Anyone whose performance is directly dependent on physical fitness (athlete, ballerina or massage therapist) must follow a certain diet in order to keep the body in optimal shape. But only a few “knowledge workers” will think about the question: “What would I eat so that the brain generates only brilliant ideas, the memory was able to hold them, attention did not dissipate and annoying thoughts did not bother me?”
Well, genius may not be a fact, but in order for the brain to work better, a certain diet is also needed.
The brain consumes more energy than all other organs. It makes up only 2 percent of the total body weight, but it takes about 20 percent of the energy generated by the body, so everything that a person consumes somehow affects and matters not only the size of the waist, but also the intellect.
You will never get into a car with an empty tank and a faulty brake? And even if you sit down, you won't get far! It's the same with brains: they need to be regularly refueled with high-quality fuel in order to get to their destination without traffic jams along the optimal route.
Without water - neither there, nor here
If your brain had a personal trainer, the first thing it would recommend would be "Drink more water!" "Well, it was a no brainer," you say. It is not clear only why many people do not.
The brain, like our entire body, is approximately 75 percent water. Therefore, in order to keep it in a healthy and working condition, you need to drink the amount of water assigned to the body, and the assigned amount of water is, according to the estimates of the World Health Organization, 30 ml per kilogram of weight.
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Count for yourself, and remember that a lack of water causes a decrease in brain volume, which significantly reduces its performance and leads to almost zero ability to remember information.
Water helps the free passage of chemical and electrical signals between cells necessary for the effective functioning of the brain, so you should not wait for the brain to turn into dried fruit to "water" it, since even 1-3% moisture deficit will affect its functioning and the whole organism generally.
Alcohol is a fertilizer only for the liver
If a glass of water can dramatically improve brain activity, then drinking will only help to induce porridge in the brain. When alcohol enters the bloodstream, levels of cortisol (the “stress hormone”) increase, which helps the body mobilize energy in an emergency.
And since our unlikely wise body perceives alcohol as a poison, the process of cortisol production is triggered, which is responsible for the flow of blood to the muscles, and, accordingly, the outflow from all other systems.
In the brain, cortisol first of all begins to destroy neurons, which instantly leads to a violation of a person's memory (this explains the fact that often under the influence of severe stress or after "consumption" the day before, people temporarily or permanently lose their memory).
Also, an increased level of the hormone cortisol suppresses the production of the so-called hormones of joy and pleasure - serotonin and dopamine. So drinking "to relax" is not the most sober idea.
Greens, grains and beans - a breath of fresh air for the brain
The Mediterranean type of diet, which implies the predominance of plant foods in the diet - lettuce, fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, improves speech abilities, attention and all types of memory, inhibits the extinction of intelligence.
And the reason for such a beneficial effect on the brain is precisely in the combination of all components, and neither the increased consumption of fish or the low consumption of red meat is associated with this.
But the high-calorie and fatty Western diet, which is becoming popular in Russia, can make us not only fatter, but also dumber.
This diet includes fried red and processed meats, sodas, fries, all kinds of sandwiches and burgers, and vegetables that have been fried. The absorption of large amounts of saturated fat and simple carbohydrates is bad for characteristics such as reaction speed, visual alertness, learning and memory.
Goodbye tuna! Long live the mackerel
The human brain is largely composed of fats, a solid part of which is the share of omega-3 fatty acids, which are rich in cod liver, fish oil and generally fatty fish - trout, chum salmon.
Marine-derived omega-3 fatty acids help brain cells to communicate more easily with each other. Since all processes within the human brain are electrical impulses, the number of contact points has a direct impact on the state of intelligence.
And due to the fact that the antioxidants contained in fish prevent the oxidation and destruction of fats that make up brain cells (and, accordingly, reduce the number of contact points), the latter more effectively maintain their integrity.
But fish are fish differences, and tuna, pike perch, perch, horse mackerel and others will bring your body more mercury than good. Mercury easily penetrates the brain, causes serious damage to the membranes of neurons - up to their complete destruction, and is practically not excreted back.
Rest more, starve less
Our body needs not only food, but also rest. At the same time, quantity is no less important than quality. According to the World Health Organization, over the past hundred years, people have started to sleep on average 20 percent less. Severe lack of sleep is fraught with the fact that in the actual state of wakefulness, various parts of the brain go into the phase of slow sleep.
At this time, a person "hangs" at one point, becomes dispersed, fine motor skills deteriorate. Regular lack of sleep leads to the death of brain cells. Banal overwork often leads to nervousness, irritability, and apathy.
