We’ve all heard “you are what you eat.” While a nutritious and well-balanced diet is of course great for our bodies, there are some foods that are more beneficial and more nutritious than others. We all know about the foods that we should eat that are deemed “healthy”, but what about foods that are good for just one very important part…say, the brain.

Here is some food for thought, literally. Below is a list of 10 foods proven to enhance the brain’s overall health as well as ensure it is functioning properly on a daily basis. So sit back, enjoy, and put those chips away!

If you’re a seafood kind of person, then today just may be your lucky day. Experiments have shown that oysters are great for your brain, no matter your age. Because they are rich in zinc as well as iron, eating this under-the-sea-delight will help to keep your mind sharp and increase your ability to recall information easily. Zinc and iron have been linked to the brain’s ability to stay focused and remember information. A lack of zinc and iron can result in memory lapses, poor concentration, and of course other ailments throughout the body.

If you’ve ever tried to lose weight, you know just how healthy whole grains are for your body; however, they are also great for your brain. Whole wheat, bran, and wheat germ have high contents of folate, as do brown rice, oatmeal, whole-grain breads, barley, and others. All of these foods work to increase blood flow to the brain which means a higher quality and quantity of brain function. Also, these whole grain foods contain a lot of vitamin B6, which is full of thiamine. Thiamine is great for anyone trying to improve their memory. Scientific research has shown that memory loss dramatically increases by the time you reach your late 60’s or early 70’s; so whole grains are especially good for you as you get older.

Forget your coffee in the morning- try a cup of tea! Freshly brewed green or black tea is extremely beneficial to your brain because it is full of catechins. Have you ever had a day where you just feel drained, tired, and “too lazy” to think? It may be because you are lacking catechins in your brain. Catechins are great for keeping your mind sharp, fresh, and functioning properly. Not only do they keep your brain working right, they also allow it to relax and help to fight against mental fatigue. While green tea is much more potent than black tea, both are extremely good for you. Tea is definitely a great thing to drink early in the morning to ensure you’re starting your brain off right.

When we get older, our brains begin to shrink due to something called brain atrophy. While some of us might want other parts of our body to shrink, I’m pretty sure no one wants a shrinking brain. However, we can fight against this natural process by eating eggs. This is because eggs are full of vitamin B12 as well as lecithin. Vitamin B12 helps to fight against brain shrinkage, which is often seen in Alzheimer’s disease. Eggs, though very unhealthy if you eat too many of them, are full of essential fatty acids. The yolk, though very high in cholesterol, is also high in choline, which is a very important building block of brain cells. Choline can help improve your memory. While eating too many eggs can be bad for your health, eating 1-2 egg products a day can be great for your brain.

This spicy food is a great way to spice up your brain and keep it fresh. A main ingredient in curry powder, curcumin is full of antioxidants that help fight against brain aging and maintain cognitive function as you get older. These antioxidants also fight against free radical damage that can occur within the brain as well as the body.  Free radicals can cause inflammation and other ailments within the body. Not only is curry good for your brain, it also can fight against diabetes and heart disease. Too hot for you to handle? You don’t have to have curry for lunch and dinner each day; the smallest amount of curry once a month can be highly beneficial for your brain.

If you’re not a vegetable person, you can rely on fruit, especially berries, to improve your brain health. For example, blueberries are well known for their role in improving motor skills as well as your overall learning capacity. They are often called the best berry for your brain, and today you may notice the plethora of products using blueberries. Most berries, including blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, and others, are full of antioxidants that are great for boosting the brain. You can help reverse the effects of aging on the brain by eating these berries once a day. Berries are sometimes referred to as “super-fruits” because most of them contain fisetin and flavenoid, which are great for improving your memory and allowing you to easily recall past events.

Leafy green vegetables such as cabbage, kale, spinach, and others, while not very well-liked by children, are excellent for the brain of children and adults alike. These vegetables help greatly when it comes time to remember old information and process it like you just learned it yesterday. This is because these foods are often full of vitamin B6, B12, and folate, which are great compounds needed within the brain to break down homocystein levels, which can lead to forgetfulness and even Alzheimer’s disease. These vegetables are often very high in iron content. If there is not enough iron in-take, cognitive activity slows down greatly. So when mom always urged you to eat your spinach, now you know why.

Eating fish overall is greatly beneficial to your health, especially that of your brain. Fish is full of Omega-3, which is a fatty acid known to be highly beneficial to the body in various aspects. Eating one serving of fish a week can highly decrease one’s chances of getting Alzheimer’s disease. These fatty acids help with brain function because they coat the neurons that at times have a fatty acid layer that becomes stiff due to a high content cholesterol and saturated fat in the body. Omega-3s will coat the neurons with good fat, allowing them to move easily throughout the brain. Omega-3s also provides more oxygen to the brain, as well as allows one to retain new information while still remembering old information. The best fish to eat for brain health are salmon, tuna, and herring.

While eating hundreds of Hershey bars may make you sick, and drinking a lot of hot cocoa in a day just may do the same, the main ingredient in these oh-so-delicious foods, cocoa, is said to be very nutritious for the brain. Scientists have proven that the antioxidant content found in just two or three tablespoons of cocoa powder is much stronger than those antioxidants found in other foods, such as green tea or red wine. The main antioxidant found in cocoa, known as flavonols, is said to help increase blood flow to the brain. While normal milk chocolate lacks flavonols, you will find plenty of it in dark chocolate.

