Your Brain on Food: How Spices & Nutrients Affect Your Cognitive Abilities Did you know that eating a potato can calm you down? Or that nutmeg and cinnamon can cause feelings of euphoria? Amino acids and other natural compounds are able to steer our mood swings. Nutrients can stimulate different regions of the brain and release chemicals that enhance brain activity or protect the brain from aging. A specialist in Alzheimer’s disease, and a professor from Ohio State University, Gary Wenk started delving into the medicinal impact of food while studying how natural plants could impact memory. People from the Indian subcontinent, he found, are much less likely to develop Alzheimer’s. The reason? They scarf down a lot of curry, which contains an antioxidant that keeps brain cells from aging. For more about your brain on curry, and lots of other fascinating stuff, check out this article from the New York Post!