour. So this is a great alternative and it's so healthy. So tiger nuts have the same amount of iron as red meat. So now these brain brownies, that's a tongue twister, have a great source of iron as well.

Amazing. Now is tiger nut considered potentially, is it, are there some brain benefits?

Yes, so it's really high in potassium, which there are a lot of studies on potassium and how good that is for the brain, right?

Sure.

Okay. So I'm just going to add the tiger nut flour in with the cacao powder. Okay. And now we're up to the 3rd ingredient.

Yes.

Okay. So now it's a sweetener, so people can choose their source of sweetener. So today I'm using monk fruit, which is very keto-friendly, but people can also use honey or maple syrup or even dates or some stevia.

Just not white sugar.

Yeah, definitely want to stay away from white sugar, guys.

That's—

white sugar is the number one food that I list in my book that causes cancer.

Actually, there's a section of your book where you talk about the foods you must avoid. We should do another episode and talk about that.

That is a great idea.

Because it's not just what you eat, it's also what you don't eat that matters.

Yeah, that's perfect. So yeah, there's 5 foods, guys, that we really want to avoid, and it's actually easier than people might think to cut out these 5 foods from our diet.

Amazing.

Cool. And so that's it. Those 3 ingredients and now I'm going to just stir it up and we're about to eat chocolate brownies.

I think I can make this.

Yeah. This is very kid-friendly as well. Like kids love to get into the kitchen and make something like this.

And that's wonderful also as an alternative for children because sometimes they— I mean, I know children want to eat what the other kids are eating, but if you give them something that's just Amazing. Again, nutritious and delicious.

Yes, it has to be both, then it's a win-win.

And we talk a lot about habits and the power of habits. One of the best ways of changing habits is to make these small little, small little changes that add up to big changes.

Yeah, it's one food at a time. So for me, my biggest obstacle was chocolate, so that was the first recipe I made. So I always ask people, what's your biggest obstacle? What do you think is the food that's really holding you back with your health and your brain? You know, is it dairy? Is it chocolate? Is it gluten? Is it bread?

Now, I noticed a lot of the recipes in your book, it's— it could— for anybody's— if they're vegan, if they're paleo, if they're keto, there's something for everybody.

There is, yeah. So it's all inclusive of a meat eater or a vegan. And yeah, it's very easy to eat more plants with the book too, but there's some meat recipes as well. So that's it. You basically just mix up the 3 ingredients and we have our brownie mixture, you guys. And now we can just take this mixture and roll it into a ball for like a nice little truffle brownie ball, or you can also pat it down into be a square shape little brownie as well.

Now, are you cooking these brain brownies or?

So these are raw. These are no bake. These are ready to eat right now.

Amazing.

And we'll actually get a lot of live nutrients from it. If we don't bake it. But you know, Jim, some people do choose to bake these for 7 minutes.

Okay.

And you can also add some healthy organic chocolate chips to it as well, so it'll be a melt-in-your-mouth chocolate chip brownie. But this is the base, the base brownie recipe. Would you like to try it?

I'm totally dying to eat this right now. Thank you. Awesome.

Cool. I'm going to try some as well.

And you can also add other ingredients also to even make it even more functional if you wanted to.

You can. Yeah, and I would love to show you guys some other ingredients that I use Just to add some more brain fuel to this brain brownie. I said it. Yes. Alright. Cheers.

Cheers. I love it. That's amazing. I can't believe you made this in like 2 minutes.

It's very rich. Now, if people like chocolate, they can add more cacao to make it more rich. If they want it less, they can add more tigernut flour.

So you're saying you could also add additional— Ingredients if you like.

Yes. So I'm going to add some Bulletproof MCT oil. Woohoo! Or Brain Octane Oil.

Very cool. MCT.

So this is awesome. This will also make the brownies really nice and moist as well and hold a really good form. And then I also love to add a bit of real salt, some sea salt for some extra minerals. And that gives it an awesome flavor. And you can also add a little bit of vanilla extract, classic in brownies. And then I'm going to do a scoop of sunflower seed butter. So this is just roasted sunflower seeds.

Your omegas, right?

Yeah, great omegas for the brain. And if I'm craving some fats for the brain, I'll just take a spoonful of this and eat this. Actually, I did this right before we were filming.

Okay.

I took a spoonful. It keeps my brain feeling like nourished, like, yeah, Yeah, I can keep going, power on through the day. Okay, and then lastly, you guys, I love to add a greens powder to the chocolate brownies.

Really?

Yeah.

