Pfannerstill

Blood sugar shoots down,and with it, our attention span and mood.On the other hand, oats, grains,and legumes have slower glucose release,enabling a steadier level of attentiveness.For sustained brain power,opting for a varied diet of nutrient-rich foods is critical.When it comes to what you bite,chew, and swallow,your choices have a direct and long-lasting effect on the most powerful organ in your body.

Carbs come in three forms:starch,sugar,and fiber.While on most nutrition labels,they are all lumped into one total carb count,the ratio of the sugar and fiber subgroups to the whole amount affect how the body and brain respond.A high glycemic food, like white bread,causes a rapid release of glucose into the blood,and then comes the dip.

In order for the brain to efficiently transform and synthesize these valuable nutrients,it needs fuel, and lots of it.While the human brain only makes up about 2% of our body weight,it uses up to 20% of our energy resources.Most of this energy comes from carbohydrates that our body digests into glucose,or blood sugar.The frontal lobes are so sensitive to drops in glucose, in fact,that a change in mental function is one of the primary signals of nutrient deficiency.Assuming that we are getting glucose regularly,how does the specific type of carbohydrates we eat affect our brains?

Antioxidants in fruits and vegetables strengthen the brain to fight off free radicals that destroy brain cells,enabling your brain to work well for a longer period of time.And without powerful micronutrients,like the vitamins B6,B12,and folic acid,our brains would be susceptible to brain disease and mental decline.Trace amounts of the minerals iron,copper,zinc,and sodium are also fundamental to brain health and early cognitive development.

Limited access They're one of the reasons we might feel calm after eating a large plate of pasta,or more alert after a protein-rich meal.The complex combinations of compounds in food can stimulate brain cells to release mood-altering norepinephrine,dopamine,and serotonin.But getting to your brain cells is tricky,and amino acids have to compete for limited access.A diet with a range of foods helps maintain a balanced combination of brain messengers,and keeps your mood from getting skewed in one direction or the other.Like the other organs in our bodies,our brains also benefit from a steady supply of micronutrients.

And while omegas are good fats for your brain,long-term consumption of other fats,like trans and saturated fats,may compromise brain health.Meanwhile, proteins and amino acids,the building block nutrients of growth and development,manipulate how we feel and behave.Amino acids contain the precursors to neurotransmitters,the chemical messengers that carry signals between neurons,affecting things like mood,sleep,attentiveness,and weight.

So that post-lunch apathy,or late-night alertness you might be feeling,well, that could simply be the effects of food on your brain.Of the fats in your brain,the superstars are omegas 3 and 6.These essential fatty acids,which have been linked to preventing degenerative brain conditions,must come from our diets.So eating omega-rich foods,like nuts,seeds,and fatty fish,is crucial to the creation and maintenance of cell membranes.

Your Brain on Food If you sucked all of the moisture out of your brain and broke it down to its constituent nutritional content,what would it look like?Most of the weight of your dehydrated brain would come from fats,also known as lipids.In the remaining brain matter,you would find proteins and amino acids,traces of micronutrients,and glucose.The brain is, of course, more than just the sum of its nutritional parts,but each component does have a distinct impact on functioning,development,mood,and energy.

Eating too many of those foods could leave you overweight and malnourished.And even with the exact same food,different people might not get the same number of calories.Variations in things like enzyme levels,gut bacteria,and even intestine length,means that every individual's ability to extract energy from food is a little different.So a calorie is a useful energy measure,but to work out exactly how many of them each of us requires we need to factor in things like exercise,food type,and our body's ability to process energy.Good luck finding all of that on a nutrition label.

Here's something else you should know before you start counting calories.The calorie counts on nutrition labels measure how much energy the food contains,not how much energy you can actually get out of it.Fibrous foods like celery and whole wheat take more energy to digest,so you'd actually wind up with less energy from a 100 calorie serving of celery than a 100 calorie serving of potato chips.Not to mention the fact that some foods offer nutrients like protein and vitamins,while others provide far less nutritional value.

So does that mean everyone should shoot for around 2000 calories?Not necessarily.If you're doing an energy guzzling activity,like cycling the Tour de France,your body could use up to 9000 calories per day.Pregnancy requires slightly more calories than usual,and elderly people typically have a slower metabolic rate,energy is burned more gradually,so less is needed.

