Hey stupid! How your eating habits can make you dumb.

AUTHOR: Susan Carnell, Ph.D.

PUBLICATION NAME: Psychology Today

DATE OF PUBLICATION: October 10, 2009

SUMMARY: It has long been known that nutrition can affect your mental and physical capacity. Without the proper nutrients, your body becomes weaker and less capable of regular tasks. But, there is also evidence that what we eat can effect the how we think.

A study was conducted to prove this idea. Researchers fed rats a high-fat diet for ten days and found that, not only were they exhausted after slight exercise, they became more forgetful and less successful at finding rewards in a maze.

Another study was conducted on elderly obese and thin people. Interestingly, the brains of the obese showed greater shrinkage of the temporal, frontal, and subcortical areas than those of the lean people. Taking into account the fact the diabetes has a similar affect on the brain, the researchers still found that weight played a role in the atrophy.

On the other hand, not eating enough fats can also cause problems with the function of the brain. Anorexic patients actually perform worse at tasks which test the flexible thinking of the prefrontal cortex. Also, women who claim to be dieting to lose weight tend to have slower reaction times and poorer recall in word memory tests.

Basically, eating a healthy diet can keep your mind and body sharp, but don't stress too much over the things that you eat because that's never good.

LINKS TO STUDY: None

ARTICLE: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/bad-appetite/200910/hey-stupid-how-your-eating-habits-can-make-you-dumb

SUBMITTED BY: Rosemary Barrass