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.

The Punch