With a prolonged absence of rest, water and food, the brain begins to work in an emergency mode, in which the blood supply to the nerve cells of the brain stem in general and the medulla oblongata in particular is disrupted, which, in turn, affects the activity of the cerebral cortex.
This will not affect your ability to brush your teeth or turn on the TV in any way, but your ability to solve more complex problems, flexibility of thinking, creativity, and control of emotions will be significantly affected.
Another problem of our time is a person who is trying to simultaneously perceive several streams of information or perform several tasks in parallel. As scientists have found, watching a movie, chewing a sandwich and responding to a message on Facebook is almost impossible.
Trying to do two things at the same time, the brain “divides and rules” - each hemisphere works to solve one single problem. As a result, the information processing speed is reduced by exactly two times, and the error rate increases by 50 percent.
And worst of all, the consciousness gets used to such a mode of work, in which information is perceived superficially, and it becomes more and more difficult to concentrate and do one thing without frequent changes in activity.
With the accumulation of fatigue, the brain will choose the least energy-intensive ways of solving problems - in other words, it will begin to think primitively. A study was conducted that examined the work of judges considering early release of convicts.
It turned out that the judges made more positive decisions about release in the morning or immediately after lunch. And as time went on, the likelihood of a positive decision gradually tended to zero, since a decision based on a balanced opinion, whether the defendant deserved freedom or not, requires much more effort.
And the recipe for restoring the work of consciousness is similar to restoring muscle tone: you just need rest and replenishment of calories.
Therefore, to make your "pot cook", do not fill it with anything. And if tomorrow afternoon you replace your usual pack of chips with nuts, your faithful brain will only say thank you.
Well, here are 10 more things on the topic that negatively affect the brain.
1. Lack of breakfast
Skipping a morning meal negatively affects a person's performance and tone during the day. This seems obvious, but it’s not so much about the energy intake that the body needs, but about the fact that not eating breakfast lowers blood sugar. This, in turn, makes it difficult for the brain to get nutrients.
2. Excess Sugar The previous paragraph explains why it is recommended to eat sweets, especially dark chocolate, to keep the brain productive. However, excessive amounts of sugar cause problems with the absorption of protein and nutrients. The result is the same as with low blood sugar: nutrients simply do not enter the brain.
3. Stress
Strong psycho-emotional stress leads to the rupture of connections between neurons and makes it difficult to understand cause-and-effect relationships and the sequence of events. This is associated with strong nervous excitement and the feeling that everything is falling out of hand. Accumulated stress impairs memory and decreases intellectual potential.
4. Antidepressants and sleeping pills
The problem of the drug craze is most pressing in the United States, where such drugs are very easy to prescribe. The use of sleeping pills and popular antidepressants like Xanax can impair memory up to amnesia, cause dementia and obsessive suicidal thoughts.
5. Smoking
If we talk about the negative effects of smoking on the body, the first thing that comes to mind is the image of black lungs and damaged teeth. At the same time, little is said about how cigarettes affect the brain: nicotine constricts its blood vessels. However, cognac expands back. In addition to the problems associated with lack of nutrients in the brain, this greatly increases the risk of Alzheimer's disease.
6. Sun
Not having enough sunlight directly affects a person's cognitive abilities. First, ultraviolet light from sunlight regulates blood circulation, that is, the flow of oxygen and nutrients. Secondly, sunlight promotes the production of serotonin, a hormone that affects a person's mood.
7. Lack of water
Lack of water causes a decrease in brain volume, which significantly reduces its performance and leads to almost zero ability to memorize information. It is recommended to consume an average of 2 liters of water per day.
8. Excess information
Year after year, the amount of information assimilated by a person increases like an avalanche. It would seem that this is training the brain and maintaining its tone. In fact, this is an excess, to which the brain responds unambiguously - resistance. It is expressed by the fact that at some point the information ceases to be assimilated up to memory lapses.
9. Multitasking
Another anomaly of the information world: a person simultaneously perceives several streams of information. As a result, none of them is properly assimilated, and the consciousness gets used to such a mode of work. Information is perceived superficially, and it becomes more and more difficult to concentrate and do one thing without frequent changes in activity.
10. Lack of sleep
This familiar phenomenon is becoming a global problem. According to the WHO, over the past 100 years, people have started to sleep on average 20% less. Severe lack of sleep is fraught with the fact that in the actual state of wakefulness, various parts of the brain go into the phase of slow sleep. At this time, a person "hangs" at one point, becomes dispersed, fine motor skills deteriorate. Regular lack of sleep leads to the death of brain cells