Best Food And Nutrition For A Healthy Brain!!

      

Brainy food

Eating well means thinking well. Nutrition and some food have been shown to improve general brain health and others can help prevent or at least slow down the effects of certain brain diseases. That’s why it’s important to include these foods in your diet as often as possible.

1. Tomatoes contain lycopene, which helps fight the cell damage that can be found in Alzeheimer’s disease.

      2.  Fish has plenty of omega 3, which help maintain a healthy nervous system, and iodine, to improves mental clarity.

      3. Whole-grain foods contain folic acid, B12, B6, which all improve in memory.

      4.     Blueberries have been shown to improve short term memory.

      5.    Blackcurrants contain vitamin C, for increased mental agility.

      6.   Pumpkin seeds contain zinc, which enhances memory and thinking skills.

      7.  Fortified cereals are a good source of B12, which reduces homocysteine levels that  may contribute to     Alzheimer’s disease.

      8.   Brocoli provides Vitamin K, which enhances cognitive function.

      9.   Sage is good for improving memory.

    10.   Nuts are great source of vitamin E, which improves memory. 

     

     - Team Shirsa

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Brain Facts That Every One Should Know!!!!!

Brain facts

The brain is perhaps the most fascinating organ in the human body. It controls everything from breathing to emotions to learning. If you work with children, here are some facts that you might find helpful, from how the brain affects learning to facts about memory to interesting facts about the brain that you can share with your students.

Brain Development and Learning

Read on to learn interesting facts about how the brain develops, what can affect that development, and how learning is impacted.

1. Read aloud. Parents and teachers who read aloud and talk often to young children are promoting brain development.
2. Bilingual brains. Children who learn two languages before the age of five have a different brain structure than children who learn only one language.
3. Child abuse and the brain. Studies have shown that child abuse can change the way the brain develops and can negatively affect learning.
4. New neurons. Throughout life, mental activity promotes the production of new neurons in the brain.
5. Handedness. Those who are left-handed or ambidextrous have a corpus collosum that is about 11% larger than those who are right-handed.
6. Brain growth. The human brain continues to grow until about age 18.
7. Stimulating environment. If a child is in a stimulating environment, she has a 25% greater ability to learn . Conversely, if she is in an environment with low stimulation, she has 25% less ability to learn.
8. Creative vs. methodical. Scientists have shown that creative thinkers’ brains work in different ways from the brains of those who think more methodically.
9. Food and intelligence. One study looked at students in New York and showed that those who ate lunches that did not include artificial flavors, preservatives, and dyes did 14% better on IQ tests than the students who ate lunches with these additives
10. Boredom. Humans have an innate curiosity, but when they have a lack of stimulation, boredom sets in.
11. Learning new things. A study shows that when people are learning new things, their brains change very quickly. Those learning to juggle showed change in the brain in as little as seven days.
12. Music. Children who take music lessons show a considerable increase in the ability to learn.
13. Reading faces. The area of the brain called the amygdala is responsible for the ability to read someone’s face for clues to how they are feeling.

- Team Shirsa

"Smart" Foods To Your Daily Routine ~ The Science Of Eating

- Team Shirsa

Diet Sodas: Change Your Brain And Your Waistline!!!

Diet sodas may not be helping you lose weight , in fact, these and other artificially sweetened foods may sabotage your diet by confusing and rewiring your brain’s reward centers. This study from the journal Physiology & Behavior is yet another example of how lifestyle choices can alter your brain—negatively or positively.

Scanning diet soda drinkers' brains

The University of San Diego study followed 24 young adults: half the group drank at least one serving of diet soda every day, while the other half avoided the artificially sweetened drinks. These adults were then hooked up to brain scanning equipment while scientists fed them water alternately flavored by natural and artificial sweeteners—then the researchers sat back and watched what unfolded in the brain.

