Exams: Brain Food

It's exam time. And your brain needs adequate sustenance to make your efforts worthwhile. Like any other organ, your brain relies on nutrition, more specifically glucose, to maintain it's capacity to function. To achieve peak-performance, stick to complex carbohydrates, protein, fruits and vegetables. Here are a few ADA suggested meals to try before your next exam:

• Pineapple chunks mixed with low-fat cottage cheese and a slice of whole-wheat toast with apple butter
• A whole-wheat English muffin topped with soft margarine and a hard-boiled egg
  
• Whole-grain or bran cereal with low-fat or skim milk and shaved almonds, served with a piece of fresh fruit
• Oatmeal topped with a sprinkle of brown sugar and walnut halves
• Multigrain pancakes or waffles topped with banana slices
• Nonfat yogurt topped with low-fat granola and dried apricots

While healthy fats are a daily essential, they deter the feed of glucose to your brain. So, if you have a short exam fats will not help you. However, say you have 2 exams back to back. Then perhaps some unsaturated fats will help sustain the energy feed to your brain.

Finally, don't forget to sleep. NEVER pull an "all nighter" before a major exam if you can avoid it. According to research by Gregory Belenky at Walter Reed Army Institute, "The ability to do useful mental work declines by 25 percent for every successive 24 hours awake." Getting at least 7 hours of sleep promotes the best mental performance.

If you have more questions visit http://www.nutritionatc.hawaii.edu/HO/2004/255.htm.