How should you eat to improve how you think? This book sounds the death knell of repressive rules of nutrition and celebrates the joys of the food-loving, gourmet brain. It takes us on a fascinating discovery of the complex chemistry linking the food we eat with our brains. No one should be ignorant of the fact that the brain, like all our organs, requires a supply of essential materials in order to grow, subsist and function. Only then will neurons be synthesised and renewed and energy requirements met. There are about forty vital nutrients found in foodstuffs: vitamins, minerals, trace elements, as well as fatty acids and amino acids. They are indispensable because we are unable to produce them ourselves, and their absence is equivalent to a death sentence. What then is the surest way of putting our lives in jeopardy? Eating. What is the greatest nutritional risk? An unbalanced diet. By providing the keys to proper nutrition, this book shows the way to greater mental awareness, energy, health and fulfilment, while respecting the real needs of both the body and the brain — that most crucial organ. Throughout the book, pleasure (adapted to every budget) remains one of the author’s main concerns.

Jean-Marie Bourre heads a research team specialising in the chemistry of the brain, at INSERM. He is the author, most notably, of Les Aliments de l’Intelligence.