I hear that mentals like walls of text.
What I'm saying is maybe cheeky is diabetic. Let's think about that before being too harsh.
Brain Energy Demand Your brain cells need two times more energy than the other cells in your body.
Neurons, the cells that communicate with each other, have a high demand for energy because they're always in a state of metabolic activity. Even during sleep, neurons are still at work repairing and rebuilding their worn out structural components.
They are manufacturing enzymes and neurotransmitters that must be transported out to the very ends of their– nerve branches, some that can be several inches, or feet, away.
Most demanding of a neuron's energy, however, are the bioelectric signals responsible for communication throughout the nervous system. This nerve transmission consumes one-half of all the brain's energy (nearly 10% of the whole body's energy).
Glucose, Learning and Memory - Study Psychology professor Paul E. Gold has researched the stability of glucose levels in the brain. Working with Ewan C. McNay , they found that as rats went through a maze, concentrations of glucose declined in the animals' hippocampus , a key brain area involved in learning and memory – even more dramatically so in older brains.
Except under conditions of starvation, it was thought that the brain always had an ample supply of glucose. "While this is the case in terms of consciousness, the new findings suggest that glucose is not always present in ample amounts to optimally support learning and memory functions," said Gold, who is director of the Medical Scholars Program in the University of Illinois College of Medicine. "The brain runs on glucose. Young rats can do a pretty good job of supplying all the glucose that a particular area of the brain needs until the task becomes difficult," explained McNay, a postdoctoral researcher in psychology at Yale University. "For an old rat given the same task, the brain glucose supply vanishes out the window. This correlates with a big deficit in performance. A lack of fuel affects the ability to think and remember."
"Glucose enhances learning and memory not only in rats but also in many populations of humans," says Gold. "For schoolchildren, this research implies that the contents and timing of meals may need to be coordinated to have the most beneficial cognitive effects that enhance learning."
How Carbohydrate Foods Can Improve Memory in Older Adults - Studies When Dr. Carol Greenwood tested the memory of older adults after they ate a breakfast of mashed potatoes or barley, she found that "eating carbohydrate foods can improve memory within an hour after ingestion in healthy elderly people with relatively poor memories."
In another study, Greenwood and her colleagues at the University of Toronto gave a group of healthy senior citizens a bowl of cereal and milk, along with white grape juice for breakfast. Another group only drank water. When tested twenty minutes later, the cereal-eaters had a better memory – able to remember 25% more facts.Not only does a diet lacking in carbohydrates cut off the brain's main energy supply, Greenwood said a scarcity of glucose can impede the synthesis of acetylcholine, one of the brain's key neurotransmitters.1
Breakfast and Memory - Studies Regardless of the source, caloric intake after an overnight fast can cause a short burst in memory capacity, scientists discovered. Carbohydrates, however, generally brought longer-term memory benefits than either fats or proteins in the people tested.
Lead scientist, Dr. Carol Greenwood, emphasized the advantage of nutritious carbohydrates – fruits, vegetables, and whole grains – instead of simple sugars such as pastries. Her studies point to the importance of children's breakfasts to school performance. 2
Another University of Toronto study compared the memory-improving effects of different breakfasts eaten after an overnight fast. Participants who consumed a carbohydrate breakfast of potatoes or barley performed better on short- and long-term memory tests, compared to those who consumed only a glucose-laden lemon drink. Both groups did better than the participants who consumed only an inactive placebo."Our study showed that eating carbohydrate foods can improve memory within an hour after ingestion in healthy elderly people with relatively poor memories," said lead author Randall J. Kaplan. "Individuals with seemingly minor deficits in glucose regulation appear to perform worse on cognitive (memory) tests and are most sensitive to the beneficial effects of carbohydrates."3
Too Much Blood Sugar – Too Little Brain Sugar A sugary snack or soft drink that quickly raises your blood sugar level gives you a boost (and any caffeine adds to the lift), but it's short-lived. When you eat something with a high sugar content your pancreas starts to secrete insulin. Insulin triggers cells throughout your body to pull the excess glucose out of your bloodstream and store it for later use.
Soon, the glucose available to your brain has dropped. Neurons, unable to store glucose, experience an energy crisis. Hours later, you feel spaced-out, weak, confused, and/or nervous. Your ability to focus and think suffers. The name for this glucose deficiency is hypoglycemia , and it can even lead to unconsciousness.
High Sugar Intake Over Time Repeatedly overloading the bloodstream with sugar can diminish the body's ability to respond to insulin, and type 2 diabetes may develop. This is not good for the brain, because diabetes causes a narrowing of the arteries and makes the brain more susceptible to gradual damage. People with diabetes are more vulnerable to depression and are more likely to suffer a decline in mental ability as they age.
Low Blood Sugar Slows Brain - Study Low blood glucose levels can lead to a significant deterioration in attention abilities, University of Edinburgh researchers concluded after testing healthy individuals in whom hypoglycemia had been induced. Auditory and visual information was processed more slowly when the subjects' brains were temporarily deprived of its main source of energy. 4
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