 Hi, my name is Tracy Takahama, Espinoza, and this is a video on nutrition and its impact on learning outcomes. So the number one question probably jumping out at all of you is, is there a perfect diet for your brain? Well, there's a whole lot of books out there that would make you think it's so. I'm just going to give you kind of a quick, a shorter version of the answer. Just think about it. Your brain is an organ. What's another important organ in your body? Your heart. So just basic rule of thumb, best diet for your brain, what's good for your heart is good for your brain. Just think about it that way. This will not keep the popular press from offering a whole lot of suggestions about the best diet for your brain. So there are a lot of things that are out there, and because they're in print, we believe them, and many of them come from reputable sources. So we really have to be careful of the claims. For example, we know that diet is one of those things that has so many convoluting factors to it. So we know in general that people who eat well also tend to have a whole lot of other healthy habits. So is it what they're eating or is it their other habits that actually benefit that individual? We know that certain things in your diet can influence depression, for example. But is it the fact that you are eating ex food or because you are doing the Mediterranean diet like the Mediterranean's and cooking with your neighbors and enjoying your food that actually changes your depressive state? So we have to be very careful when we break this down. What is actually happening in the body, in the brain, based on the nutrients that we're taking in? There are a lot of claims that have to do with things like fish and omega-3s and yogurt and sauerkraut and green tea and other antioxidant fruits. Nobody argues that those things could be bad for you, but do they really have this promise of staving off, for example, certain diseases? Or are certain claims, for example, that the Western diet shrinks the left hippocampus and so certain foods like that are those more alarmist things? I would have to say that if you have a study that's done over four years, that sounds pretty good. But if it's only 255 participants when you have billions of people in the world with different types of dietary needs, it might be questionable. So we have to take this into consideration, but not sort of live and die by it. One thing that might be really good, though, is if you look across diets, if you look at the Mediterranean diet and the Okinawan diet and the Scandinavian diet, and you see all across the board that all of them recommend fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, fish, lean meats, and moderation, olive oil, a little bit of red wine, then if you see that recommended all across the board, there might be something to that. So I think you should be cautious consumers of the information that's available. Most things, if you read these articles very carefully, you'll see that they're awarded in such a way that they sort of relieve the person of any kind of responsibility. If you say that the Mediterranean diet may actually help preserve neuronal connections in the brain, that word may really saves you because we don't know yet. We really just don't know yet. So something may help slow the decline of Alzheimer's. Definitely worth looking into. But remember that none of these things have been proven yet. Had they been proven, we would all be under the same kind of dietary recommendations, right? I really like this particular video presentation because it does have that cautious optimism about it that tells you some really good information, but also the things that we need to worry about. So let's have a look. Let me tell you how miserable my mornings are without breakfast. I hate everyone. Yes, everyone, even that old lady who took the last seat on the train. I hate you. Hey guys, Julie here for DNews. Do we need breakfast? I mean, your mom always tells you you need to eat it, but do you really need to? A recent study published in the Journal of Public Economics says yes. The researchers found that schools that provided free breakfast for their students had better test scores than those that didn't. The kids performed 25% better in math and had similar gains in other areas like reading. But this news isn't entirely new. Breakfast is often heralded as the most important meal of the day, and science backs this up. There are loads of studies that show just how important it is for learning and memory, but it might not have the weight loss benefits you think. Anyways, is it breakfast that helps give your brain a boost, or is it the type of food you eat? I mean, the brain consumes a lot of energy. Almost 20% of the energy we consume goes to the brain. Some researchers say that the brain functions best when there's 25 grams of glucose circulating through the bloodstream. So really, you should keep that as level as possible. Any spike or dip can leave you feeling off. So maybe eating more frequent smaller meals throughout the day can help you avoid a post-lunch crash. But is there a way to hack your brain with food? Is there such a thing as brain food? I mean, I was always told to eat a banana before a test. Curcumin and Omega-3 seem to be buzzing around the blogosphere of late, and that may have some truth to it. According to a paper published in the National Review of Neuroscience, these nutrients less than cognitive decline in the elderly and improve cognition in people with brain injuries. Their typical sources of Omega-3 are in fish, like salmon, and in other things like flaxseeds and walnuts. Curcumin can be found mostly in turmeric, a type of spice. Other nutrients, like iron and B vitamins, help memory and brain function in women, while diets high in saturated fats tend to do the opposite. Omega-3's another micronutrients might be the heavy hitters of brain food. One study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that a cocktail of Omega-3's iron, zinc, folate, and