food for brain power

what is good for brain health- Junk food is often low on essential nutrients, so it leaves the body, and especially the nerve cells, lacking. In this laboratory at the University of Bordeaux, scientists are studying the consequences of dietary deficiencies on mouse brains. This experiment is used to measure anxiety. The animal has the choice between exploring the lighted area or hiding in the shade. A normal mouse takes the time to examine the lighted area. But this animal was deprived of omega-3fatty acids during its development.Omega-3s are called ‘good’ fats due to their benefits to the heart and arteries. Instead of exploring the environment, the mouse takes refuge in a dark corner. It is stressed, anxious. The experiment has been reproduced many times on dozens of mice. For researchers, this strange behavior can simply explained: without omega-3 fatty acids, the brain does not develop and function normally.

What nutrition good for Health: They are needed because the brain‘s 'gray matter's is 90% fat which it cannot produce itself. The brain is the organ, after adipose tissue, that is the richest in poly unsaturated fatty acid or omega-3.So omega-3 is indispensable because the body cannot make it. We have to ingest it. It has to come from the diet. Oily fish, organ meat, vegetable oils, and seeds and nuts such as almonds have long been the main sources of omega-3 for humans. But these foods have become scarce in the cuisine of industrialized countries. The amount of omega-3 that enters the brain is crucial for making brain cells more efficient. Because when these fatty acids are incorporated into the membranes of nerve cells, they improve their electrical properties. In omega 3-rich neurons, the signals propagate faster. The network is more efficient. Depriving the brain of omega-3 is linked to a risk that it will function less well. The general population is deficient in omega-3.We have insufficient intake of omega-3,so it's important to pay attention to it. especially in the pre-natal developmental period, when omega-3 is incorporated in-large quantities into the brain. Also, in adolescence, since adolescence is a particular time of change of diet. And, during aging where the incorporation ofomega-3 into the brain tends to be less effective, so we must increase its intake. The first rule for a brain to run at full speed is avoid deficiencies. But good nutrients and a varied diet should be available. What happens to neurons when meals are poor and, above all, always the same? That is a problem that is now affecting the wild-living European hamster, which thrived for a long time in the plains of France’s Alsace region. Since the 1960s, there has been a decline in the hamster population, which is on the verge of extinction today. And, at the same time, what we have seen is an increase in the agricultural area where corn is cultivated.

brain food for studying- Caroline Habold wondered whether the collapse of the population was linked to the sudden glut of corn. So she did a laboratory experiment, feeding hamsters exclusively corn. During breeding, we observed behavioral disturbances in females, which resulted in hyper-aggression and hypersensitivity as soon as there was noise in the room. And above all, what we did not expect is that these females would devour their young the first day after birth. This behavior was observed in more than 80% of females. A dietary deficiency was enough to make a hamster devour its children. The cause is a simple vitamin. A lack of vitamin B3 is at the origin of this abnormal behavior. When we supplemented them with vitamin B3in addition to their corn-based diet, they exhibited quite normal behavior. They began to nurse their young, to raise them in the same way as the females that were fed a diversified diet. The case of the cannibalisticchamsters is disturbing. Could a unbalanced diet also trigger aggressive, violent behavior in humans? Ap Zaalberg is a clinical psychologist and political advisor to the Dutch Ministry of Justice. His specialty: nutrition and crime. He is convinced that enriching food with vitamins, fatty acids, and minerals can reduce aggression. It’s a hypothesis that is difficult to test in normal life because so many factors and circumstances can influence our behavior and our impulses. In order to study nutrition without the influence of the many parameters, he chose prisons as a nearly ideal setting. Here in the Netherlands, we conducted a study of young prisoners in eight different prisons. For three months, we gave them vitamins, minerals, and fatty-acid supplements. And then we looked at the effect on their behavior. We measured it in two different ways. First, we asked the detainee show aggressive they were and we asked the supervisors for their views on the issue. Above all, we looked at the incident log. The number of times detainees were punished. And we saw that solitary confinementhad fallen dramatically. In the group of inmates whose meals were improved, the number of incidents was reduced by one-third. What we eat may have the power to change our moods, to stimulate certain impulses. But could the food on our plate also influence our decisions? the ones we believe we make using our free will? When people are asked if they think that the food they eat has an impact on health, most of them answer “yes." But when asked if diet can also influence thoughts and decisions, very few people are willing to believe this is the case. However, at the Institute of Psychology of the University of Lübeck in Germany, Professor So young Park has, for the first time, proven it. Her work reveals the mechanism by which food could influence our thoughts. And for that, the researcher has developed a rather original experiment. Imagine that you face the following dilemma. The money on the table is to be divided into two sums. But it's your partner, a stranger, who decides how it is to be distributed. I‘ll give you two euros and keep eight for me.

