Why some carbs are excellent ‘brain food’
Your brain needs a continuous source of fuel to perform well – and it gets this fuel from carbohydrates.
By Nikki Hart, MSc (Hons), NZ Registered Nutritionist, and Mentemia’s Nutrition Adviser
The brain needs about 120g of glucose a day to function well.
Think of glucose for the brain, like petrol for your car – it needs a continuous source of fuel, otherwise it stops performing.
When you get a very low blood glucose (hypoglycemia), you may experience symptoms such as slurred speech, blurred vision, and poor memory recall.
The brain gets the needed glucose-energy from the carbohydrate foods you eat. However, not all carbs are created equal.
Understanding the Glycemic Index
Depending on the amount and type of carbohydrate, food differs in the extent to which they raise your blood glucose levels.
We don’t tend to eat a single carbohydrate food, but often consume several items that accumulate into what’s called a Glycemic Load (GL).
To maintain stable blood glucose levels, it’s better to consume a low GL meal containing a selection of low Glycemic Index (GI) foods.
The GI is a ranking system of carbohydrates on a scale from 0 to 100, according to how they raise our blood glucose levels after eating. It’s the low-GI foods (<55) that produce smaller fluctuations in your blood glucose and insulin levels and help protect against developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Familiarising yourself with the GI of each type of carbohydrate can help you better manage your GL, and therefore provide your brain with a steady source of fuel.
Examples of high-GI carbohydrates:
White bread
Bagels
Rice crackers
Cornflakes
Rice bubbles
Potato – especially roasted, chipped, mashed
Kumara
Jasmine rice
Examples of low-GI carbohydrates:
Grainy dense bread – Vogels, Burgen, Molenberg
Crispbreads
Traditional rolled oats
All-Bran
Lentils
Chickpeas
Sushi rice
Soba noodles
Pasta
Quinoa
Kiwifruit
Taro
Carrots
Apples
Grapes
Oranges
Pears
Corn
References
www.glycemicindex.com
Donohoe RT, Bento D. Glucose tolerance predicts performance on tests of memory and cognition. Physiol Behav. 2000; 71(3-4):395-401.
Park MH, Chung SJ, Shim JE, Jang SH, Nam KS. Effects of macronutrients in mixed meals on postprandial glycemic response. J Nutr Health. 2018; 51(1):31-39. Korean
