Today I had an exam and was filled with doubt and anxiety since I knew this test would be fairly difficult. I had studied for long hours and grabbed a quick bite before heading into the lecture hall to take the test. As the test began, I found my stomach growling really loud and turning. That’s the last thing I needed considering I was already so stressed with the exam and the material on it. I left the exam and was quick to grab some dinner. I could’ve just eaten a meal before my exam but in the rush of studying I decided to just grab a snack. That’s when curiosity struck – is there a specific food that could’ve made me excel or have the proper mindset to get a good grade on my exam? So here’s what I found:
As I proceeded to do some research on the topic, the first site I hit was obviously WebMD. Similar enough to my introduction paragraph they began with a similar concept to introduce the research: an anecdote. Surprisingly enough that’s what we learned in class. Anecdotes sometimes speak louder than just a bunch of data and therefore can engage the reader to furthermore read the rest of the article. The article specified that in order to receive the best outcomes to a test, one must maintain a healthy life long diet. Since for this instance, this is not the case, the article separated the foods into two categories but we’re only worried about one of them (foods for short-term boost and foods for long-term boost).
The three short-term boosts were:
- Caffeine:
Caffeine can seen to be negative and many people love to fill it with flavors and tons of sugar but this article reassures that one or two cups can raise alertness and energy for ones body. Somer always warns the audience what most people tend to do and then end up having the opposite reaction to caffeine’s ultimate goal. “But if you keep going back for cup and after cup, you’ll be too rattled to think clearly. If you’re fueling your day with caffeine, it exacerbates the problems and adds to fatigue. You can go through caffeine withdrawal. It’s definitely a double-edged sword.” Therefore monitored caffeine can help with this problem.
2. “Good” Carbs:
Since I’ve learned that going into a test on an empty stomach just caused a distraction and was not the way to go, the article said that “good” carbs were also a good thing. The example of a good carb was an english muffin with peanut butter and a glass of orange juice instead of anything too full of preservatives and sugar like a chocolate bar or a cookie. This can fill up an empty stomach really quickly and can provide energy as well similar to the caffeine.
3. Glucose for Memory
In a small study discussed in WebMD, Somers concluded that testing older adults’ memory with sugary drinks found that the sugar “high” led to a better performance on a memory test. Some adults were given a sugary drink and some were given what seemed to be a sugary drink. The placebo group with the sugary drinks scored higher. The specific numbers on the study were not given therefore the full effect of this can not be drawn to certainty. Therefore maybe some quick sugar can help make the brain aware for whats to come.
What to avoid:
In another article, foods that were to be avoided were found. Contrary to the WebMD article this one suggested that students do not eat any sugar filled foods like cookies, muffins, or cakes considering they take long to digest. Anything that was made with white flour was seen to be a benefit if avoided. The article also informed the audience to avoid turkey. “Do not have turkey before an exam as it contains L-tryptophan, an essential amino acid which makes you feel sleepy. Also avoid certain food combinations such as protein and starch together. These substances require added time when they have to be digested together.” Turkey was not super obvious to avoid because many don’t know of this attribute of turkey yet even the obvious was stated in this article which was alcohol.Symptoms followed by drinking alcohol seem to have a negative affect on performance.
Power Score is another source which depicted which foods within fats, protein, and carbs that were the best choice. Similar to the difference between the last one, this article had many overlapping things mentioned and some things that they were against in opposition to what the other articles promoted. Simply from these three sources and zero studies, we can infer that this topic is still in the air. There are no exact proper foods to eat in attempt perform better on a test. All of these brain foods and the study behind why the certain ones were chosen could be due to chance. Since we have no studies to base this off, nothing should be changed by students unless they believe in something specific.
I found this blog very interesting because I have never really thought about what foods will help me to better prepare myself for the testing environment. I normally just eat snack food before, but perhaps I have been doing it wrong, and eating brain foods can help me out. I read online that one or two cups of coffee before a test will do well if it is a shorter test, as it will keep you awake and alert. The issue comes if you drink too many cups, and then you well get too rattled and will not be able to think clearly. I also read that eating a small carb snack before the test is a good idea. It is easier to think if you do not have an empty stomach, so eating something with carbs in it will do good for you. This is where I found my research (http://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/healthy-foods-eat-brain-power).