Wits Guts Grit All-Natural Biohacks for Raising Smart, Resilient Kids

Wits Guts Grit is inspired by the many questions acclaimed science writer and mother Jena Pincott explored about the natural forces that shape children’s minds and health. What if we identify the microbes that support stress resilience and find ways to expose our kids to them? What if we reintroduce the mineral magnesium, deficient in almost every child’s diet? Would it reduce anxiety and increase bounce back, as the science now suggests? What if memory and learning could improve measurably after eating certain foods—such as blueberries—high in plant chemicals called flavonols, or after certain forms of exercise? These and many more questions led Pincott to simple, all-natural “biohacks”—experiments inspired by current research and theory—complete with instructions on how to undertake them to help your own children strengthen their wits, guts, and grit. Explaining the science and her own experimentation with her two gung-ho daughters in a lively, accessible way, Pincott shows parents how the underlying ingredients of the traits we all want for our kids—resilience, focus, perseverance, working memory, and more—may be all around us in the natural world, ready to be harnessed.

Jena Pincott is the author of Do Chocolate Lovers Have Sweeter Babies?, which received starred reviews from Library Journal and Kirkus for mixing "science with wit, personal anecdote, and playful humor," and Do Gentlemen Really Prefer Blondes?, on the science of love and attraction, which received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and has been translated into eighteen languages. Her science writing and interviews have appeared in Psychology Today, the Wall Street Journal, Nautilus, the Huffington Post, Brain World Magazine, Oprah.com/OWN, and many other outlets. She lives with her husband and two daughters in New York City.