You should start cutting back on bad habits if you know you have them. Your brain won’t like a big change in your food all at once, and it will be hard to stick to your new plan, even though you know it’s the right thing to do. You should instead slowly cut out the seven things below from your food. This will protect your brain’s health in the long run. Most likely, #7 is the easiest to give up.

1. Trans Fats

There are some fats that are good for you. There is, however, one type of fat called trans fat that is bad for the brain. Certain animal goods, like meat and dairy, naturally contain trans fats. However, the trans fats that are added to packaged foods by factories are much more of a problem.

People who eat a lot of trans fat, which is also called hydrogenated oil, are more likely to get Alzheimer’s and dementia. Trans fat can be found in margarine, store-bought baked goods, chips and crackers, frozen and canned meals, and creamy drinks. Researchers have found that eating a lot of trans fats can also speed up cognitive loss, make the brain smaller, and make it harder to remember things.

2. Sugary Drinks

Soda, sports drinks, energy drinks, and even fruit juice are all high in sugar and don’t do your body any good. A lot of physical problems can happen if you drink sugary drinks often, like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and yes, Alzheimer’s disease or dementia.

It has been shown that drinking a lot of fructose, a very powerful sweetener found in many sugary drinks, can make it harder to learn, remember things, and make new neurons in the brain. This could also cause the brain to become more inflamed, which is bad for all brain functions.

3. Refined Carbs

Refined carbohydrates are made from grains that have been treated. For some reason, they might not taste sweet, but your body quickly turns them into sugar. That’s because the milling process takes away all of the grain’s fiber and nutrients. A high glycemic load meal is one that makes your blood sugar go up quickly.

Inflammation, memory loss, and a higher chance of getting dementia are all effects that are the same as if you had eaten sugar alone. Studies have shown that kids whose diets are high in refined carbohydrates do worse on tests of their nonverbal ability. And older people who get more than 58% of their daily calories from refined carbs are twice as likely to get dementia or mental illness as older people who eat more whole grains, fruits, and vegetables.

4. Processed and Packaged Foods

Processed and packed foods take away some of the health benefits of whole foods and add sugar, fat, and salt instead. This is what we call the “Western diet,” which values quick and easy foods over home-cooked meals that take a long time to cook. We understand that life gets busy, and there are times when you can’t make your own pasta, sauces, or baked goods.

There is, however, a need to cook with whole, healthy foods as often as possible, since the Western diet is known for making fat build up around the vital organs. In turn, this leads to damage to brain cells and a smaller brain. In addition, it could mess up the blood-brain barrier, which is the membrane that keeps harmful chemicals out of the brain.

5. Alcohol

Given how often people act foolishly when they’re drunk, it shouldn’t be a surprise that alcohol can hurt the brain. It’s unlikely that getting drunk once in a while will hurt you permanently, but alcoholism and heavy drinking can.

Drinking alcohol on a regular basis can make your brain smaller and mess up the chemicals it uses to talk to other parts of your body. It is also common for alcoholics to not get enough vitamin B1, which can cause Korsakoff’s syndrome. That disease causes serious brain damage that makes people forget things, become confused, lose their balance, and sometimes lose their sight.

6. Fish High in Mercury

There’s no doubt that eating fish is good for you. It doesn’t have a lot of saturated fat and has good things for you like vitamin B12, zinc, iron, and calcium. The heavy metal mercury is a neurotoxin and heavy metal pollutant, but some fish have a lot of it. Human and other animal cells can store mercury for a long time.

The most mercury is usually found in the meat of fish that live longer and eat other fish. Those fish have lower mercury levels because they eat other fish while they are still alive. These fish can build up mercury levels that are a million times higher than the amount in the water they swim in over the course of their lives. To keep your brain’s chemicals from getting messed up, you should stay away from or severely limit eating tuna, swordfish, orange roughy, king mackerel, shark, and tilefish.

This is the seventh mistake:

You forgot to mention the “brain-enhancing” smart pills that are popular in Silicon Valley:

Studies have shown that it increases your energy levels by a huge 89.2%, makes your mind sharper, and increases your brain power. The question is not whether the pill works or not, but whether it should be legal, since there is so much proof and media coverage of it.