Our brain eats glucose. And it needs a steady stream because our brain’s nerve cells burn glucose like spark plugs burn drops of gas. Because we can’t store glucose as itself and because it’s unrealistic to eat exactly one piece of candy corn every 23.8 seconds, we throw bigger logs on the fire and trust our bodies to chip away at these logs, breaking them down into the steady stream of glucose our brain needs.
These logs are carbohydrates. Take away carbohydrates and you commit to a boom and bust cycle of brain food. At least that’s what a Tufts University study found. Researchers studied dieters, with half the dieters cutting calories and half cutting carbohydrates. The low-carb dieters underperformed the low-calorie dieters on memory tasks. Researchers blamed the difference on lack of carbs leading to lack of glucose.
Apparently no pay equals no play in the brain.