Madison life - health-tips - Health buzz: brain food

Here at madison, we’ve been obsessed with feeding our brains lately (yes, we do have some more serious fixations than designer shoes!). Why? Well, it has been a hectic few months lately, producing some of the biggest issues of the year – and preparing for the Christmas shut-down – and the only way we’ve been able to keep our writing wits about us has been to stay as mentally with-it as possible.

So how have we done that? In a couple of ways. The brain needs steady glucose levels to run effectively, and one sure-fire strategy for achieving this is to graze – in other words, eat smaller, more frequent meals. Think a grainy slice of toast topped with feta, avocado and tomato for breakfast, a yoghurt with nuts and seeds later in the morning, a bean salad at lunchtime, and then carrots dipped in hommus as our 3pm food fix.

We’ve also brushed up on our glycemic index knowledge. The GI rating (found on many websites) indicates how a food will affect your blood’s glucose levels. So a high-GI food - such as a bag of pretzels or most white carbohydrates (bread, rice) – will send glucose levels soaring … and then quickly crashing. Which is not great for the brain, as function becomes impaired and thinking fuzzy. Low-GI foods, on the other hand, break into glucose molecules more slowly – and are therefore used by the brain more steadily and efficiently. Some such brain-fuelling foods are brown rice, porridge, legumes, nut & seed bars and apples.

Turns out there’s another great reason to feed your brain... Recent research from Yale University and the University of Southern California has shown that if the brain goes hungry, we’ll be more likely to binge on high-kilojoule food. This is because a drop in glucose levels affects the prefrontal cortex of the brain – and this is the part that regulates emotions and impulses. The effect is twofold. The brain urgently craves a quick glucose fix; and we have less resistance than usual to the lure of a chocolate bar. If, however, the brain is kept happy and well nourished, it’s much less likely to crave fatty food. Which means we’re less likely to consume unnecessary kilojoules.

So, who’s up for a carrots-and-hommus break?

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