Eat your greens

This is the fourth blog post that has come from the medical journal article How and why does photobiomodulation change brain activity?

Links to previous posts are here, here and here.

Think back to biology lessons about chlorophyll, the green stuff in plants that absorbs sunlight and makes the plant grow big and strong. Think spinach.

It seems that when we eat plants, chlorophyll metabolites get into the blood stream and whizz around the body. Once they have had an enjoyable ride, they leave the circulation and slide into an organ (brain, liver, kidney – wherever takes their fancy) and they pop themselves into cells. Once inside the cell, these chlorophyll metabolites head for the cell battery, the mitochondria. They obviously like to be where all the action is taking place.

In animal models, it has been clearly shown that a meal full of vegetables makes the mitochondrial batteries generate more energy. The chlorophyll metabolites get into the mitochondria intending to do some serious work. If they meet some red or near-infrared light, they react instantly and this response kickstarts a cascade of chemical reactions which pumps more energy into that cell.

If you are someone without a large amount of fresh vegetables in your diet, then you are depriving your mitochondria of the potential to do great and spectacular things. Eating your greens seems like a smart thing to do on a daily basis, and over it will make your body and brain work better.

Spinach, kale, silverbeet and chard here we come…

Edible Photo by Johan Nilsson on Unsplash, with thanks.