How does food affect our brain?

A. Almost everything you choose to consume will directly or indirectly affect your brain.
Obviously, some things we consume affect us more than others. I'm going to assume that spices,
plants, animal parts, drugs of any kind, coffee, tea, nicotine and chocolate are all just food and
define food as anything we take into our bodies whether it's nutritious or not. In order to better
understand how foods affect the brain it will be helpful to divide them into three categories.

B. First, those foods we consume regularly in a small amount: for example, coffee, sugar,
heroin, alcohol, nicotine, some spices and a few psychoactive plants and mushrooms. Their effects
are almost immediate and depend upon how much reaches the brain. In this class, the most
important consideration is getting enough of the chemical from within the food to its site of action
in our brain to actually produce some kind of effect that we can notice and associate with
consuming that particular food. Most of the time, this simply does not happen. For example,
consider nutmeg: when we consume a small amount of nutmeg, most of us do not notice that it
contains two chemicals that our bodies convert into the popular street drug Ecstasy. Yet, if we
consumed the entire jar of the spice, our stomach will notice (with a terrible diarrhea) and there is a
good chance that we will hallucinate for about 48 hours!

C. Secondly are those foods that affect our brain slowly over a period of a few days to weeks.
They would include many different amino acids, carbohydrates that have a high glycemic index
such as potatoes, rice, some minerals, lecithin-containing products such as donuts, eggs and cakes,
chocolate and the water-soluble vitamins. Their purpose is to enhance the function of a specific
transmitter system in the brain. For example, scientists once thought that drinking a glass of warm
milk before bed or eating a large meal of protein made us sleepy because of tryptophan loading - the
current evidence does not support this but the claim makes my major point: we must get enough of
any particular nutrient/chemical to the right place and at the right dose in our brain in order for us to
notice any effects. Unfortunately, tryptophan has difficulty getting across the blood-brain barrier
into our brain.

D. So, what's the scientific evidence for considering the effects of these foods on the brain?
Mostly, it's related to what happens when we do not get enough of them. For example, studies have
shown that consuming too little tryptophan makes us depressed and angry. Too little sugar or water-
soluble vitamins (the B's and C) will cause changes in brain function that we will notice after a few
days of not drinking enough water. Many authors jump to the conclusion that giving high doses of
such nutrients will rapidly improve our mood or thinking: sadly, this is rarely the case. Ordinarily
the foods in this category require far more time to affect our brains than do those foods in the first
category.

E. The third category includes the slow acting, life-time dosing nutrients that have
been popular topics in the press recently. This category includes the anti-oxidant rich foods such as
colorful fruits and vegetables, fish and olive oils, fruit juices and drugs such as aspirin, cinnamon
and some other spices, nicotine, caffeine and chocolate, the fat-soluble vitamins, nuts, beer and red
wine. People who eat these foods do not report serious changes in their thoughts or moods but
certainly benefit from consuming them regularly during their life. In general, the benefit comes
from the fact that all of these foods provide our brains with some form of protection against the
most deadly thing we expose ourselves to every day - oxygen. Because we consume food, we must
consume oxygen. Because we consume oxygen, we age. Thus, people who live the longest tend to
each food rich in anti-oxidants or simply eat less food. Recent studies suggest that nicotine and
caffeine may prevent the toxic actions of oxygen in our brain which is why I've included them here.

F. You can see that depending upon how you frame the question about foods and the brain you
get a different list of foods and a different reason for consuming them. If you wish to alter your
current brain function or slow your brain's aging you need to consume foods that target specific
chemical processes. In truth, no one ever considers these distinctions when eating - we just eat what
tastes good. Sadly, our brains powerfully reward us when we eat sugar, fat and salt; thus there is an
increase in the number of obesity-related illnesses. Food has both negative and positive effects and
it all depends upon what you consume, how much you consume and for how long.
 WORKSHEET A

The passage has six sections, A-F.

Choose the correct heading for sections A-D and F from the list of heading below.

Write the correct number i-ix in boxes 1-5 next to each section.

List of heading

i expectation and reality when consuming food

ii an important but deadly substance

iii food with slow impact on the brain

iv food categorization

v lacking food consumption and its effect

vi food producing quick and strong effects on the brain

1. Section A _______

2. Section B _______

3. Section C _______

4. Section D _______

Example Section E ii

6. Section F _______
 WORKSHEET B

Task 1. Read the passage and answer the questions.

1. Why could we hallucinate if we consumed too much nutmeg?

____________________________________________________________________________

2. What is the purpose of eating food such as rice, egg or water-soluble vitamins?

____________________________________________________________________________

3. How often do people benefit from life-time dosing nutrients?

____________________________________________________________________________

4. Why should we eat anti-oxidant rich foods?

____________________________________________________________________________

5. How can we prevent the brain’s aging?

____________________________________________________________________________

Task 2. Read the passage and decide whether the following statements are True (T), False (F)

or Not Given (NG).

1. A small amount of Ecstasy can’t affect our brain.

2. If we drink a glass of warm milk before bed time, we can sleep more easily.

3. Our mood can’t be quickly improved even when we take high doses of water-soluble vitamins.

4. Beer may need less time to affect the brain than that of water.

5. Chocolate and fat-soluble vitamins don’t play any roles in preventing aging.

6. The brain rewards us when we eat sugar without knowing it can cause obesity.