Eating Good Food Boosts Your Brainpower
The Basics
In order for your brain to work it needs two things: fuel and a way for your neurons to talk to each other. Your car uses gasoline or electricity as fuel but your brain uses oxygen and a sugar called glucose. Your neurons talk to each other using special molecules called neurotransmitters.
Pretend you're stranded on an island in the middle of the Pacific. You can't go anywhere, you're basically stuck where you are, just like your neurons. So how do you try to communicate with the outside world? You send out bottles filled with messages! That's precisely how your neurons talk to each other - they send out little bottles (neurotransmitters) filled with different messages that tell the neurons around it what to do.
When you sit down at night to watch the Discovery Channel and your favorite animal comes on, a certain neuron will recognize your favorite animal and start sending out bottles saying "It's a rhinoceros! It's a rhinoceros!" And then you start jumping around your living room yelling "It's a rhinoceros! It's a rhinoceros!" See how it works now?
Does your car keep running if you're out of gas? No. Does your brain keep running if you're out of oxygen or glucose? No. If you were on that island in the Pacific without any bottles could you communicate with the outside world? No. Can your brain cells communicate with each other if they don't have any neurotransmitters? No.
So how does your brain get oxygen? From the air you breathe and by having a good cardiovascular system to transport the oxygen from your lungs to your brain cells. If you haven't read about how important a good cardiovascular system is for boosting your brainpower, read about it in Exercise Boosts Your Brainpower.
But how does your brain get glucose and neurotransmitters? From the food you eat. The food you eat is extremely important to your brainpower and your brain's health. Foods are not created equal - some foods are nutritious, meaning they provide your body with the nutrients and energy it needs, and others are not. Just like a bottle must be molded from glass, your body converts the food you eat into neurotransmitters. But if you don't have the glass necessary to make the bottle, you can't make the bottle. This is why what you eat is incredibly important - your body can't make the energy and neurotransmitters it needs without the right starting materials. And a quarter pounder with cheese doesn't provide the same starting materials as a plate of steamed vegetables.
In order for your brain to work its best and preserve its health it requires a proper balance of glucose and neurotransmitters which your body makes from the food you eat. So do some foods make you smarter than others? Absolutely! And do some foods kill your brainpower? Absolutely! In the following articles you will learn about different foods, supplements, and timing of meals and how they affect your brainpower, so put down that bag of Cheetos and get ready to learn something new.