Real Brain Food

It’s not sugar that you need to kick-start your brain for a test. What you need are fats like omega-3s and cholesterol. The article “New Study Links DHA Type of Omega-3 to Better Nervous-System Function” (ScienceDaily, December 19, 2009), says:

The omega-3 essential fatty acids commonly found in fatty fish and algae help animals avoid sensory overload, according to research published by the American Psychological Association. The finding connects low omega-3s to the information-processing problems found in people with schizophrenia; bipolar, obsessive-compulsive, and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorders; Huntington’s disease; and other afflictions of the nervous system. Copyright © 1995-2009 ScienceDaily LLC  —  All rights reserved.

Read the rest. It has some valuable information in it. (HT: “Omega-3 Fatty Acid And Adiponectin Levels” on Nephropal.) Your brain needs cholesterol to properly form synapses. In “Learning, Your Memory, and Cholesterol” (cholesterol-and-health.com, July, 2005), Chris Masterjohn writes:

One of the many important roles cholesterol plays in the body is in our nervous system, enabling learning and memory to take place. In fact, one of the reasons that sleep is beneficial to our learning and memory is because it enables our brain to make more cholesterol! … Cholesterol is abundant in the tissue of the brain and nervous system. Myelin, which covers nerve axons to help conduct the electrical impulses that make movement, sensation, thinking, learning, and remembering possible, is over one fifth cholesterol by weight. Even though the brain only makes up 2% of the body’s weight, it contains 25% of its cholesterol. One of the groups of genes that the above study found to be upregulated during sleep were genes important for the synthesis and maintenance of myelin, including myelin structural proteins and genes relating to the synthesis and transport of cholesterol. But the benefits of cholesterol extend beyond both sleep and myelin. In fact, in 2001, cholesterol was found to be the most important factor in the formation of synapses, the basis of our learning and memory.

Read the rest!! It is a very interesting article. Eating eggs for breakfast — on a proper diet — could help raise your SAT/ACT score, and your GPA.