Brains Behave Better on Broccoli
- Georgina Brown (hershe)
- Jul 14
- 4 min read
Your Brain’s Not Just in Your Head:
Why Balanced Leaders Eat Well, Move Often, and Think Inclusively
Let’s get one thing straight: Your brain isn’t some abstract mist swirling majestically in your skull, dispensing wisdom like a benevolent wizard.
It’s flesh and blood. It’s hungry. It’s wired, wet, and wildly affected by what you put in your mouth, how much you move your limbs, and whether or not you’ve had enough sleep.
In fact, your brain consumes around 20% of your daily energy. And if that energy source is three croissants and a flat white, don’t be surprised when it makes impulsive decisions, clings to cognitive shortcuts, or quietly forgets where it put the inclusive hiring framework.
Neuroscientists like Dr. Lisa Mosconi (author of Brain Food) have shown that food directly affects neuroplasticity, focus, and emotional regulation. Omega-3s, leafy greens, and slow-release carbs? They light up your prefrontal cortex, your empathy engine. Ultra-processed, sugar-laced snacks? They fog it up like a bad weather report.
So if you’re aiming for inclusive leadership, your first act might not be rewriting the EDI strategy, it might be your lunch.
And if you want to be a conscious, inclusive leader, someone who makes decisions with clarity, empathy, and nuance, then kale, squats, and sleep might be more critical to your equity strategy than that next EDI policy review.
Because here’s the deal: If your brain is foggy, inflamed, sleep-deprived, sugar-saturated, and sedentary, then guess what? You’re more likely to default to mental shortcuts. Biases. Snap judgements. Hierarchies. Fear-driven decisions. The opposite of inclusion.
Let’s unpack that.
Why Brains Behave Better on Broccoli
Neuroscientists like Dr. Lisa Mosconi (author of Brain Food) have shown that the foods we eat directly affect neuroplasticity, memory, focus, and decision-making. Foods rich in omega-3s, antioxidants, and B-vitamins literally fuel the prefrontal cortex, your logic-and-empathy control centre.
Meanwhile, sugar spikes, ultra-processed foods, and nutrient-poor snacks inflame the brain and shrink the hippocampus, which isn’t just about memory, it’s also where emotional regulation and self-reflection hang out.
So that “hangry” snap at your team in the 4pm slump? Yeah, that wasn’t just the tight deadline, it was the third coffee and biscuit combo talking.
Movement Is Mind Medicine
Dr. Wendy Suzuki (Professor of Neuroscience at NYU) calls exercise the most transformative thing you can do for your brain in the short and long term. A brisk walk literally lights up your hippocampus and prefrontal cortex, boosts dopamine and serotonin, and increases BDNF, Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor, aka Miracle-Gro for the mind.
Inclusive leaders need flexible thinking, calm nerves, and emotional resilience. Exercise gives you all three. It reduces amygdala reactivity, meaning you’re less likely to spiral into fear, defensiveness, or groupthink when challenged.
You don’t need a Peloton and six-pack. You need regular, moderate movement, especially outdoors, where the combination of nature and motion accelerates restorative brain activity. (See also: Kaplan’s Attention Restoration Theory.)
Sleep: The Most Radical Inclusion Practice
Let’s talk about what everyone ignores while they burn the midnight EDI oil: sleep. Dr. Matthew Walker’s research (Why We Sleep) shows that sleep deprivation makes you more irritable, less empathetic, and more risk-averse, not great for inclusive decisions.
Leaders who brag about 5 hours of sleep? They’re not high-performers. They’re operating with the same cognitive impairment as someone over the legal drink-driving limit. Hard pass.
Want better bias-checking? Want to actually listen and adapt in a heated boardroom debate? Go to bed.
Inclusion Starts With Homeostasis
Homeostasis is the body’s constant balancing act, temperature, blood sugar, hydration, hormone levels. But it’s also a brilliant metaphor for inclusive leadership.
If your body is chronically out of balance, you’ll lead from scarcity, reactivity and autopilot. You’ll double-down on “what we’ve always done” and resist new ideas (because your brain literally can’t process them when in survival mode).
Inclusion requires executive function, the very thing that poor diet, inactivity, and stress erode.
What Does an Inclusive Day Look Like?
Here’s a little Conscious Leader’s Wellness Menu for peak inclusion:
Breakfast: Eggs, spinach, wholegrain toast = fuelled neurons
Mid-morning: 10-min movement break = hippocampus lit
Lunch: Colourful veg + protein = sustained glucose, stable mood
Afternoon: Breathwork or walk = reduce cortisol, increase focus
Evening: Digital wind-down + 8 hours’ sleep = restored empathy
You’re not doing this to “be healthy” in some vague, performative sense. You’re doing it because a healthy brain is a fairer, kinder, wiser brain. And that’s what inclusion needs.
Final Word from the Front Lobe
We can train leaders in policy, protected characteristics, legal definitions, and charters all day long, and we should. But if we don’t address the neurobiology of bias, and the physical wellbeing that underpins conscious thinking, we’re just adding surface polish to a foggy system.
So next time you’re designing your inclusive leadership strategy, ask yourself:
“What did I eat today?”“Did I move?”“Did I sleep?”“Am I actually in the headspace to be inclusive… or just on autopilot?”
Because inclusive cultures aren’t built in the boardroom.
They’re built in the gut, the lungs, and the synapses.
Eat wisely. Move joyfully. Sleep deeply.
And lead like you mean it.
P.S. As the daughter of a fruit and veg merchant, I can confirm: inclusion really does start with your five a day.
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