“You are what you eat” gets an even more profound sense if you look at it from the perspective of nutritional psychology. There is a link between the food you choose and your cognitive performance. It affects various aspects of your life, including mood, attention, and memory.
Your brain is active 24/7, taking care of all the processes in your body. Therefore, it needs enough “fuel” to function. This fuel comes from the foods you eat. While some of them can boost your brain health thanks to the abundance of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, other foods can have a reverse effect. Here is how healthy eating makes a difference.
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1. Improved Attention and Concentration
The ability to stay focused is crucial to your success in college. It helps you stay attentive and study with maximum productivity. If you experience concentration problems, support your brain power with the right fuel. Foods like blueberries, avocados, leafy greens, flax seeds, and dark chocolate can help you gain mental clarity and improve attention. Additionally, incorporating natural ways to improve your memory, such as regular exercise, adequate sleep, mindfulness practices, and memory-boosting supplements like ginkgo biloba, can further enhance your cognitive abilities and academic performance.
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2. Better Mood
Your mood has a significant effect on your learning. It supports your interest, creativity, and engagement in class. To improve your mood, add nutrients like folate, iron, omega-3 fatty acids, potassium, zinc, and vitamins A, B6, and B12 to your diet.
For example, whole foods like fish, nuts, and legumes boost serotonin in your brain. Meat and other protein-rich foods increase the availability of dopamine and norepinephrine. These are the feel-good chemicals that improve your mood and boost happiness.
3. Enhanced Memory
Memory is interconnected with your diet as well. Healthy eating supports neurogenesis, which is the process of the formation of neurons. It helps us think, memorize, and remember information. Foods rich in omega-3 fatty acids and healthy fats also improve the synaptic plasticity of your brain. It strengthens connections between neurons, making it easier to form long-term memories and improving recall.
4. Quality Sleep
Eating habits are also associated with sleep quality. Certain foods make it easier to fall asleep and have a better rest, while others, in contrast, make it harder.
A lack of vitamins and nutrients like calcium and magnesium in your diet can lead to sleep problems. High-carbohydrate meals like sweets and energy drinks mess up your energy levels, making it harder to get enough deep sleep and increasing the number of awakenings.
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5. More Energy
As a student, you have a lot of tasks and responsibilities. Classes, part-time job, homework, family time—you need a lot of energy for all these commitments. A balanced diet is a way to maintain your energy levels during the day.
When planning your meals, make sure you include complex carbs. They are fiber-rich and slower to digest, which means that they provide you with more energy throughout the day. Caffeine-containing foods like coffee, tea, and chocolate boost your alertness and stimulate the release of dopamine and noradrenaline for better focus.
6. Reduced Stress
Although stress is a natural response of your body, it can induce disease and reduce your quality of life. The stress levels among college students are extremely high. 84.4% of university students reported their school life to be stressful. You can help your body recover from the consequences of excessive stress with dietary changes.
The stress hormone cortisol causes inflammation that is meant to respond to a threat, even if this threat is emotional or psychological. When stress becomes chronic, pro-inflammatory cytokines do not disappear like they are supposed to and can contribute to various diseases like rheumatoid arthritis or depression.
How can a healthy diet help? Certain foods, like tomatoes, nuts, and olive oil, have anti-inflammatory effects. It is not an overnight solution, but it can help you reduce the effects of stress and chronic inflammation in the long term.
The Bottom Line
Good quality nutrition is vital to your brain health. It affects your energy levels, mood, sleep, and cognitive performance. With a few quality changes to your diet, you can enjoy a plethora of benefits and become more productive and successful as a student.
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