why is brain health important- If you accept the unfair offer, you leave with a little money but much less than your partner’s. If you refuse, no one wins anything. So what would you do?Do you accept the offer and take the two euros, even if you feel cheated? Or, do you refuse, and leave with empty pockets but your head held high? Well, it turns out, surprisingly, that whether you'll take the money or not depends on what you've just eaten. As part of this study, we follow 24people who came to the laboratory twice to have two different breakfasts. We found that the same person made completely different decisions based on what they ate in the morning. To the test person, the two breakfasts look the same. In reality, one is far more protein-rich than the other. The ratio of protein to sugar is the only parameter that changes. A few hours after the meal, the subject takes several tests on a computer. Today he tends to accept the offer. His self-interest outweighs his anger at the unfairness, and he will leave with a little money in his pocket. Last week he mainly refused and won almost nothing. When the subjects consumed a higher-protein breakfast in the morning, they were more tolerant towards unfair offers. Conversely, when the subject had consumed a high-carbohydrate breakfast, he was less tolerant in the face of unfair offers. On average the subjects who had little protein rejected unfair offers twice as often. But how can this surprising result be explained? In their search for biological evidence for this observation, the scientists carried out blood tests. We will send the blood to the lab right away and they will analyse the level of hormones and amino acids in the blood, especially the hormones insulin, cortisol, adrenaline, and A-C-T-H. And for the amino acidstryptophan and tyrosine. Of these substances, the most important is tyrosine. The amino acid is one building-block of a protein that is key to brain function: dopamine. This molecule ensures communication between neurons involved in motivation and risk-taking. The results of the blood analysis show that subjects with higher levels of tyrosine in their blood are more willing to accept the unfair offer. In other words, what we eat can within hours subtly alter the chemistry of the brain, and thus the communication between the neurons. Enough to guide some of our decisions. Experiments are continuing in Lübeck to confirm this result. The implications are wide-ranging. Since we eat three times a day, every day, we realize that food has enormous power, modifying and shaping us. So it’s important to think about how we can use food topromote our well-being and optimize our mental state. Not only does an unbalanced diet affect our brain functions and behavior, and our meal plan interfere with everyday decisions, it is also becoming increasingly clear that diet plays a decisive role in our mood and, possibly mental health. But what about junk food, dripping with sugar and bad fats? What would happen if we ate more of that? This is the focus of research here in Australia at the University of Sydney. Margaret Morris runs a laboratory where rats are fed the kind of junk food that you find in supermarkets or cheap, fast-food restaurants. Our experiments use a range of Western foods, of the type eaten by all of us. So we feed out rats meat pies, chips, cakes, and biscuits. The sort of foods that are readily available and cheap. So we are modeling the Western world. The first consequence of this diet: the rat doubles its food rations. The animal seems never satiated. But that is not the most surprising outcome. One of our chief interests is the impact of this diet on the animal's memory. And we can measure this easily in the rat by using a task known as the novel object and novel place task. In this test, the researcher places objects in the rat’s cage. The animal comes over immediately to examine them. Rodents are very curious by nature. Once it has completed its examination and memorized its surroundings, it is temporarily removed. We then place the animal in the arena with one object that has been shifted.