One of the most important factors for our physical and mental health is our diet.

In Japan they love fish and they even eat it  raw. It has been known for centuries that fish is food for the brain. Maybe that is why the Japanese are so healthy and invent a lot of electronic miracles? Up trough the ages people in general have not been very engaged in the scientific substantiation of proper nourishment.

In an article in "The Questions of Nourishment" the author recommends eating tuna so that the brain does not get tired too quickly. "The Questions of Nourishment" magazine support all their articles with chemical formulas and scientific tests. Scientists studied the reaction of the brain to various products and came to the conclusion that food influences our cogitative processes in the most miraculous way. Our mood, our memory and our thinking largely depend on what we eat.

Our brain is designed by nature in a way that its activity and chemical composition depend much what we had for breakfast, if we had any at all. The scientists of the institute of nourishment have published many useful and interesting facts.

We will show you some of the. Try to take advantage and use their discoveries for at least a few days. And, perhaps, you will be convinced by your own experience that your mood, well being and memory really depends much on consumed food.

Breakfast

 Many people are used to eating for breakfast food containing carbohydrates. For example, sweet rolls or donuts. Starch and sugar contained in that type of food lead to the serotonin secretion increase in our brain. Serotonin is a soothing neurotransmitter. As a result of eating sweets in the morning we fail to reach a vigorous enough condition for our day and find ourselves going downhill because the activity of our organism decreases.

Sausage, eggs and ham contain high amounts of cholesterol and fat. These substances are digested slowly and cause our blood flow from our brain to our stomach which delays our cogitative processes. When you eat a sandwich with sausages for breakfast you will instantly feel that your morning activity starts to gradually fade away with each piece of swallowed food.

Nutrition experts (Shelton, Bragg) recommend that a good breakfast should consist of products with a very low content of fat or better yet fat-free. Here are some examples of such products: low-fat cottage cheese, fresh fruits and freshly squeezed juice, lean ham, low-fat cream cheese. The fructose contained in fruits is digested slowly and unlike processed sugar is not harmful to our bodies.

Do you dring coffee every morning? The scientists do not discourage you from drinking coffee yet they recommend it in small amounts - 1 cup a day- and made out of grains. Several cups of coffee will result in overabundance of caffeine which may  not only prevent a person from having a good reaction and clear thinking but can also prove to be harmful to the heart in the long run.

Lunch

You will often find that  old cook books recommends a glass of wine or even one-two small shots of hard liqueur after lunch. Many people who are now in their 50s - 60s are used to doing this. However, the use of alcohol of any kind is rather dangerous. In one of his works Korsakov described one famous writer who got used to drinking vodka during his traveling the north of Russia. He was not an alcoholic, and he was never observed being drunk. But he developed a habit of drinking vodka in small doses which on its turn led to the structural and functional disorder in his brain. After being examined at the Korsakovs' clinic the writer was diagnosed with multiple neuritis – extensive lesions of the nerves of the brain. From a first sight he was a normal person but at closer contact would reveal the disorder of his short-term memory - the ability to fixate just occurred events. In one-two minutes he would forget about the conversation with the doctor and would greet him again as though he saw the doctor for the first time that day. Such a disease, described by Korsakov for the first time, is called "Korsakovs' syndrome". Its symptoms are very similar to that of the Alzheimers' disease.

Many people realize the harm the alcohol can do to our brain but only a few know the danger of a lunch that consists of three or more dishes containing carbohydrates: bread, potatoes or pasta, sweet dessert. A group of psychologists discovered that similar combinations of products make women sleepy and men weak which results in slacking. After such a lunch it takes about 4 hours to restore persons' ability to concentrate. There is a saying: "Up until lunch a person at work fights with hunger and after lunch they fall asleep". Sleepiness may not be the result of a bad night of sleep. The sleepiness is caused by an incorrectly chosen combination of food that reduces the activity of the brain.

What should you eat for lunch then? The lunch should contain products with a high amount of protein. Poultry or fish rich in protein fill the blood of a person with amino acids, including tyrosine.

Let me also write a few words about the protective barrier of nervous cells of the brain. Each cell of the organism has an external membrane - a protective cover which not only separates the cell from other parts of the organism but also serves as the transmitter of various substances. Through the membrane the active withdrawal of harmful by-products of vital cellular activity is carried out. Many cells of the brain have a double membrane and not every chemical substance can penetrate into the nervous system. Physicians, who are well informed about these processes, invented a special way for the introduction of medicinal substances directly into the nervous system - subarachnoid way. Some substances get into the brain only by means of their direct injection into nervous cells. What is it that prevents getting substances into the nervous system? It is the double protective membrane that does it. The protection mechanism of the brain from chemical substances is called a "blood-brain barrier".

Tyrosine easily gets through this protective filter in the brain and turns into chemical elements  that help to increase brain activity - dopamine and norepinephrine.

When you suddenly feel confused, helpless or depressed,  it should serve as an indicator of deficiency of these elements in your brain.

Meat, fish, an egg yolk, porridge, peanuts and soy products contain a nutritious element called choline which also freely penetrates through the blood-brain barrier. Choline is the chemical predecessor of the neurotransmitter of the brain - acetylcholine which plays an important role in the development of memory. 

Dinner

It is obvious that before we go to sleep there is no need to stimulate our brain. If you include food with brain stimulating elements in your dinner it would definitely affect the quality of your sleep and eventually you may develop a sleep disorder. Try not eat food like tender steak or fish for dinner but rather have it replaced with carbohydrates. Carbohydrates help your brain release serotonin which calms your brain and is required for proper rest.

