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| Yes, I know this is a picture of a chimpanzee brain, but it looks pretty cool, right? |
i09 has an interesting article about sugar. Here is the point that caught my attention:
Your brain runs on sugar.
Your brain's main supply of energy is the monosaccharide glucose. While your brain only weighs between 3 to 5 pounds, it makes use of approximately 15-20% of your body's daily caloric needs. It has been long thought that the glucose was consumed as a function of cognitive experience, and research on rats shows that when a more cognitively challenging task is placed before them, more glucose is depleted. This phenomenon also appears to extend to humans.
In the journal article Glucose, memory, and aging, published by the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers observed that elderly patients who were given lemonade sweetened with glucose experienced a nearly two fold increase in short term memory when asked to recall a prose passage compared to those who drank lemonade sweetened with the artificial sweetener saccharin (also known by the brand name of "Sweet'N Low"). Additionally, saccharin has no calories.
Glucose has also been shown to have a large impact on self-control and behavior, with limited supplies causing a quick falloff in behavioral stability at times. I like to call this phenomenon "hanger", hungry-anger, when observed in friends and loved ones.
Naturally, this does not apply to those of us who have a physical problem with the sugar, so I'm not advocating that diabetics chuck their diets and stuff their faces with donuts (and yes, Cal, I'm talking to you). For the rest of us however, a little bit of sugar is not only okay, it is essential to make your brains work.
At least that's what you can tell yourself when you go back for another helping of pie.
You can read the whole article here.
I've been here and there. I've drawn a lot of pictures. I've written a bit, too. I'm not good at this self-promotion thing. Look, you want to know about me? just visit these websites. Okay?
www.mdjacksonart.weebly.com
http://mdjackson.deviantart.com
http://community.imaginefx.com/fxpose/mdjacksons%5Fportfolio
1 comment:
So once again I was RIGHT! It's BIG SUGAR in league with the CEPHALOPOD MENANCE all over again. They know that mine is a sweet tooth and by keeping my sugar intake lower, they decrease the fantastic working speed of my brain. I gotta say I am impressed with the effor that went into this scheme to take me out. But once again my allies READ and keep me informed. I am eating TWO of my Rocky Road chocolate bars today and BOTH will be for spite.
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