Food for thought
Are you getting the proper nutrition to keep your brain at its ‘A’ game?
Masha Scheele
Contributor
By now, you may have forgotten what the world outside of MRU’s classrooms look like, as you can barely look past all of your midterm notes to check how many hours you’ve spent studying.
Maybe you haven’t eaten in a couple of days now, but it seems impossible to actually get up and do anything other than sitting motionless, staring at your computer screen.
It’s so easy to just grab a bag of chips from one of the vending machines along the walls on Main Street.
But then you realize that after the fifth day this week of consuming nothing more than greasy take-out and Tim Horton’s donuts for breakfast, lunch and supper, you’ve become so sluggish that your brains have come to feel like Jell-o.
If that sounds like you, it’s likely that you’re having a lot of difficulty retaining any of the information that you’ve been cramming into your head, because let’s face it: your brain need some better study fuel than all the junk you’ve been eating.
Eating healthy during stressful times, such as when you drudge through the weeks filled with midterms, is important to help keep your stress levels down.
Every student uses the excuse of having no time to make meals, but there are lots of snacks that require no prep time at all.
Fresh fruit and berries are super easy to bring along anywhere you go and they help you to retain information. They are basically super study foods. According to a study done at Tufts University in the United States, consuming blueberries and strawberries every day will improve the short-term memory, which is extremely beneficial on the day before your midterm when trying to learn a half-semester’s worth of information.
As you study into the wee hours of the night, and you’re in need of a serious energy boost, nuts or seeds are an easy and healthy way to get the strength you need to read right until that last page of your textbook.
According to the Oxford Brookes University “Healthy Eating” guide, nuts are a great source of energy, and they are wonderful for your metabolism. Another plus is that nuts and seeds are great for your skin, according to Paula Simpson, beauty nutritionist to Parade Magazine. So, at least you will look good as you’re stressing out about forgetting everything just minutes before your midterms.
Granola bars can contain many healthy brain foods like nuts and dried fruit, and they’re super easy to make. It only takes half an hour to make an entire cookie sheet of granola, and after cutting it into appropriately-sized bars, it will last at least a couple of weeks. Every nut has a different nutritional credential and you can choose whichever ones you want most to add into your granola bar recipe or whichever you happen to have on hand.