Is it good for you to eat dairy products before sleep? The answer is - no. A small glass of weak tea with oat cookies or a roll with jam would be good. Pasteurized dairy products contain Welch's bacilli and various putrefactive microorganisms that may cause diarrhea.

According to some scientists the influence of carbohydrates on the brain is much deeper than we think. Tryptophan acts not only as a somnolent, but also as a painkiller. (Tryptophan is able to get through the blood-brain barrier and turn into serotonin).

Many of us eat sweets, unconsciously trying to improve the state of our health. Especially in the fall when it is not unusual to have a seasonal depression which often characterized in the need for longer sleep.

The hormone melatonin, secreted by the pineal gland, regulates the cyclic rhythm of sleep and wakefulness. When days are shorter in the fall and the winter the pineal gland secretes more of this hormone which leads to the increased secretion of serotonin. As you can see the nature itself regulates the amount of calming elements in the brain, therefore you do not need to eat sweets in order to calm down.

What is the recommended amount of sweets per day? Only about 1.8 grams of carbohydrates help to produce enough of the tranquilizing effect of serotonin in the brain. A bigger amount will cause the increase of your weight rather than calmness.

Is it necessary to observe a diet, or is it necessary to always eat at a certain time? These questions may seem strange  to most of us who have been trained to eat at a certain time since we were children. Even at work we always have lunch at the same time every day. What is the result of the often repeated action? It becomes a habit. The gastric juice starts to secrete at a certain time causing a false feeling of hunger. And what if you are not able to eat at your regular time? The gastric juice will secrete anyway causing erosion of the paries of your stomach. This is one of the main reasons for gastritis and gastric ulcer. It is difficult to concentrate on anything if you have a stomachache. Also if you are used to eating at a certain time then try not to miss it.

It is known that the speed of movement of nervous impulses along the axon (a nervous fiber) depends on the thickness of the myelin cover - the white substance of the brain covering the cell from the outside. Fresh fish contains an amino acid which is a part of neurospecific protein S-100. This protein is found in membranes, cytoplasm and cell nucleus. It is proven that in intensive training of laboratory rats the amount of this protein sharply increases in the hippocampus which results in the blockade of the synthesis of protein S-100 and leads to the shutdown of the mechanism of synaptic plasticity. It means that new connections are formed extremely slowly and the animal is poorly trained. This protein is a part of the myelin cover. The thicker it is the better the impulse "flies" along the nervous fiber resulting in quicker reaction and the speed of thinking.

In recent years a lot of literature on proper nourishment has appeared. And we already know what food is harmful to the heart and what we should not eat for the prevention of cancer. Now, sitting down at the table, you should think about the influence of food on the activity of the brain, especially if you have decided to take to GMS Course.

Note for Smokers

Smokers are known to want to sleep in the afternoon. In fact they do not want to sleep but rather to lie down for their muscles are devoid of oxygen and have a hard time keeping the body in a vertical position let alone going somewhere.  If a person sleeps in the afternoon he will have a hard time falling asleep at night. This disorder in the cycle of sleep/wakefulness is one of the most dangerous to your organism and can develop into the disease called dissynchronism. We will discuss it later in more detail.

If you smoke you deprive yourself of ENERGY and not some abstract energy but real energy needed every minute of your life - OXYGEN. Oxygen is the most important to our organism. Without food one can live for about 40 days, without water - 2 weeks, without sleep - 13 days, and without oxygen - around 2 minutes.

The organ that is most sensitive to the lack of oxygen is the brain. If the brain is deprived of blood for only a few seconds the person loses consciousness. Thus a smoker constantly deprives himself of oxygen and remains in a semi-conscious condition. Beware of the drivers that smoke for there is a lot of them out there on the road. We all know that drinking and driving is a serious crime but has anyone ever considered the number of accidents caused by smoking and driving?

This site is about memory and memorizing. Is it possible to memorize and be a smoker at the same time? Of course it is. But the problem is that many smokers DOES NOT WANT to memorize or read.

Smoking excites our brain and the paralytic muscle reaction is often confused with the calming effect of tobacco. Curare (a toxic alkaloid found in certain tropical South American trees that is a powerful relaxant for striated muscles) calms even better - it will completely paralyze all muscles in the organism. Cigarettes do not calm - they excite our brain and at the same time reduce its motional activity. Due to this paradoxical effect of tobacco many creative people tend to smoke. On one hand the brain gets excited but the other – the muscles are paralyzed and you no longer want to get off your chair. An ideal combination for a creative person who decided to write a new book!

But what does this over excitation of the brain lead to? It leads to the increased instability of attention. And the instability of attention is the main enemy of reading and memorizing. The increased activation of the brain also leads to heart failure, high or low blood pressure as well as shortness of breath. I do not talk about the ischemic illness of the heart related to oxygen starvation of the cardiac muscle which works without interruption and requires plenty of oxygen. For a smoker the frequency of heartbeat increases meaning that the heart will develop the pattern of one and a half - two times more quickly, than it is necessary.

If you do not want to read a book or if you are down and don't feel like memorizing anything then you can blame your smoking habit which affects stability of your attention. The world champions in mnemonics not only do not smoke but also use certain plants that contain elements calming to the brain and improving its blood supply which increases their attention stability.

Just follow the surgeons' warning found on every cigarette pack and quit the destructing habit.