4 ms·

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

by 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.
- jodrellblank 16y ago
  > lets run a case study. No, you're making the claim you should already have more evidence to back it up than a snark.
  - m4wk3r 16y ago
    did i just get a "citation needed" response to "junkfood is bad for you"? it boggles the mind. as it turns out, happy meals are, in fact, a great replacement for breast milk.
    - dagw 16y ago
      No, you got a "citation needed" for "junkfood is bad for your brain functions". And for what it's worth I'd love to see that citation too.
      - m4wk3r 16y ago
        here's 3m+ for you: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=cj&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=food+and+cognition&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=f&oq=&gs_rfai= http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=f... http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=diet+and+cognition&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=f&oq=&gs_rfai= http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=f...
- btmorex 16y ago
  I didn't make the original claim, so I don't see why it would be my job to prove or disprove it. That's sort of beside the point though. I'm just tired of the ridiculous amount of misinformation in the diet, nutrition, and exercise fields. It's not like there isn't a long history of claims that are "just common sense" turning out completely wrong ("eating fat makes you fat", "eating high cholesterol food gives you high cholesterol" (mostly genetics), "diet and exercise are equally important to losing weight" (reality is that it's mostly diet), etc.) Bottom line, if you're going to make a claim that certain food improve your brain's performance, you should have just a shred of evidence.
  - m4wk3r 16y ago
    i'd assumed you were trolling, hence the flippant response. i dont think all statements need to be supported with citations. there's a certain amount of knowledge that at some point has to be considered common sense. wiping your ass is one. not fueling your body with trash is another. i can understand your position of frustration at mis-information and pseudo-science, and appreciate a fellow critical thinker, but i do think it's important to choose your battles, and i do not think that this issue is one that's worth discussing much further, considering the overwhelming amount of data out there. vis a vis. et al. lorem ipsum.
sophacles 16y ago
The process converting these things to glucose, and some of the other ingredients in this food, result in all sorts of chemicals being released into your body. (not bad -- vitamins are chemicals... etc). These in turn affect how the body operates. Depending on how the body is operating, various other chemicals, such as hormones are released -- creating various brain reactions -- and since the brain is affected, presumably this means the brain is affected. (Yes it's a tautology -- done for effect). This doesn't even include the fact that some things in food directly affect the brain, such as caffeine.
chipsy 16y ago
Glucose isn't the problem, glucose regulation is. If you eat refined carbs or sugars you get slammed with it all at once, and your body becomes more insulin resistant and fat-generating as a defense mechanism. Meanwhile, you run into the "blood sugar rollercoaster" effect - a high, followed by a crash causing extreme hunger. The blood sugar shenanigans have the side effect of manipulating blood pressure as well, which can make some activities difficult or dangerous. When you eat fats, proteins and slower-digesting carbs the glucose regulation problem doesn't occur, at least not on the same scale, so your brain and body can perform undistributed for potentially many, many hours. Consequently the only problems come from nutritional content and digestive efficiency. For elite endurance athletes there is still reason to "carb up" to pump as much glyogen into the muscles as possible, but that isn't most of us, and it isn't something you need for brain work.

by btmorex 16y ago

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.
jodrellblank 16y ago
> lets run a case study. No, you're making the claim you should already have more evidence to back it up than a snark.
- m4wk3r 16y ago
  did i just get a "citation needed" response to "junkfood is bad for you"? it boggles the mind. as it turns out, happy meals are, in fact, a great replacement for breast milk.
  - dagw 16y ago
    No, you got a "citation needed" for "junkfood is bad for your brain functions". And for what it's worth I'd love to see that citation too.
    - m4wk3r 16y ago
      here's 3m+ for you: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&hs=cj&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=food+and+cognition&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=f&oq=&gs_rfai= http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=f... http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=diet+and+cognition&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=f&oq=&gs_rfai= http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&client=f...
btmorex 16y ago
I didn't make the original claim, so I don't see why it would be my job to prove or disprove it. That's sort of beside the point though. I'm just tired of the ridiculous amount of misinformation in the diet, nutrition, and exercise fields. It's not like there isn't a long history of claims that are "just common sense" turning out completely wrong ("eating fat makes you fat", "eating high cholesterol food gives you high cholesterol" (mostly genetics), "diet and exercise are equally important to losing weight" (reality is that it's mostly diet), etc.) Bottom line, if you're going to make a claim that certain food improve your brain's performance, you should have just a shred of evidence.
- m4wk3r 16y ago
  i'd assumed you were trolling, hence the flippant response. i dont think all statements need to be supported with citations. there's a certain amount of knowledge that at some point has to be considered common sense. wiping your ass is one. not fueling your body with trash is another. i can understand your position of frustration at mis-information and pseudo-science, and appreciate a fellow critical thinker, but i do think it's important to choose your battles, and i do not think that this issue is one that's worth discussing much further, considering the overwhelming amount of data out there. vis a vis. et al. lorem ipsum.

sophacles 16y ago

The process converting these things to glucose, and some of the other ingredients in this food, result in all sorts of chemicals being released into your body. (not bad -- vitamins are chemicals... etc). These in turn affect how the body operates. Depending on how the body is operating, various other chemicals, such as hormones are released -- creating various brain reactions -- and since the brain is affected, presumably this means the brain is affected. (Yes it's a tautology -- done for effect). This doesn't even include the fact that some things in food directly affect the brain, such as caffeine.

chipsy 16y ago

Glucose isn't the problem, glucose regulation is. If you eat refined carbs or sugars you get slammed with it all at once, and your body becomes more insulin resistant and fat-generating as a defense mechanism. Meanwhile, you run into the "blood sugar rollercoaster" effect - a high, followed by a crash causing extreme hunger. The blood sugar shenanigans have the side effect of manipulating blood pressure as well, which can make some activities difficult or dangerous. When you eat fats, proteins and slower-digesting carbs the glucose regulation problem doesn't occur, at least not on the same scale, so your brain and body can perform undistributed for potentially many, many hours. Consequently the only problems come from nutritional content and digestive efficiency. For elite endurance athletes there is still reason to "carb up" to pump as much glyogen into the muscles as possible, but that isn't most of us, and it isn't something you need for brain work.