vitamins A, B6, B12, and C helped kids in Australia and Indonesia do better on learning and memory tests. Another study published in the journal Appetite by some of the same researchers found that foods low on the glycemic index are better for breakfast. The glycemic index rates food based on how it affects your glucose levels, or level of sugar. The study found that, yes, kids' memory and cognitive function do decline throughout the morning, but a low GI breakfast reduced that decline more than a breakfast with a high GI. Low GI foods are like fruits and vegetables, or maybe even oatmeal. So a good breakfast might be a bowl of oatmeal with a banana rather than a bowl of sugary cereal. So a balanced diet with fish and fruits and veggies seems to be good for the brain. Eating breakfast might keep you perkier in the morning, so you're more alert to learn more. The one thing that we can say for sure across the board, no question about it, is that getting your nutrients from food is much better than just taking a pill. So supplements are good and interesting, and when you have no other options, that's great. However, if you have the option, you're far better off consuming the nutrients through real food. A rule of thumb is, you know, closest to the source as possible. And there's also a whole new field that I hope many of you look into that has to do with nutritional psychiatry. This is a booming new area that seems to come and go in waves of like every 50 years, we become interested in the foods we eat once again. Nowadays, there is even more interest in this because of food security. How do you get your foods from around the world? Nowadays, people have a lot of access to a lot of different types of foods. What's better? I think chia or adding walnuts to your cereal. There's a lot of options out there, so there's a lot of comparative studies that are now back in favor and popularity. But one of the bigger angles to this is food and mood. So basically, how is what you're consuming, the nutrients that you eat, how does that influence your mental state? Could you leverage good nutrients to move out of depressive states? Could you leverage good eating habits to improve your general health and well-being and therefore your ability to perform in life? Final really interesting point that I hope you will all reflect on deeply is to consider what is the perfect diet given cultural boundaries. Before in the United States, we used to have this food pyramid, which was really interesting. It had a very clear space there for lots of dairy products and even a small space for saturated fats and even processed oils and things like that. A couple of years ago in the School of Public Health, Harvard challenged that and actually came out with a different structure. It was called a healthy eating plate and they basically recommended about half of our intake should be vegetables and fruits, which is very interesting because in the old pyramid, they were actually together, fruits and vegetables, right? Then they suggest whole grains and rather than prescribing a certain type of meat, they basically say, no, you need some healthy proteins. So whether or not that's something in a vegetarian diet, with tofu, for example, as opposed to chicken or beef, it's basically just recommended as being a healthy protein, which is very interesting, right? And if you look at other types of food pyramids from Japan or China, you'll see that most of the foods are very reflective of the cultures. People used to be bound principally by what they had access to. Nowadays, with international commerce, people can get pretty much anything in most big cities around the world. So you now have a choice and this means making big decisions about what types of whole grains you're going to eat or what types of healthy proteins are really the most optimal for you. Again, though, looking at the commonalities amongst all of the recommended diets in different parts of the world, that might be a good indicator. For example, absolutely all of them recommend that there be a high amount of grains and fruits and vegetables. That's in everybody's diet around the world. So maybe there's something to that. Finally, remember that all of this should be taken into consideration based on human variability. For example, frequency of meals, general metabolism. How many of you, for example, would like to eat two big meals a day? And how many of you would love to eat eight little smaller meals a day? Those are really important things to take into consideration because different people's bodies process things in different ways. Culturally based norms are one thing, but also how the individual human body reacts to different dietary stimulus, different dietary needs. Another thing to take into consideration with human variability is that different people will react differently to different nutrients based on genetic makeup. Some of you might have peanut allergy or have problems with dairy products, and others of you might go into a deep depressive state if you eat wheat. Different people have different reactions to different nutrients. So anybody who generically says this is the perfect diet, be very wary of those things, okay? As always, we want you to think about the risk and protective factors that are in your life related to your nutrition. Are you the kind of person who has a risk factor because you have no time to eat and you're eating a lot of junk food, or you're eating your meals at your desk, or you have a protective factor because every Wednesday and Sunday night, you know, the family comes over and everybody cooks together and you enjoy slow food, or you have a guard in your house and you're protected by the fact that you know that your food is coming straight from the source. Whatever it may be, the risk and protective factors are very real in our life related to nutrition, and they do have an impact on our potential to learn. So think about those things, and I look forward to all your questions when we meet up. Thanks a lot.