Exclusive: Chef Alton Brown Shares Why Brain-Balanced Meals Are Important To Kick Off Your Day

Chef Alton Brown is a big fan of making sure his meals make him feel good — and help him throughout his day.

"I eat fish almost every day, in addition to keeping oats in my refrigerator," the 60-year-old exclusively tells Morning Honey while talking about his partnership with Neuriva, which works to help fuel six indicators of brain health: memory, focus, learning, accuracy, concentration and reasoning.

"If you keep oats in your fridge, it takes the stress off. Make sure it's in the house really helps — you need to set yourself up to not fail. We also have leafy greens, and we make sure to have broccoli or collard greens. There's always going to be something dark and green in the fridge,” he notes.

"There's also packed fish, like smoked trout, which you can add. Me and my wife are huge sardine and anchovy fans, so we always have that, in addition to legumes. There's nothing wrong with canned chickpeas because we like to make hummus. We make sure that our pantry is organized in a way where we never run out of things. And remember: it's not bad to make things taste good!" he adds.

The Iron Chef star admits he can "fall off the horse just like anybody else," but if he messes up, he has these tools to guide him.

Growing up, the TV personality didn't think it was necessary to sleep. "But there's a lot of work you don't know about that is being done inside your brain," he shares. "There's a direct relationship between the brain and the gut, which is shocking. We really are a village, and we've got to take care of everything!"

"In the beginning of the day, I try to get as much good stuff as I can because I know I need to. I like to load myself up beforehand so at least I know I've got the good stuff. If you fill up on the bad stuff, it's hard to bounce back. I try to have a checklist on hand, which is really helpful."

After learning more about how the brain functions better with more sleep and certain foods, Brown admits he has a "ton of energy and feels more relaxed."

Brown is also passionate about spreading the word about Neuriva. "I started doing research about four years ago, and I realized I had done a fair amount of nutritional research about what is good for the human body and what keeps your heart going, but I hadn't spent much time studying brain functionality."

"I started thinking, 'Well, I make a living off of mine, so maybe I should treat it a little bit better,'" he adds. "I started building nutritional plans, and strangely it lined up with what was best for the human body as a machine. It eventually led me to Neuriva and their product. The partnership made sense."

Though Brown used to not be a fan of supplements, his wife had some health issues a few years ago, and they "became the answer."

"I started accepting that there's ingredients that are just tough to get," he states.