You stopped at last time.
The story in four panels
What to eat right before a big day
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1The problem
A person breathing shallowly at a desk while an alarm bell rings overhead I blew it today…
When an important task doesn't go as hoped, negative thoughts start to loop.
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2How it works
A tired person with a lowered head beside an almost empty battery Running on empty
On tense days, the brain burns through a lot of energy and runs low fast.
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3What to do
A plate with meat, an egg, and greens, with a fork and knife A piece of cacao chocolate
Cacao chocolate gives you strength faster than nuts, which take a long time to digest.
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4The change
A brain with an even wave and a slowly beating heart Failure is the default, success a bonus
What you eat supports your focus and resilience.
Today gave me a reason to think about which foods help in the few hours before an event that may not matter much to others but matters a lot to you. To be honest, I didn’t get the result I wanted today. So I kept thinking negatively: “Why did that happen? Why? Am I just not capable?” But after eating some chocolate containing cacao, I noticed the negative thoughts stopped looping and my energy surged. “Ah, what you eat really matters! On important days, you can’t afford to run low on energy!” That’s when I decided I should share this with you. Not getting the result I wanted was a reason to feel discouraged, but it was also the day I learned that the food you eat plays an important role in exercising resilience, the attitude of “failure is the default, success is a bonus.”
For days in our lives when we’re tense and burn a lot of energy, like exam day for students or interview day for job seekers, the food I thought would help was nuts.
So I ate nuts an hour before an important event like the one in the photo above. Nuts are of course good for the brain, but on a day when you’re tense and burning a lot of energy, I wonder whether chocolate containing cacao, rather than nuts that take time to digest, would have done more to sharpen my focus and ease my tension, helping me get a better result.
So let’s take some time to look at the good effects chocolate has on us.
A photo of the side of a cerebral hemisphere and its axons on a flat surface. Photo: Robina Weermeijer on Unsplash
Eating chocolate
Chocolate not only improves focus but also eases tension and temporarily boosts memory. What’s more, the glucose energy the brain needs (though the brain can also use ketones for energy) takes relatively little time to digest and absorb from it, making chocolate an excellent snack to raise your efficiency when eaten a few dozen minutes before something important.
If you take it together with B vitamins, the sugar in chocolate is converted to glucose in the body and can be used more effectively as energy in the brain. B vitamins are nutrients used to produce energy in the body, and because they play a very important role in the brain and nerve cells, they’re called “nerve vitamins.”
I hope you’ll boost your efficiency on the important things you’ve worked hard to prepare for by eating chocolate and B vitamins (supplements, or brown rice, pork and eel), which help activate the brain just by eating them. I have an important appointment this Friday, February 10, at 11:50. This time, instead of nuts, I’ll bring chocolate, called the food of the gods, and come back with a result to celebrate.
Honestly, I was a little upset today because I didn’t get the result I wanted. Until the day we each achieve what we want, I hope you’ll all protect your brain health and keep your nerve cells active!
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