Book excerpt: A physician and chef identifies the top ten brain-smart ingredients and shows that eating to maintain brain health is easy, accessible, delicious, and necessary for everyone. The foods we choose to eat—or not—sit at the core of the Alzheimer’s epidemic. They are also the heart of the solution. Annie Fenn, a doctor turned chef turned doctor/chef once she started taking care of her mother who was suffering from dementia, presents a whole new way to think about brain health: it begins in the kitchen. Scientific studies show it’s even simpler than that. There are 10 powerfully neuroprotective foods, and by making them the center of your diet, which is what The Brain Health Kitchen shows readers how to do, you will keep your brain younger, sharper, more vibrant, and much less prone to dementia. None of these brain superfoods will come as a surprise—berries, leafy greens, whole grains, fatty fish, and beans and lentils have been touted for their health-giving properties since researchers put a name to the Mediterranean diet. The Brain Health Kitchen takes this many steps further to create a unique food-based first-and-best line of defense against the heartbreak of Alzheimer’s. There are 100 recipes to put brain-healthy choices into every meal, from Caramelized Apple and Quinoa Pancakes for breakfast to Mushroom and White Bean Socca for lunch to dinners like Miso-Glazed Cod with Rice and Gingery Green Beans and Marinated Steak with Warm Kale Salad and Sweet Potatoes. Followed, perhaps, by Roasted Strawberries with Vanilla Bean–Cashew Cream. But it’s not just a diet—it’s a dietary pattern, which includes the healthiest ways to cook, making diverse choices, what foods you combine, and what you drink. Science bites throughout the book explain the research behind the facts.