The Whole foodie

Fuel your brain with matcha

Our brains are crazy special. Every second of every waking day, our brains undertake an unquantifiable number of tasks. It’s our own private internet service, organising and annotating tens of billions of synaptic connections, allowing our brain cells and brain domains to tango. Groovy, huh? I’d like to give my noggin all the help it can get, and am looking into matcha green tea powder as the power station du jour.

So what’s the difference between regular green tea and matcha? It seems that the whole tea leaf is ground into a powder — as opposed to soaking inside a teabag — which helps explain why matcha has significantly more antioxidants and swagger than regular green tea. Then there’s the Gaba-bombing feels. Matcha is particularly rich in L-theanine, an amino acid thought to help improve sleep and reduce anxiety.

L-theanine tickles the release of a neurotransmitter called Gaba, which is responsible for calming the brain. There’s also some evidence to suggest our favourite feel-good chemical, dopamine, is triggered by L-theanine. So you get a hit of caffeine, followed by a Gaba riff and maybe even a dose of dopamine. What’s not to love?

Instead of going to the trouble of making the fresh almond milk in this recipe, below, you could absolutely cheat by whizzing up your matcha powder in a blender with some oat milk or ready-made nut milk. But, for goodness, you can’t beat freshly made nut milk. Lately I’ve become an insufferable doyenne of all things dermal, and let me tell you that raw almonds are phenomenal for the skin. All that vitamin E has me dizzy with desire. Otherwise known as the patron saint of youth, vitamin E is a maestro antioxidant that helps many other antioxidants up their tune. And if that tune means less UV damage this summer, sign me up.