The results, according to University of California San Diego researchers Green and Murphy, were pronounced: “[Diet soda drinkers] who consumed a greater number of diet sodas had reduced caudate head activation. These findings may provide some insight into the link between diet soda consumption and obesity.”

Did You had Your Breakfast Today???

Breakfast a important meal

Skipping breakfast before a day of school significantly reduced students' speed and accuracy on cognitive and memory tests compared with those who ate breakfast, according to a study recently published online in the journal Appetite.

Researchers compared the performance of 1,386 students from 32 schools throughout the U.K. on several Internet-based tests of attention, memory and reaction time. 

Compared with those who ate breakfast, students who skipped the morning meal had 7% slower power of attention, a measure of their ability to focus and avoid distraction. They also detected 7% fewer targets on target-detection tasks and correctly identified 9% fewer pictures on a picture-recognition test at a 9% slower speed than students who ate breakfast. Variability in response time, an indication of focusing consistency, was 10% more erratic in those who missed breakfast. Girls without breakfast were significantly more disrupted in their ability to focus than boys who didn't have breakfast, results showed.

Breakfast like a king

Test-score differences between the two groups were larger in those tested after 11 a.m. than those tested earlier in the morning. 

This theory is not only for kids but  true for all ages.

So It is always said.........

- Team Shirsa

Five Super Foods For The Brain.

- Team Shirsa

I Have Got Another Reason To Fear High Cholesterol And High Blood Pressure!!

Effect on Cognitive skills

Recent  new study has shown that people with elevated cholesterol and blood pressure in middle age exhibit more problems with their memories as they age, as compared to people with good cardiovascular health.

 The study was conducted in nearly 5,000 people. The researchers looked at several factors to determine cardiovascular risk and found that people with just a 10% higher risk were prone to a quicker rate of cognitive decline.

 The only areas of cognition that seemed unaffected by cardiovascular risk were reasoning in men, and fluency (usually assessed by a word-finding or word-generating task) in women.

So how can you improve cardiovascular health and lower your risk for heart disease and increased cognitive decline?

 According to Mayo Clinic, you should try the following:

1) Choose lower fat protein sources like skim milk, fish, beans, and skinless chicken.

·    2) Try olive oil instead of butter

·    3) Eat lots of fruits and vegetables

·    4) Switch to whole grains for flour, bread, pasta, and rice, and cut the sugar to a minimum

·    5) Cut down on salt and salty condiments like soy sauce

·    6) Whatever you eat, be sure to control portion size so you don’t eat too much

·    7) Don’t smoke

·    8) Get some exercise regularly–even if it’s just a walk

·    9) Reduce stress in your life

      - Team Shirsa

Milk - "Newest Brain Food"

We’ve long heard about the brain-boosting powers of things like blueberries, nuts,wines and chocolate – but is milk the newest brain food? A new study of nearly 1,000 people suggests that it may be.

The study, a collaboration between researchers from the University of Maine and the University of South Australia, found that “participants who consumed dairy products at least once per day had significantly higher scores on multiple domains of cognitive function compared with those who never or rarely consumed dairy foods. They also found that, in general, "frequent dairy food intake is associated with better cognitive performance but underlying causal mechanisms are still to be determined.” In other words, people who consume more dairy do better than non-dairy consumers, but it’s not 100% clear why.

Brain Fitness in Your Daily Life, Is it important?

As a society, we are all starting to understand the importance of keeping our brain sharp, at every age. Our brain is our most important asset! It allows us to function everyday at a high level.

By building and working our brain's key areas, we can enhance our ability to maintain our memory, concentration and problem solving skills. We all need to be more proactive and look for ways to maximize our brain's capabilities.
The goal for Shirsa is to provide novel and complex stimuli for all key areas of the brain. In addition, we aim to make our program fun and engaging so that you integrate brain fitness into your daily life.

More research is starting to be published supporting the benefits of brain fitness. A recent study from the University of Michigan showed participants improved their fluid intelligence after consistent brain training.

-Team Shirsa

"Shirsa.me"
An online brain training program