Reading 1

Unit 6- Reading 1

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Fat for Brains

As the old saying goes, you are what you eat. The foods you eat obviously affect your body’s performance. They may also influence how your brain handles its tasks.

If it handles them well, you think more clearly and you are more emotionally stable. The right foods can help you concentrate, keep you motivated, sharpen your memory, speed your reaction time, reduce stress, and perhaps even prevent brain aging. Good and bad fat. Most people associate the term fat with poor health.

We are encouraged to eat fat-free foods and to drain fat away from fried foods. To understand its nutritional benefits, however, we have to change the paradigm for how we think about fat.

The first step is gaining a better understanding of fat. Instead of conceiving of it as a single thing, we have to recognize it as several discrete types of a similar compound. Not every fat is your enemy. Fats, the right kinds and in the right amounts, are among your best friends.

It is smart to commit to a balanced-fat diet, not to a no-fat diet. Fats are broadly classified as either “saturated” or “unsaturated”. Most foods that contain fat contain both kinds, in varying proportions.

Foods that are high in saturated fats include meat, butter, and other animal products. In general, saturated fats are solid at room temperature. Foods high in unsaturated fats include vegetable oils, nuts, and avocados.

Unsaturated fats, if separated out, are usually liquid at room temperature. The key to health is to allocate a percentage of your fat intake to each type of fat. Saturated fat in moderate amounts poses no problem.

In general, you will be fine if less than 20 percent of the fats you consume is saturated. Beyond that level, saturated fat may promote heart disease and perhaps some types of cancer. A diet high in saturated fat can also make you depressed and antisocial and impair your general mental performance.

Unsaturated fats should make up most of your fat intake. But beware. Unsaturated fats are especially high in calories and could cause weight problems. The smart approach is to keep your overall fat intake low and make sure that most of it is in the form of unsaturated fats.

Fatty acids

Keeping your fat intake too low, on the other hand, could also be dangerous. Fat in food is broken down into chemicals called fatty acids. The body uses them for many purposes. They go into all hormones.

They are critical to body metabolism. And they are part of the outer membrane of every cell in the body, including those in the brain. You need these fatty acids in order to stay physically healthy and mentally sharp.

Of the many fatty acids the body uses, two are called “essential fatty acids” (EFAs). Your diet must contain foods that provide them, because the body cannot make them on its own.

The most important are omega-3 fatty acids. They are crucial for the proper development of the human brain. All brain-cell membranes need to refresh themselves continually with new supplies of omega-3s.

North Americans are famous for consuming too much saturated fat and too much total fat. They also consume far too little food that provides omega-3s. The vegetable oils most commonly used in cooking-corn, safflower, and sunflower oils-have almost no omega-3s. Using canola (rapeseed), soy, and walnut oils, which contain a lot of omega-3s would be far more healthful. A diet with a lot of olive oil, such as the traditional diets of Italy, Greece, and other Mediterranean regions, would also be better.

And the old saying about fish being brain food is true. Fatty fish That live in cold water such as salmon, tuna, and herring are rich in omega-3s, especially in one, called DHA. it is identical to a material in the membranes of nerve cells. Even if you don’t eat fish, you can still get the DHA you need from green vegetables, sesame seeds, and egg yolks.

Omega-3s and the brain

There is evidence that DHA plays a big role in the intellectual develpment of humans. In one study, doctors measured the DHA levels of mothers at the time they gave birth. Their children were then tested at 12 and 18 months of age to see how well they paid attention to things around them. The research team compiled data on how long each child focused on a toy.

The toddlers whose mothers had the highest DHA levels at birth showed the greatest attention spans. These children focused for longer periods and spent much less time 90 simply looking around, unfocused. In psychology and physiology journals, articles routinely confirm the value of omega-3 fatty acids.

One published study demonstrated that fish oil reduced the degree of brain damage in cats experiencing stroke. A study by researchers at the University of Pittsburgh showed that adults with low levels of omega-3s in their bodies were far more depressed, pessimistic, and impulsive than those with normal or high levels. This evidence improves the prospects for treating depressed patients effectively.

Many therapists now say they are determined to coordinate psychological therapy with dietary therapy in order to rely less on drugs. As research continues to show, new ways of thinking about fat can open the door to better physical, mental, and emotional health.