If you’re getting ready to attend college, or have already started and need to declare a major, you’re probably wondering the best major to choose to get a good-paying job after you graduate. After all, unless you’re lucky enough to go to one of the 10 Best Colleges with Free Tuition, those tuition loans won’t pay for themselves. You can plan ahead now by choosing a major that will increase your chances of earning a solid income after graduation.

When it comes to the highest-paying jobs, it should be no surprise that highly technical fields make up the majority at the top of the heap. Engineering jobs in a variety of industries pave the way for new and better products and processes in almost every area – think of the things you use every day like your cell phone, refrigerator or car and how technology advances each year to make them better and more efficient. Engineers are the technical gurus behind these and other items to improve them year after year.

At the very top of the list is Petroleum Engineering, yielding a base salary of nearly $100,000 for recent graduates. The oil and gas industry is a hot one as companies around the world seek new petroleum resources and how to mine and use them as efficiently as possible and Petroleum Engineers provide the know-how when it comes to geology, drilling and other fields to accomplish this.

Chemical and electrical engineering jobs are next, earning recent graduates base salaries around $61,000, which grow to over $100,000 at mid-career. Graduates in these disciplines can find employment in a wide variety of fields, from developing and improving consumer products like laundry detergent and cosmetics to designing automated production systems for factories.

Aerospace Engineering is another field that has generally commanded good salaries for graduates, though a severe cut in funding of the federal space program in the U.S. will likely have a large negative impact on job prospects in this field. However, there are other organizations that require the expertise and knowledge of Aerospace Engineers to build and refine all types of aircraft for consumer, commercial, and military use. Majors in this difficult discipline can expect to earn just over $60,000 to start and surpass $100,000 per year at mid-career.

Given the prominence of computers, cell phones and other electronic devices in so many jobs and everyday use at home, the software and peripherals needed for them are extremely important as well. This is where Computer Engineering and Computer Science majors come in, developing the software and firmware that drive electronic devices and computers as well as the hardware, peripherals and accessories that interface with them. Majors in these fields can expect to earn around $60,000 after completing an undergraduate degree, which will grow close to $100,000 at mid-career.

Note that Computer Engineering and Computer Science are different from Information Technology and Information Systems majors. The fields of Information Technology and Information Systems deal primarily with the application of computer systems in businesses, from systems that manage automated production lines to the email and other communication and management systems used within a company. These fields, while still challenging, don’t require the same type of knowledge and expertise as Computer Engineering and Computer Science majors and their starting salaries are around $48,000.

If you hoped you’d never use what you’d learned in your high school math classes again, you’ll probably be disappointed to learn that advanced mathematical concepts actually have several applications in the real world and can help you earn a good amount of money after graduation. At the top of the earnings list when it comes to math-related fields is Applied Mathematics, with graduates earning over $50,000 when starting out and pulling in close to $100,000 at mid-career. Applied mathematicians can work in several fields building mathematical models to solve business problems or predict behavior or the results of systems and processes.

Statistics is another field where college graduates have the earning potential to stay in the black with starting salaries around $50,000 for recent graduates and in the low-$90,000s at mid-career. Statisticians focus on the collection, organization, and analysis of data and can work in a variety of industries from pharmaceutical to insurance companies and many others. This major also requires strong computer knowledge and skills since the data analysis is primarily completed using complex computer programs.

If you’d rather use your math skills to manage money, a major in Finance may be right up your alley and will put you on track to earn around $46,000 per year after graduation and up to nearly $90,000 at mid-career. Finance majors go on to work in financial institutions, government agencies and companies in every industry to analyze and report on assets and liabilities.

Now if neither math nor science is your forté, you’ll be happy to know that it’s still possible to earn a good salary in other non-technical fields as well. While you won’t need to memorize equations or the periodic table of elements to do them, you’ll need other skills and even some innate creativity to do well in them.

First up is Fashion Design, a field that requires a bit more than the ability to put together a well-coordinated outfit. Fashion and its trends can be an indirect gauge of what’s going on in cultures and societies around the world. It takes a unique eye to identify these trends and the business sense to capitalize on them to make a successful Fashion Designer. Upon graduation, starting salaries aren’t stunning off the bat (around $35,000) but this salary can double by mid-career.

Many people lament the generic-sounding English degree and it’s often stereotyped as a major that doesn’t do a good job of preparing graduates for a real job. While most stereotypes have a grain of truth to them, they’re never entirely accurate. English majors can study literature and other types of writing from cultures around the world in multiple eras and build strong writing skills along the way as well. These abilities can easily translate to jobs in journalism, publishing, and other areas where writing or the evaluation of written material is key and can earn graduates under $40,000 shortly after graduation and over $65,000 per year at mid-career.

There are several lucrative fields that require a graduate degree, including professions in the medical and legal fields. Your undergraduate major can help you prepare for graduate studies in these fields, so if your eye is on one of these areas in the long run and you’re willing to put in the extra time and effort to complete a master’s degree (or higher) to get into one of these professions, choose wisely now.

If you want to become a doctor, majoring in Biology is a solid choice as an undergraduate since you’ll learn about the functions of living organisms, including human beings, in great depth. And should you choose to not go on to medical school after all, you can still earn a very good salary as a biologist in bio-technical, medical and other industries with a starting salary around $40,000 and over $71,000 at mid-career (or even more as a microbiologist).

While getting into law school doesn’t usually require a specific major, having critical reading and writing skills are essential and these can be developed and honed in majors like English, Political Science, and Marketing and Communications, among others. As we’ve already discussed,English majors aren’t completely left behind when it comes to earning potential after completing an undergraduate degree. Political Science and Marketing and Communications majors also enjoy good salaries, earning around $40,000 at the start of their careers and up to double this amount at mid-career.