Food and Mental Performance

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Whether you are heading for the school room, board room or just want
your brain to have the best chance to be in top form, breakfast is a
must. The most consistent findings to date suggest that eating
breakfast influences the processes involved in the formation and
retrieval of memories and in managing complex or challenging
information.
In research on children, scientists were able to reveal that skipping
the first meal of the day led to more errors in tests that required
the children to solve problems than those who took the time to have
breakfast. Young adults who missed breakfast have also been shown to
perform more poorly on tests of scholastic achievement than those who
had something to eat before undergoing the same experiment.
It seems that breakfast has these effects through its ability to raise
levels of glucose in the blood, which in turn increases a transmitter
in the brain called acetylcholine. It appears to researchers such as
Professor David Benton of Wales University who are working in this
area, that acetylcholine is involved in memory since drugs that block
its production have been shown to disrupt memory, in particular
reducing the ability to remember new information.
Since vitamin B1 is needed to make acetylcholine, ensuring the diet
has a good supply of this nutrient could also play a role in
optimising mental performance throughout the morning. Cereal foods
containing vitamin B1 include fortified or wholemeal bread and
fortified breakfast cereals.
Our ability to think clearly is not simply restricted to the timings
of short-term nutritional meals. Mental performance can also be
affected by the nutritional quality of the diet as a whole in the
long-term. Having a prolonged poor intake of the mineral iron, for
example, can affect people's ability to concentrate and reduce their
IQ.
It is known that iron deficiency leads to impairment of memory in
adults and children and that in small children and infants it leads to
problems with attention and learning (for more details see Food Today
16).
While women are particularly susceptible to low intakes of iron in the
diet, too little of another micronutrient, iodine, affects both the
sexes. Decision-making and initiative seem especially to suffer when
iodine is deficient, and although this is only a problem for some
areas of Europe and for developing countries, the consumption of
iodised salt, fish, shellfish, meat, milk and eggs can help to ensure
good intakes are maintained.
If a lack of certain elements in the diet can lead to impaired mental
functioning, the addition of others may help to give our brains a
kick-start. Caffeine, for example has a mild stimulant effect, acting
on the central nervous system and improving alertness. Tests have
shown caffeine to be capable of speeding up rapid information
processing in the brain by ten percent, and that a coffee after lunch
helps to counteract the normal post-lunch dip' and to sustain
concentration.
It is not just what you drink that counts, but drinking enough water
in general. Even a small reduction in hydration can affect mental
performance; remember by the time you are thirsty you are already
dehydrated, so keep topping up with drinks stops through out the day
to keep your brain alert

In other words. Do not forget to buy those Lucky Charms and Cocoa
Puffs for your kids. More [censored] up food industry propaganda. What
the hell is wrong with you anyway? Are you actually suggesting we
feed children that kind of destructive garbage? There is not much
worse you can give a child in the morning than refined/processed
breakfast cereals.