This is my second blog in a series on my new book, The UltraMind Solution.

You can download a free sneak preview of the book at:

www.ultramind.com

Now, on to the good stuff!

The most powerful tool you have to fix your broken brain is not a drug or psychotherapy -- it’s something you use every day.

This tool is your FORK. And what you put on it can help -- or harm -- your brain.

Food is not just calories. Food is information.

And you have to put the right information on your fork for your brain to work properly.

Your brain needs all the raw materials of life to function properly. This material is food -- real, whole foods, not the processed junk foods that line most of our supermarket shelves.

If I could choose any medicine to prescribe, I would choose food.

That’s because food is the most powerful medicine!

It can heal or harm you. It all depends on what you choose to eat.

Despite all of our modern medical bells and whistles, conventional medicine is still notoriously poor at treating mental illness, neurological disorders, and chronic disease.

What most doctors don’t know is that we CAN prevent, treat, reverse -- and often even CURE -- chronic illness and our broken brains with food.

We are an overfed but undernourished nation. We are suffering from some serious nutritional deficiencies that can damage our brains, cloud our thoughts, and leave us depressed and hopeless.

No wonder so many of us are suffering with broken brains.

But you don’t have to. All you have to do to heal your brain is to eat the right foods.

Today, I’m going to review some of the most critical nutrients for brain function, tell you where you can get them, and explain why taking supplements is absolutely essential if you want to optimize your brain.

These are four of the most important tips you need to know to develop an UltraMind.

Spending just pennies a day on healthcare can reduce our expenditures by $24 billion over five years.

Sound crazy? It’s true.

New research from the Lewin Group has shown that spending pennies a day on a few key nutritional supplements can dramatically reduce sickness and chronic disease -- and greatly decrease healthcare expenditures as a result.

How did they come to this conclusion? And why haven’t we heard about it?

The Lewin Group looked only at rigorous scientific studies that documented the benefits of nutritional supplements. They used the Congressional Budget Office’s accounting methods to determine the economic impact of supplements. And they kept their analysis specifically to Medicare patients and women of childbearing age.

Although nutritional therapies can help a broad range of illnesses, the group only looked at four supplements and disease combinations because of the rigor and validity of the scientific evidence available for these nutrients and diseases.

While there are many other beneficial nutritional therapies that have been proven helpful in studies, the ones in this particular study are only those that are unquestionable, beyond scientific doubt, well-accepted, and proven to help.

Yet they are also under-used and not generally recommended by healthcare providers.

The study looked at:

1. Calcium and vitamin D and their effect on osteoporosis
2. Folic acid and its ability to prevent birth defects
3. Omega-3 fatty acids and their benefits for heart disease
4. Lutein and zeaxanthin and their benefit in preventing major age-related blindness, or macular degeneration

Let me review these in more detail.

Ninety-nine percent of Americans are deficient in this nutrient – but if they eat it, it could poison them!

What am I talking about?

Omega-3 fatty acids, which are often found in fish oil.

Research suggests that the omega-3s in certain fish may cure or treat most chronic illnesses, including depression, heart disease, Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, dementia, autism, ADHD, inflammation, and autoimmune diseases. In fact, about 60 percent of your brain is – or should be – made of fish oil.

But getting those omega-3s can be dangerous.

For example, a recent laboratory study of tuna sushi from a selection of New York City restaurants found levels of mercury so high that they exceeded the safe limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and would allow the Food and Drug Administration to take legal action to remove the fish from the market.

Now, we’ve got more media coverage and more headlines, but not much more understanding. Should we eat fish or shouldn’t we?

Today, I’m going clear up the confusion.

There's no doubt about it -- the brain is truly connected to the rest of the body.

And for many of you or your kids who have been diagnosed with behavioral disorders, the conventional treatments of drugs or psychotherapy completely misses this body-mind connection.

This robs you of one of the MOST powerful techniques of fixing so-called "mental illnesses" -- by the end of this article you'll find out that your "mental illness" might not be so mental after all.

I'll talk more about the science behind this idea in a future article.

But this week, I'd like to tell you about a little boy named Jayson and how I used a different approach to help him make a stunning recovery from ADHD, and surprisingly, at the same time, dramatically improve his handwriting.

You could be eating sawdust -- and not even know it!

Sound crazy?

Let me explain.

On a recent plane ride to a medical conference, I started a conversation with the man sitting next to me to pass the time.  I told him that I was a physician working in the area of nutrition.

He exclaimed that the new low-carb craze was a boon for business.  I assumed he was in the food business -- but I was wrong. 

When I asked him what he did for a living, he replied that he worked in the wood pulp industry.

So what’s the connection between wood pulp and low carbs?

As it turns out, cellulose -- an indigestible fiber starch -- is one of the main ingredients in processed low-carb foods.

And what’s another name for cellulose?

Sawdust!