How Does The Food You Eat Influence Your Brain Activity?
You might not be aware that your intake of food decides your happiness, stress, decisions, and anger. The healthier you eat the healthier your mind becomes and the better you will be able to learn new things and develop new skills. In our body, the brain is the only organ that does not shut down even when we’re asleep and work 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.
In addition to that, the brain consumes the most energy in your body so from where does this energy come? Probably the energy comes from what you eat. I have experienced that whenever I eat unhealthy food I become lazy and procrastinate. If you eat unhealthy food such as junk food for a week or 2, your memory is likely to become weak, you’ll have trouble remembering things and face difficulty learning new things.
In addition to that, you’ll find it hard to understand why your brain is acting the way it is and will likely be anxious more than you’re used to. All this happens unconsciously and often goes unnoticed. So what links all this to unhealthy food? In order to understand well and get the answers to all of these questions, you’ll need to learn a little about what types of food the brain needs in order to function more efficiently.
How does unhealthy food affect the brain?
The process of intake of food starts right after conception. During the pregnancy the fetus’ get all of their food from the mother, the healthier the mother eats the healthier the fetus’ mind will be.
A research was conducted on pregnant women in Australia after 1–5 years of the parturition which showed that those women who ate excessive amounts of junk foods and other types of unhealthy food that compromises healthy brain activities and the outcome was astonishing.
Mothers that didn’t maintain a healthy diet, their children were more aggressive, more prone to negative emotions, frustrated, and had difficulties living normal lives, proving that not only is it important for mothers to maintain a healthy diet during pregnancies but also that not doing so can mean a world of trouble for their children decades later.
In another study, a group of scientists conducted an experiment on some lab rats. The aim of the study was to test the effects of fatty acid omega 3 on the brains of the mice in question. Omega 3 is a fatty acid that is vital for normal brain function and development.
Some of the mice had healthy amounts of omega 3 in their systems while others had little to none in their system. For the final stage of the study, a room was set up in a way that half of it was lit with bright lights, and the other half was left completely dark.
The mice that had healthy amounts of omega 3 in their systems went over to the bright-lit-up corner while once the ones that didn’t have sufficient omega 3 in their systems went over to the dark corners of the room.
This showed that not only is Omega 3 (commonly found in walnuts, fish, seeds, and more foods) important for healthy brain activity but also, the lack of it can leave one more vulnerable to depression, anxiety, and anti-social tendencies.
Omega 3 is essential to a healthy diet when it comes to proper brain activity. Our bodies do not make it on its own so it has to be consumed from different external sources. According to an observation, made by a scientist on prisoners, the prisoners that were given an omega 3-rich diet for three or more months, resulted in the lowering of their levels of aggression.
For instance, If you’re a student and you’ve worked hard for the paper and your other class fellow did not even open his book for a moment but he gets full marks in the exam and you even didn’t get even half of him, what will you do in this unfair situation depends on what you’ve just eaten.
Conclusion
The food we eat not only causes mood swings but also plays a major role in decision making. It doesn’t matter what age one is, maintaining a healthy diet is a responsibility.
From memory to mood swings to anger and frustration to levels of aggression, the food we consume can and does affect all of these. The risk of not maintaining a proper diet is too high and the effort it takes to maintain is nothing compared to what is on the line.
A big part of taking care of yourself should be taking care of your diet, it keeps you healthy both physically and psychologically and it is only when you’re healthy and content that you’re able to take care of the people around you.