Because most people have green powders, they put it with their water or their juice, but you can actually put this in your snacks.

Yeah, you can put it in your brownies. This is a great way to disguise it because the chocolate's quite empowering, so you won't taste like the green powder. And this has broccoli sprouts in it, which we love, you guys, for the brain, right?

It's such a good brain food.

anti-cancer foods on earth. So that's it. Now I'm just going to mix up those additional ingredients.

This is a wonderful thing to do. Our students who are watching and listening, I talk about brain breaks, that people study for 25-minute intervals. They call it the Pomodoro Technique, that our focus It tends to dip after about 25 minutes, and so I encourage everybody to set an alarm to go off every 25 minutes, and then during that time, take a 5-minute break. And what are they doing in their 5-minute break? They're hydrating, because, you know, water is so critical for brain function. Number 2, they're moving around, because they say, what, sitting is the new smoking, and we're just sitting for 8 hours a day.

It's too much, yeah.

And then the 3rd thing is some deep breathing exercises. To be able to nourish your cells also as well. But I would add a 4th thing is some brain-friendly snacks.

Make some brownies!

Perfect time to be able to— it's really fast, you can do it, and it's also creative also, because a lot of us, we don't activate different parts of our brain all the time if we're doing the same things every single day.

Right, and there's something to be said in making your own food and that brain-gut connection, right? We're like, okay, I'm thinking about it, I'm making my own food, I'm touching my own food here. Preparing the digestion for it. Okay, here we go.

Amazing.

So this is with all of our extra brain boosters. Cheers. Cheers.

Wow, this is amazing. I could not only taste it, but I could feel that. I wish that everybody who's listening to this, like, technology one day becomes so advanced We can be like, here, do you want some? And just through the video or just through your headset, you could actually taste like this full synesthesia experience. You could hear about it, but you can also see it. But the great thing about it is anyone could do this. It doesn't cost a fortune of either money or time, and it's convenient.

Very convenient. Yeah, and you can put these in the freezer, put them in the fridge. I mean, I always had these on standby when I was going through my healing. Whenever I had a chocolate craving, I was like, okay, bing, go to the fridge. And I could fulfill that chocolate craving. So I didn't have to run out and, you know, go to 7-Eleven and get that awful chocolate that can destroy our health.

I love that. Kwik Brain Brownies.

Kwik Brain Brownies.

That's so incredible. One of the best things about this is you could— people could monitor their own, like, the amount of everything.

Yeah.

You can make it as sweet or not as sweet as you'd like.

Mm-hmm.

Liana, thank you so much. I recommend here, here's a challenge for everybody here.

Ooh.

I like challenges, 'cause if it just stays as information, nobody's, that's it, nothing changes. So I want everyone to take a screenshot of this episode, either this video or this podcast episode, and tag Liana, tag myself in it, and actually, even if you don't tag, tag us in it and put your big aha. Like, what are you gonna do? What are you gonna commit to? And then also, if you don't take a screenshot of the actual episode, take a picture actually, I'd rather you do this, Take a picture of your Kwik Brain snack of the day. You know, many people know the brain foods. We talk about avocados and blueberries. You know, I like to call them brain berries. We talk about chocolate, these different things. Make your own recipe, take a snapshot, and then post it, because when you teach something, you get to learn it twice. And certainly, everybody, go out and get this book. Absolutely get this book. And one of the other benefits is you could take your kitchen and transform it into a pharmacy. Because we know food is your medicine. And when I say pharmacy, it's like F-A-R-M because it's coming from real food, and that's what's important because what you eat matters, especially for your gray matter. How do people stay in touch with you?

They can find me on IG @lianawernergrey or lianawernergrey.com, or just Google me or my book and, you know, all the platforms will come up. And if you guys are going to take a picture of yourself with the brownie, I will reshare that on my social media. So there's an extra challenge for you.

So we'll repost some of our favorites, and then also, so if you want to post your questions you have for either of us, and then I also will reward signed copies of Liana's new book. And so that's— let's get this out there because everybody knows somebody who's struggling, you know, like what you went through. Like, I do what I do because shame on me if I know what could help somebody have help them with their learning and I keep it to myself. And so you went through this, this journey of your own and you came through it. And, you know, I know it's kind of like a moral obligation to help more people who are going through the same things. So if you're struggling with this, know that you're not alone. Obviously talk to a healthcare practitioner and do what you can in the kitchen. The little things like that can make a difference both for your brain and also, also your body. Makes a difference. Liana, thank you so much for doing this.

Aww, thank you so much for having me!

Thank you!