4 ms·

Kind of a dearth of facts here... "The biggest reason is by only fueling your body with shit, you’re also fueling your brain with shit" I'd like to see some kin

by ry0ohki 16y ago

Kind of a dearth of facts here... "The biggest reason is by only fueling your body with shit, you’re also fueling your brain with shit" I'd like to see some kind of evidence to support that. I'd be all for preparing the meal he suggests, but with shopping, prep, cooking, and cleanup it's a significant time investment compared to pizza so I'd like evidence it's doing my startup better.

dholowiski 16y ago
Absolutely, where is the proof of this, the studies? The human body is extremely good at extracting nutrients from just about anything.
- deleted 16y ago
  [deleted]
- Andys 16y ago
  Staying alive is quite different from performing at peak mental fitness.
  - jfoutz 16y ago
    Do startups require anything remotely near peak mental fitness? It's oft debated here, but i'm pretty sure the consensus is talent and intelligence isn't that big of a deal. it's commitment. To put it another way, how many startups that depend on doing original research get funded? I (perhaps foolishly) believe startups bring technology to the masses, but only after research shows it can be done. I guess another argument would be, if you were to invest in a company, would you tie your investment to the founders to sleeping a minimum number of hours? Lack of sleep is easily as detrimental to mental fitness as poor diet.
    - chipsy 16y ago
      This is actually a good line of thinking. Although you feel your best and think the clearest when you've kept near-perfect sleep and nutrition hygene, sometimes you need a different bag of emotions to get an idea. That could mean fasting, sleep deprivation, alcohol, caffeine, smoking... However, not knowing which one is useful to you at any time, it's hard to know which is the most effective for work. But being mostly sober/mostly healthy is known to be the best (long-term) for staying alive and well, and startups are, on a human scale, a long-term game. You don't make $1,000,000 because you stayed up all night to ship.
    - Andys 16y ago
      If commitment is important, being able to concentrate on what you're working on must be important. Junk foods tend to send me off to sleep or procrastinate... the opposite of coffee.
brown9-2 16y ago
You want evidence that the quality of food you eat affects how you feel and the quality of your brain activity?
- btmorex 16y ago
  I do. Unless you're starving, your brain pretty much only runs only on glucose. That means that whatever you eat, good/bad fresh/packaged, whatever, just gets converted to glucose. Assuming you're getting basic levels of required vitamins, I don't see any reason why one diet would be beneficial over another in terms of brain performance.
  - m4wk3r 16y ago
    right. lets run a case study. go buy yourself a 50lb bag of sugar, a years supply of multivitamins, and report back in a year with how that worked out for you.
    - nlco 16y ago
      Well as a college student who went on a 2 month coco pebble binge (and only ate that because of sheer laziness), I didn't feel significant effects on brain power. But it does trash your body and leaves you feeling lethargic and lose motivation to actually do anything productive. I think the latter effects are just as dangerous as reduced "brain effectiveness". (this is just my experience, certainly not any scientifically proven study)
      - jey 16y ago
        > leaves you feeling lethargic and lose motivation to actually do anything productive. That's "reduced brain effectiveness" too.
      - sophacles 16y ago
        Wait... loss of motivation is outside of your brain? This and other intriguing ideas make me want to sign up for your mailing list.
ihodes 16y ago
Here's (http://www.dana.org/news/brainhealth/detail.aspx?id=9854 http://www.dana.org/news/brainhealth/detail.aspx?id=9854) an excellent article, but I'd think it'd be pretty common-sense that you cannot live on starches and fats alone. Your body does actually use vitamins, fiber and different types of fats (monounsaturated is one you might not find in pizza, for instance) to function. Your brain requires them as well. The specifics are easily found on Google–go for it. The article I linked has some good information as well.
- Evgeny 16y ago
  -- body does actually use vitamins, fiber [...] Your brain requires them as well -- Just nitpicking here - by definition fiber is 'the indigestible parts of plant food'(1). So even if it can possibly be said that the body uses fiber - it is probably used in some non-nutritious way - we can be certain that the fiber does not reach the brain. (1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_fiber http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_fiber
deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
bretpiatt 16y ago
You can spend less than the author suggest and drink your meals. http://bolthouse.com/our-products/beverages/proteins http://bolthouse.com/our-products/beverages/proteins ..or you can eat it with water... http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Food-Bar-Pure-Powerful-Bar/dp/B000KIDBG2 http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Food-Bar-Pure-Powerful-Bar/dp/... Yes, it is more expensive than $0.25 per meal eating ramen noodles but it uses even less time than cooking the ramen and you can eat while you keep working easier.
matwood 16y ago
Anecdotal only, but a friend of mine put himself in the hospital once by eating crap for months. It was the first time he was the primary numbers guy on a multi million dollar deal and basically didn't leave the office for months. His meals consisted of soda and vending machine snacks. He ended up with some organ issues that put him in the hospital for a little while and when he got out he had to take it easy for awhile.
chegra 16y ago
All I got is this: "Fatty foods slow down the brain and impair mental function, nutrition researchers have found. But they also make people more sociable." - http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/28/081.html http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/28/081.html "Eating fatty food appears to take an almost immediate toll on both short-term memory and exercise performance" - http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/fatty-foods-affect-memory-and-exercise/ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/fatty-foods-affect-... "The greater your weight, the lower your IQ, say scientists" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1531487/The-greater-your-weight-the-lower-your-IQ-say-scientists.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1531487/The-greater-y... ------> I think the culture change is needed.
- samlevine 16y ago
  FWIW ramen isn't fatty (hot pockets are, however).

