Balance and moderation are key for a healthy and optimally functioning brain. Humans have a tendency to want more of what we like. If we drink one cup of coffee in the morning and it makes us feel more alert and focused, we drink ten. Then we wonder why we can’t focus! The same thing happens with everything from cake to sex. Or we go to the opposite extreme and banish all the little pleasures from our lives. We think since sugar is unhealthy, we should never have any more of it ever, and suddenly our entire life has turned into a dreary battle against high-fructose corn syrup. You can still be healthy and eat your brownies, just as long as you don’t eat too many of them. With moderation as your guide, creating a lifestyle and nutritional regimen that nourishes the brain can be more enjoyable and pleasurable than you may have imagined.