Become Smarter with Food – Nutrition : Brain Foods

Article by Jeremy Wong

This is a continuation from Eating to your Smartness – Part 1, part of a series of articles about increasing your intelligence and becoming smarter through foods, so visit my blog (link below) if you haven’t read it.

To recap, I spoke about the overall benefits of eating well and of the importance of drinking water properly in part 1, and spoke about how to increase the brain’s abilities with oxygen in part 2. Now, I will be talking about nutritious foods that will make you smarter.

How You can Become Smarter

This is the biggest section of the three parts – as it includes all the other foods that haven’t been mentioned yet. The brain uses approximately 20% of the total energy the body uses – same as the amount of oxygen it takes up. For something that is only 2% of the total body mass, it really is a lot. From this fact alone, you can see how much food can affect the brain, and it does.

The brain is picky about what it takes in, as it only uses certain nutrients. Brain cells, the primary component our brains are made out of, require what we call neurotransmitters to carry messages around. Proteins, vitamins and minerals are needed to convert the amino acids that we get from foods we eat into neurotransmitters, but these neurotransmitters can also be found in certain foods from which we can take them in almost directly.

Eating enough of these foods will boost your ability to think faster, better and even raise your IQ level.

If you know what to eat, your mental capabilities will skyrocket.

There are 3 key neurotransmitters that our brain – Acetylcholine, Dopamine & Serotonin – each of which is responsible for certain functions. All of these can be optimized and maximised by eating the correct foods.

The first one, Acetylcholine, is responsible for memory, concentration and focus.

Dopamine is responsible for learning, a very important feature that helps boost intelligent memory. It is the memory that contributes to your overall intelligence.

Serotonin is also responsible for learning, and also sleep, which is a crucial factor in maximizing your brain, but it is a subject for another article.

Glucose is also an essential component when it comes to brain food as it is the fuel for your brain. You will want to eat foods that digest slowly, foods with a low glycemic index (GI) digest do just that and it’s all because they provide your brain with a constant supply of energy for longer periods of time unlike high GI foods, which release bursts of energy, causing fluctuations that can cause us to feel dizzy and tired, lowering the brain’s ability to think.

Find out exactly what you can eat to make you smarter and boost your intelligence at http://www.becomingsmarter.com/.