by ry0ohki 16y ago

dholowiski 16y ago

Absolutely, where is the proof of this, the studies? The human body is extremely good at extracting nutrients from just about anything.

deleted 16y ago
[deleted]
Andys 16y ago
Staying alive is quite different from performing at peak mental fitness.
- jfoutz 16y ago
  Do startups require anything remotely near peak mental fitness? It's oft debated here, but i'm pretty sure the consensus is talent and intelligence isn't that big of a deal. it's commitment. To put it another way, how many startups that depend on doing original research get funded? I (perhaps foolishly) believe startups bring technology to the masses, but only after research shows it can be done. I guess another argument would be, if you were to invest in a company, would you tie your investment to the founders to sleeping a minimum number of hours? Lack of sleep is easily as detrimental to mental fitness as poor diet.
  - chipsy 16y ago
    This is actually a good line of thinking. Although you feel your best and think the clearest when you've kept near-perfect sleep and nutrition hygene, sometimes you need a different bag of emotions to get an idea. That could mean fasting, sleep deprivation, alcohol, caffeine, smoking... However, not knowing which one is useful to you at any time, it's hard to know which is the most effective for work. But being mostly sober/mostly healthy is known to be the best (long-term) for staying alive and well, and startups are, on a human scale, a long-term game. You don't make $1,000,000 because you stayed up all night to ship.
  - Andys 16y ago
    If commitment is important, being able to concentrate on what you're working on must be important. Junk foods tend to send me off to sleep or procrastinate... the opposite of coffee.

brown9-2 16y ago

You want evidence that the quality of food you eat affects how you feel and the quality of your brain activity?

btmorex 16y ago
I do. Unless you're starving, your brain pretty much only runs only on glucose. That means that whatever you eat, good/bad fresh/packaged, whatever, just gets converted to glucose. Assuming you're getting basic levels of required vitamins, I don't see any reason why one diet would be beneficial over another in terms of brain performance.
- m4wk3r 16y ago
  right. lets run a case study. go buy yourself a 50lb bag of sugar, a years supply of multivitamins, and report back in a year with how that worked out for you.
  - nlco 16y ago
    Well as a college student who went on a 2 month coco pebble binge (and only ate that because of sheer laziness), I didn't feel significant effects on brain power. But it does trash your body and leaves you feeling lethargic and lose motivation to actually do anything productive. I think the latter effects are just as dangerous as reduced "brain effectiveness". (this is just my experience, certainly not any scientifically proven study)
    - jey 16y ago
      > leaves you feeling lethargic and lose motivation to actually do anything productive. That's "reduced brain effectiveness" too.
    - sophacles 16y ago
      Wait... loss of motivation is outside of your brain? This and other intriguing ideas make me want to sign up for your mailing list.

ihodes 16y ago

Here's (http://www.dana.org/news/brainhealth/detail.aspx?id=9854 http://www.dana.org/news/brainhealth/detail.aspx?id=9854) an excellent article, but I'd think it'd be pretty common-sense that you cannot live on starches and fats alone. Your body does actually use vitamins, fiber and different types of fats (monounsaturated is one you might not find in pizza, for instance) to function. Your brain requires them as well. The specifics are easily found on Google–go for it. The article I linked has some good information as well.

Evgeny 16y ago
-- body does actually use vitamins, fiber [...] Your brain requires them as well -- Just nitpicking here - by definition fiber is 'the indigestible parts of plant food'(1). So even if it can possibly be said that the body uses fiber - it is probably used in some non-nutritious way - we can be certain that the fiber does not reach the brain. (1) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_fiber http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dietary_fiber

deleted 16y ago

[deleted]

bretpiatt 16y ago

You can spend less than the author suggest and drink your meals. http://bolthouse.com/our-products/beverages/proteins http://bolthouse.com/our-products/beverages/proteins ..or you can eat it with water... http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Food-Bar-Pure-Powerful-Bar/dp/B000KIDBG2 http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Food-Bar-Pure-Powerful-Bar/dp/... Yes, it is more expensive than $0.25 per meal eating ramen noodles but it uses even less time than cooking the ramen and you can eat while you keep working easier.

matwood 16y ago

Anecdotal only, but a friend of mine put himself in the hospital once by eating crap for months. It was the first time he was the primary numbers guy on a multi million dollar deal and basically didn't leave the office for months. His meals consisted of soda and vending machine snacks. He ended up with some organ issues that put him in the hospital for a little while and when he got out he had to take it easy for awhile.

chegra 16y ago

All I got is this: "Fatty foods slow down the brain and impair mental function, nutrition researchers have found. But they also make people more sociable." - http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/28/081.html http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/28/081.html "Eating fatty food appears to take an almost immediate toll on both short-term memory and exercise performance" - http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/fatty-foods-affect-memory-and-exercise/ http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/08/13/fatty-foods-affect-... "The greater your weight, the lower your IQ, say scientists" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1531487/The-greater-your-weight-the-lower-your-IQ-say-scientists.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1531487/The-greater-y... ------> I think the culture change is needed.

samlevine 16y ago
FWIW ramen isn't fatty (hot pockets are, however).