Dietitian Touts Brain-Building Foods

Details

Created on 01, November, 2010

A dietitian interviewed by a medical news reporter touts brain-building foods.

 If only it were so simple. There is nothing scientific about such claims, which is why you can’t make them on food packages or food advertising... but apparently that doesn’t stop reporters and “experts.” Just because a food is “balanced” (i.e., contains protein and carbohydrate in some magical proportions) does not mean it will make you smarter. There are any number of combinations of two or more foods (and many single foods) that have a “balance” of protein and carbohydrate... so by this reasoning there would be thousands of brain foods. Instead, the article makes it sound as if Greek yogurt with blueberries, avocado (very little protein, by the way), tomato (ditto) and other select foods will make your brain “more powerful.” Many things happen to a food before it ends up in the brain as glucose (blood sugar) – the brain's preferred fuel – so eating a balanced diet is more important than individual foods.