Six Ways to Boost Brainpower: Exercise, Diet, Stimulants, Video Games, Music, & Meditation
sciam.com
sciam.com
My memory and Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breast_milk#Composition) disagree. It about a magnitude lower than that. (In humans that is, of course. Not that breast milk is therefore bad.)
And that is so easy to check. Wonder what other tidbits of facts are wrong? Not that the gist of the article is therefore bad, but I think it better not to mention facts rather then mentioning wrong ones.
"Human milk contains 0.8% to 0.9% protein, 3% to 5% fat, 6.9% to 7.2% carbohydrates"
Excluding alcohol, essentially 100% of the calories of any food come from those three macronutrients-- 4Kcal per gram of protein or carbohydrate and 9Kcal per gram of fat.
9(3 to 5) / (9(3 to 5)+4((.8 to .9) + (6.9 to 7.2))) = 45% to 59%
Assuming the data in the wiki you linked to is correct, 45% to 59% of breast milk is fat, in nutritionist lingo.
Take 100 calories of lettuce (which is quite a lot).
Now take 100 calories of oil (which is not much at all).
Combine the two into a salad, which contains 200 calories and 50% of calories from fat.
Though I must say that "usually" doesn't really ring true to my ears. Perhaps it's the way nutrisionists talk, but is it really "usually" that way?
If someone presents a jug of a liquid and says "luckily for babies, liquid X is 50 percent fat", then I'd think that about half of the jug would be fat. Would most people where you come from think "half of the nutritional value of this liquid is made up from fat"? That's sounds impressively educated! Where do you come from?
I'm blogging the progress of the "Hacker Workout" — speaking of, today I'm suppose to workout!
Week 1 results http://saltlicklabs.com/pow-3-week-challenge/
I'm not sure it's the solution for lazy people though, there's not much that will get you over that.
In the same vein meditation is not the same thing either. From my point of view it's about being mindful about one's surrounding without analyzing it, just observing. It's a state that I find actually quite difficult to really achive.
Actually, any type of meditation is difficult. (The other general type of meditation I know of is where you focus on a specific sound (or mantra) and repeat it over and over, either out loud or in your mind.)
Meditation is a form of brain training, requiring a lot of discipline and practice. You are essentially teaching yourself how to alter your brain's function.
The difference is like watching TV versus playing a video game. It may look similar at first, but they are two entirely different things.
This is an interesting read if you're into meditation as it relates to science:
http://psyphz.psych.wisc.edu/web/News/Meditation_Alters_Brai...
A good place to start.
You can find it here: http://zencast.wordpress.com/category/kusala-bhikshu/
His talk at Google:
Here's an overview of antioxidants, and foods high in them: http://www.ific.org/publications/factsheets/antioxidantfs.cf...
And a well-cited list of the benefits of many common foods: http://www.whfoods.com/foodstoc.php
Antioxidants are found in high levels in hundreds of different culinary herbs and spices. The point, throughout human history, of adding herbs and spices to foods, besides flavoring those foods, was to preserve.
"Healthiest Way of eating as long as it is a whole, natural, nutrient-rich food"
And the "reduced fat cheese, skimmed milk".
Cheese is not "natural" food and skimmed milk is certainly not "whole".
Point being, while he is promoting a book and website, I don't see an agenda behind the foods he's recommending.
I'm vegan actually, but I don't think it's appropriate to give a personal dietary rundown in HN.
There's enough in the unprocessed dietary recommendations to grab my interest, from Weston Price's book studying rural tribes to insulin tolerance being at the root of more than just diabetes, to grab my interest. Perhaps not a HN topic though.
I prefer to play strategy/god games, RPG's and, where I can find them, a good physics applet. You can do cruel things in them, especially ones like Black & White, but I always associate it more with burning ants because I know there's no one real on the other side. I dislike FPS primarily because there is someone on the other side, so when I play them I nearly always play single player or co-op.
They did forget sleep however.
http://www.mathsci.appstate.edu/~sjg/futurama/futuramatalk10...
Ok, I'll try. 8*D
Comedian/Filmmaker Mark Malkoff attempts to visit 171 Starbucks stores in Manhattan in one day...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwYxuV2dVzw
It's quite motivating and scary at the same time.
However, some drinking world records are beyond the realm of health and sanity:
"As the plane arrived in London, Walters raised his 44th can to his lips and drained it as thought it were his fourth. From all accounts, he wasn’t in bad shape. not if you consider he’d had 44 beers at high altitude and a couple of unofficial palate cleansers during the stopovers. He was all right just says O’Keeffe. He was lighting cigarettes filter-first. I guess that’s all right. You can do that sober."
I wonder if a video game could be designed that would have the opposite effect; women would feel more compelled by the rewards system in place versus men.
There's also a small section on practical daily exercises that can be done quickly, without need for equipment. I'll link directly to that: http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/exercise.html
The key to both diet and exercise, however, lies in consistency -- you have to apply yourself every day.
My diet homever is in a quite good shape, its mostly paleo/low carb. For almost a year I have completely opted-out grains and sugar and moderating carbs, prosessed foods and omega6. Keeping insulin levels low is linked to longevity and greater neural processing http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16482-eat-a-little-les... http://www.diabeteshealth.com/read/2008/01/13/5617/insulin-l...
I have never been overweight so I'm just trying to maximize my current health, cognitive performance and longevity. With my current diet, I seem to have more clearer mind, can eat less often and don't have desire for snacks or sugar. Green tea seems to have relaxing effect(it's also measured that l-theanine increases alphawaves) on me and alcar+ala has a slight energizing effect.
Body weight exercises seem to be really underrated right now by most people. One of my exercise goals, once I start working out regularly, is to be able to pull off planche push-ups. It's like a normal push-up, only your feet are kept off the ground for the entire time.
Wasn't expecting to see that there :-)