Brain Power

a healthy brain is about feeling good

but are they all they are cracked up to be, and can going hungry really fine-tune your brain?

That is despite the fact that we have long known that the gut is not a standalone organ, and that it is in constant dialogue with the brain. Now, science is starting to home in on this conversation, and the findings are quite astounding.

by and large the medical profession too has underappreciated the role that diet plays in our mental wellbeing.

One good example is that vitamin C helps with the absorption of iron.

Blueberries to boost your memory. Eggs to stop your brain shrinking. Sage to help you concentrate.

Thuret once told me she follows a fasting pattern in which she eats every other day (on fasting days she still eats, opting for something like a latte, fruit and a cereal bar).

However, some of the habits that fasting brings – like making us more aware of what we are eating, and not snacking late into the evening – can be beneficial more generally, not least because our digestive system has its own circadian rhythm and works better earlier on in the day. Besides, waiting a few hours might just make your breakfast taste even more delicious.

You’ve probably heard of many of these: the 5:2 diet involves eating normally for five days a week and severely restricting calorie intake the other two; the 8:16 diet has you eating during an eight-hour window; the OMAD diet (or one meal a day) restricts food to just one hour; and alternate-day fasting is self-explanatory.

This cycle of fast and famine may even have contributed to the complexity of the human brain, with the pressure of food scarcity forcing its evolution, says Mark Mattson who studies fasting at Johns Hopkins University.