{"id":6641,"date":"2022-06-19T08:00:41","date_gmt":"2022-06-19T13:00:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=6641"},"modified":"2022-06-18T12:28:34","modified_gmt":"2022-06-18T17:28:34","slug":"its-good-for-the-brain-the-perils-of-pollution-the-benefits-of-blueberries","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/its-good-for-the-brain-the-perils-of-pollution-the-benefits-of-blueberries\/","title":{"rendered":"“It’s Good for the Brain!”: The Perils of Pollution, the Benefits of Blueberries"},"content":{"rendered":"

When I talk with teachers about psychology and neuroscience research, I frequently get a question in this shape:<\/p>\n

“I’ve heard that X is really good for the brain. Is that really true?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In this sentence, X might be\u00a0blueberries<\/em>. It might be\u00a0water<\/em>. It might be\u00a0nature walks<\/em>. Perhaps it’s a good night’s sleep<\/em>, or\u00a0green tea<\/em>, or\u00a0coffee<\/em>, or merlot ice cream<\/em>. (I think I made up that last one, but anything’s possible…)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

So, should schools start serving blueberries, merlot ice cream, and green tea (and black coffee) to our students? Perhaps with a side of salmon<\/em> — brain food for sure!<\/p>\n

Works (Almost) Every Time<\/h2>\n

Here is a completely unsurprising research finding: the brain is\u00a0a part of the body<\/em>.<\/p>\n

The brain is, in fact, physically attached <\/strong>to the body.<\/p>\n

For this reason, everything that is good for the\u00a0body<\/em> is good for the\u00a0brain<\/em>. (Because, again, the brain is a part of the body.)<\/p>\n

Is sleep good for the brain? Well, it’s good for the body, so; yes.<\/p>\n

How about water? Yup.<\/p>\n

Fruits\/veggies? Sure.<\/p>\n

Exercise? I’m in!<\/p>\n

Simply put, when we take care good care of our bodies, we simultaneously tend to our brains — as a physical, biological object.<\/p>\n

Said the other way around: we don’t need to develop special “brain enhancing” diets or programs or regimens. Anything that promotes our students’ physical health will automatically help their brains.<\/p>\n

I was, in fact, inspired to write this post by an article<\/a> I saw today about pollution. The summary:<\/p>\n

“Higher exposure to air pollution is associated with higher functional brain connectivity among several brain regions in preadolescents.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This conclusion strikes me as entirely sensible. Pollution changes the body; unsurprisingly it changes the brain. (Say it with me: the brain is a part of the body.)<\/p>\n

Checking the Details<\/h2>\n

This first answer to the question works most of the time.<\/p>\n

If, however, we need a more specific answer, we can easily investigate.<\/p>\n

I once heard that, because brains need appropriate levels of hydration, we should think of water as “brain food.” The speaker exhorted us with this cry: “A bottle of water on every desk!”<\/p>\n

And yet, the speaker’s logic collapses immediately. Yes,\u00a0too little water<\/em> is bad for the brain (because it’s bad for the body). We do want students to be properly hydrated.<\/p>\n

But this obvious truth does not remotely suggest that additional water above that level<\/em> yields extra benefits.<\/p>\n

Yes, we should let students drink if they’re thirsty. Yes, a hot day in an arid climate might prompt us to provide “a glass of water on every desk.”<\/p>\n

But we don’t need to make a big deal about extra water as an avenue toward extra learning.<\/p>\n

You won’t be surprised to know: when I googled “Water is brain food,” the top hits were NOT research studies. They were advertisements for companies selling water.<\/p>\n

Magical Blueberries<\/h2>\n

For reasons I don’t fully understand, the “brain food” claim often settles on blueberries. They’ve got antioxidants, I’m told. They’re great.<\/p>\n

I’ve done just a little research here, and so far I’m underwhelmed.<\/p>\n

First<\/strong>: there honestly isn’t much research on this topic.<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>: the research often focuses on rats. (Long time readers know my mantra: “Never change your teaching based on research into non-human animals.)<\/p>\n

Third<\/strong>: the research on humans focuses on aging and dementia.<\/p>\n

Now, I’m 56. I’m ALL IN FAVOR of dietary changes that reduce the likelihood of dementia.<\/p>\n

But the idea that “because blueberries are brain food, students should nosh on them before a test” has absolutely no research backing (that I can find).<\/p>\n

Students should eat blueberries because fruits and vegetable — in the right proportion — provide health benefits for the body. As far as I can tell, we don’t need to focus on targeted brain benefits.<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/h2>\n

Most everything that is good for the body is also good for the brain. So, don’t worry about special “brain benefit” claims.<\/p>\n

If, instead, someone claims that X is good for\u00a0learning<\/em>, we teachers should indeed pay close attention — and especially pay attention to the details of the research.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When I talk with teachers about psychology and neuroscience research, I frequently get a question in this shape: “I’ve heard that X is really good for the brain. Is that really true?” In this sentence, X might be\u00a0blueberries. It might be\u00a0water. It might be\u00a0nature walks. Perhaps it’s a good night’s sleep, or\u00a0green tea, or\u00a0coffee, or […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6644,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[17,192],"class_list":["post-6641","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-neuroscience","tag-nutrition"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6641","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6641"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6641\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6645,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6641\/revisions\/6645"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6644"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6641"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6641"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6641"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}