That third usage corresponds to your basal metabolic rate,a number of calories you would need to survive if you weren't eating or moving around.Add in some physical activity and digestion,and you arrive at the official guidelines for how many calories the average person requires each day:2000 for women and 2500 for men.Those estimates are based on factors like average weight, physical activity and muscle mass.

The average pizza slice has 272 calories,there are about 78 in a piece of bread,and an apple has about 52.That energy is released during digestion,and stored in other molecules that can be broken down to provide energy when the body needs it.It's used in three ways:about 10% enables digestion,about 20% fuels physical activity,and the biggest chunk, around 70%,supports the basic functions of our organs and tissues.

If we burn off more energy than we replenish, we'll lose weight.So we have to be able to measure the energy we consume and use,and we do so with a unit called the calorie.One calorie, the kind we measure in food,also called a large calorie,is defined as the amount of energy it would take to raise the temperature of one kilogram of water by one degree Celsius.Everything we consume has a calorie count,a measure of how much energy the item stores in its chemical bonds.

We hear about calories all the time.How many calories are in this cookie?How many are burned by 100 jumping jacks,or long distance running,or fidgeting?But what is a calorie, really,and how many of them do we actually need?Calories are a way of keeping track of the body's energy budget.A healthy balance occurs when we put in about as much energy as we lose.If we consistently put more energy into our bodies than we burn,the excess will gradually be stored as fat in our cells,and we'll gain weight.

Scientifically speaking, though,they've not yet been shown to have either a long-term benefit or to detox the body any better than the natural mechanisms already in place.Everywhere we look,we're offered solutions to how we can look better,feel fitter,and generally get ahead.Food is no exception,but advice on what we should eat is best left to the doctors and nutritionists who are aware of our individual circumstances.Diets and food fads aren't inherently wrong.Circumstantially, they might even be right,just not for everyone all of the time.

While so-called superfoods,like blueberries or açaí,do add a powerful punch of nutrients,their super transformative qualities are largely exaggeration.They are healthy additions to a balanced diet,yet often, they're marketed as part of sugary drinks or cereals,in which case the negative properties outweight the benefits.Cleanses, too, may be great in moderation since they can assist with jumpstarting weight loss and can increase the number of fresh fruits and vegetables consumed daily.

And another red flag is ritual,when the diet in question instructs you to only eat specific foods,prescribed combinations,or to opt for particular food substitutes,like drinks, bars, or powders.The truth is shedding pounds in the long run simply doesn't have a quick-fix solution.Not all diet crazes tout weight loss.What about claims of superfoods, cleanses,and other body-boosting solutions?Marketing emphasizes the allure of products associated with ancient and remote cultures to create a sense of mysticism for consumers.

So while these diets may be alluring early on,they don't guarantee long-term benefits for your health and weight.A few simple guidelines, though,can help differentiate between a diet that is beneficial in maintaining long-term health,and one that only offers temporary weight changes.Here's the first tipoff:If a diet focuses on intensely cutting back calories or on cutting out entire food groups,like fat, sugar, or carbohydrates,chances are it's a fad diet.

If the idea of diet crazes has withstood history,could this mean that they work?In the short term, the answer is often yes.Low-carbohydrate plans,like the popular Atkins or South Beach Diets,have an initial diuretic effect.Sodium is lost until the body can balance itself out,and temporary fluid weight loss may occur.With other high-protein diets,you might lose weight at first since by restricting your food choices,you are dropping your overall calorie intake.But your body then lowers its metabolic rate to adjust to the shift,lessening the diet's effect over time and resulting in a quick reversal if the diet is abandoned.

And in the big picture, diet plans promising dramatic results,known as fad diets,are just what they seem:too good to be true.So where do diet fads even come from?While the Ancient Greeks and Romans rallied behind large-scale health regimens centuries earlier,this phenomenon began in earnest in the Victorian Era with crazes like the vinegar diet and the Banting Diet.Since then, diets have advised us all sorts of things:to excessively chew,to not chew at all,to swallow a grapefruit per meal,non-stop cabbage soup,even consumption of arsenic,or tapeworms.

Conventional wisdom about diets,including government health recommendations,seems to change all the time.And yet, ads routinely come about claiming to have the answer about what we should eat.So how do we distinguish what's actually healthy from what advertisers just want us to believe is good for us?Marketing takes advantage of the desire to drop weight fast,and be stronger,slimmer,and brighter.