Brain foods
The
ultimate reason we eat is to achieve good health and retain it. Good
health also suggests being in good mental state; because, as
psychiatrists argue, there is no good health without mental health.
When we eat good foods, our bodies get
nourished from the head down. Eating wrong foods — such as sugary foods —
can affect the way our brain works.
Scientists say our brains need sugar
every day to function. “Brain cells require two times the energy needed
by all the other cells in the body — roughly 10 per cent of our total
daily energy requirements. This energy is derived from glucose (blood
sugar), the gasoline of our brains,” scientists say. In other words,
sugar is not the brain’s enemy; rather, added sugar in foods is.
Research indicates that a diet high in
added sugar reduces the production of a brain chemical known as
Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor. Without BDNF, they note, our brains
can’t form new memories and we can’t learn (or remember) much of
anything. Levels of BDNF are particularly low in people with an impaired
glucose metabolism — diabetics and pre-diabetics —and as the amount of
BDNF decreases, sugar metabolism worsens.
What are these foods? Here are some of them:
Sugary products
The list is endless, and they include
biscuits, canned and bottled drinks, canned fruits in syrups, sweetened
‘fruit’ juices, dissolvable powdered drinks, candies (sweets), cakes,
dried fruits, jams and other sweetened spreads, so called energy bars,
milk shakes, etc.
Experts say it isn’t that you don’t eat
any of these foods at all; what they are concerned about is their
percentage to the content of your entire daily meal intake, and also if
your entire meal chain revolves around these foods — as is the case with
some people.
A group of researchers, led by the
University of California Los Angeles biology professor, Fernando
Gomez-Pinilla, discovered that bingeing on soft drinks, sweets and
sugary snacks for as little as six weeks may impair brain function.
The study, which was conducted on rats,
is the first to show that a diet high in fructose (sugar) slows down the
brain, and thus hampers memory and learning.
Gomez-Pinilla says, “Our findings
illustrate that what you eat affects how you think. Eating a
high-fructose diet over the long term alters your brain’s ability to
learn and remember information.”
Before now, scientists had proved beyond
reasonable doubts that sugar harms the body through its role in
diabetes, obesity and liver problems. Another study published in
Psychology Today states that overeating, poor memory formation, learning
disorders and depression have all been linked to the over-consumption
of sugar.
So, instead of feasting on sugary snacks, try wholesome fruits.
Junk foods
As far as some people are concerned,
patronising fast food joints is status symbol and therefore a sign of
“arrival.” Well, that’s very contrary to commonsense, as scientists
claim that the bad fats in junk foods can actually clog up the brain and
interfere with the way it sends messages. The effects are even worse in
growing children, they warn.
According to a study published in the
Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, the IQs of children who
ate fatty, sugary, processed foods appeared to suffer years later, while
the IQs of those who ate healthy foods increased.
Again, researcher, Dr. Alex Richardson,
of the University Laboratory of Physiology in Oxford and co-director of
the Food and Behaviour Research Charity, said trans fats displace
healthy fats in the brain.
She warns, “Every time children eat
crisps, biscuits or cakes, they are filling themselves with what are
essentially toxic fats. There are no health benefits to these
hydrogenated fats, yet they are all that some children and adults are
eating.
“They are replacing the essential fats
that would make their brain and body work properly with ones that are
clogging up the machinery. In layman’s terms, the brain gets thicker,”
Richardson says.
Fried foods
Besides the fact that regularly eating
fried foods can give men aggressive prostate cancer, scientists warn
that their effects on brain function are as terrible.
A study by researchers at the University
of the Basque in Spain, published in the journal Food Chemistry,
revealed that compounds released from common cooking oils significantly
increase the risk of neurologic degenerative diseases and a variety of
different cancers. They conclude that toxic compounds from fried foods
cause cancer and deteriorate brain health.
Diets rich in French fries, crispy fried
shrimp and classic fried chicken, among numerous others, could only
land you in hot water, even if metaphorically.
In the United States, for instance, many
schools have cut out fried foods in the café, all in a bid to help
kiddies’ brain power. Instead, they serve baked chicken, baked chicken
wraps, strawberries, peaches, sweet potatoes, carrots and kale.
Experts also recommend alternate food preparation methods such as roasting, steaming and broiling.
Salty foods
Before now, scientists had made us know
that too much salt and too little exercise are hard on the heart.
However, new research suggests that they can be hard on the brain, too.
A three-year study of more than 1,200
people, led by Carol Greenwood, a nutrition scientist and interim
director of the Baycrest Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied and Evaluative Research
in Toronto, has linked a salty diet and sedentary lifestyle to
cognitive decline in old age.
In fact, scientists say salt affects your brain the same way hard drugs do!
Of course, we don’t cut off salt from
our diets totally; rather, what we need is a balance between things. A
physician, Dr. Louise Chang, notes that the iodine in iodised salt helps
the body make thyroid hormone, which is critical to an infant’s brain
development.
So, a little salt is essential to good
health. “Healthy adults should consume salt and water to replace the
amount lost daily through sweat and to achieve a diet that provides
sufficient amounts of other essential nutrients,” Chang counsels.
Others brain killers
Other brain-killer foods to avoid
include processed protein such as found in hot dogs, salami, sausages
and processed meats; nicotine, as found in cigarette; alcohol, processed
foods and artificial sweeteners.
You are advised to eat your foods as naturally as possible.
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