
Brain foods: the effects of nutrients on brain function (2008) - lainon
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805706/
======
cossatot
Marge: "I brought you a tuna sandwich. They say it's brain food. I guess
because there's so much dolphin in it, and you know how smart they are."

It seems that a lot of what is discussed in the paper has to do with longer-
term effects, i.e. that nutrients can affect neural configuration, e.g.
synaptic plasticity.

I have suspected that there are also shorter term effects (i.e. hourly to
weekly) caused by food and alcohol intake that probably work through a variety
of channels. First, they do impact mood (whatever that is) which certainly
impacts my cognitive ability (both problem solving and focus). There are
surely blood sugar effects in many people (not myself throughout the day, but
people I know well). I have also always wondered why exactly hangovers so
drastically impair cognitive performance and I have noticed myself to be more
mentally sharp if I go a couple weeks without drinking.

It'll be nice to see how this plays out longer term with more specific
nutrients both macro and micro, to find out how we can adjust our diets
accordingly (although I would guess that a veggie- and fish-heavy diet is
probably the way to go).

~~~
rgbrenner
_I have noticed myself to be more mentally sharp if I go a couple weeks
without drinking._

So it's not just me. I've never been a heavy drinker (maybe twice a year I'll
have a couple of beers/wine).. but a few years ago, I was working on a
difficult bit of code (for several months), and I noticed after one night of a
moderate amount of alcohol I couldnt work on the code the next day... like I
couldnt hold all of it in my head. It improved somewhat over a few days, but I
wasn't 100% until a couple of weeks had passed (based on my ability to work on
this code).

When I say moderate, I mean a couple of glasses of wine.. I've never been
drunk, so I definitely don't mean anything close to that.

After I noticed this, I tried again a few times (months apart) with the same
result; always an improvement at the 2 week mark.. so I stopped consuming
alcohol entirely.

I felt like this particular code was unworkable unless I was able to hold it's
entirety in my head, which I already found difficult without alcohol. In the
past, I never noticed this effect, but most of the time, I was probably
working on easier code. So YMMV.. but it made me question whether any amount
of alcohol was a good thing when you make your living with your mind.

~~~
charlesdm
That probably just has to do with the fact that you don't drink often enough.
Someone who drinks a glass of red wine a day won't tend to get drunk (or even
buzzy) after drinking. People that only drink once or twice a year, most
likely will.

(This obviously also depends on your body type, how much you've eaten
beforehand, etc as well)

I tend to drink one glass a day, but also take occasional breaks, and
personally I haven't noticed any differences in ability and performance. I've
also taken 1-2 month breaks from drinking (without issues -- always good to
test once in a while!) but it doesn't really increase or decrease my ability.

~~~
rgbrenner
It is true that I would get buzzed from a glass... but the effect I'm
referring to was 2-14 days after that glass, after you're already sober.

I suspect that 1) alcohol's subtle effects last longer than assumed--in much
the same way caffeine withdrawl can last for weeks; and 2) it affects your
working memory.. reducing it maybe 10-15%.

I don't think you would notice a 10% decrease in your working memory unless
you were working on a particularly difficult problem like I was at the time.
Depending on the difficulty of the problems you're working on, it's entirely
possible to code while drunk.. But if you've ever tried writing filesystem
code, vm subsystem, or another hard problem, being under the influence can
make it impossible to make any progress. So there's a wide range, and alcohols
affects may not have much impact on the work you do.

I would like to see it studied.. I just thought it was interesting that
cossatot mentioned a similar affect from alcohol lasting a similar amount of
time.

~~~
oh_sigh
Alcohol can definitely impair the quality of your sleep. Subtly enough so that
if you don't catch up it might take a few days to recover naturally

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chrisfinne
No mention in this discussion thread yet about the keto diet and ketones being
a better fuel source for the brain than glucose. After damage from a couple
decades of sugar fueled coding, ketosis killed my brain fog and gave me back
the mental endurance of a much younger man.

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mtreis86
How about hydration? Anecdotally if I am low on water, electrolytes, or
protein, I lose my deepest levels of reasoning.

~~~
bsenftner
Anecdotally, the heat this summer depleted my electrolytes, and being one to
avoid fructose (Gatorade) and eating out, I found I had to get liquid
minerals. Most foods these days use sea salt - no iodine or some other
essential salty minerals. Unless I want to break my no fast food, no
restaurant general behavior, getting non-sea salt in foods appears "out of
consumer fashion".

~~~
nwah1
I buy morton lite salt. Has half potassium chloride and half sodium chloride,
with iodine. Also says it has a little bit of madnesium carbonate, so pretty
decent electrolyte balance.

~~~
trapperkeeper74
If it had no sodium, then it would be good. Most people already have way too
much sodium in their diets.

~~~
oliveshell
Sodium is still an essential nutrient. It's important not to let the pendulum
swing too far the other way.

[https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/05/25/a-low-salt-diet-
ma...](https://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2016/05/25/a-low-salt-diet-may-be-bad-
for-the-heart/)

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zumu
With regards to "Contemporary fish consumption versus major depression", there
are most likely strong cultural factors at play this chart does account for.

Having lived in Japan and the US, I can say with some certainty Americans are
vastly more likely to see a mental health care professional and therefore are
vastly more likely to be diagnosed with depression. To this day it is still
fairly taboo to see a psychiatrist. Furthermore, given the chart labels one of
its data points "West Germany" I am imagining this data is from the late
eighties at best, when it was even more taboo to see a mental health care
provider.

I would imagine the cultures in Korea and Taiwan may be similar in this
regard.

