May 30, 2002
NUTRITION NEWS FOCUS
"Nutrition news is important. We help you understand it!"
Today's Topic: Sugar Makes You Smarter
A provocative statement but supported by the facts. A number of
studies have previously shown that young children did better in
school when they ate sweetened breakfast cereals and that adults also
scored better when consuming glucose compared with placebo. Now, a
study in 20 healthy elderly people shows that consumption of
carbohydrates in the morning led to better memory and task
performance. The study appeared in the September 2000 issue of the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
<
http://www.ajcn.org/cgi/content/abstract/72/3/825 >
Similar benefits were seen with consumption of glucose, potatoes, or
barley. People who ate carbohydrates were better able to recall
lists of words, pay attention, and connect numbers assigned randomly
on a page. Although the foods were not significantly different from
each other, there was a trend to better performance with glucose and
lower performance with barley. The blood glucose level of the
subjects was not related to the results of this study.
HERE’S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: The preferred fuel source
for your brain is glucose, the form of sugar the body makes in the
liver if you don't eat enough carbohydrate. Regulation of blood
sugar is connected to mental performance in all age groups. This is
yet another reason not to follow fad diets that promise to keep blood
sugar at constantly low levels. In fact, the elderly with the best
insulin sensitivity and lowest body-mass index had the worst initial
cognitive performance.
(This story originally appeared in Nutrition News Focus on
November 29, 2000.)
Sugar Makes You Smarter
