Nourish - Carbohydrates Fuel Your Brain

Anything to learn more about your brain.
http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/carbs.html

Glucose is the form of sugar that travels in your bloodstream to fuel the mitochondrial furnaces responsible for your brain power. Glucose is the only fuel normally used by brain cells. Because neurons cannot store glucose, they depend on the bloodstream to deliver a constant supply of this precious fuel.

This blood sugar is obtained from carbohydrates: the starches and sugars you eat in the form of grains and legumes, fruits and vegetables. (The only animal foods containing a significant amount of carbohydrates are dairy products.)

Too much sugar or refined carbohydrates at one time, however, can actually deprive your brain of glucose – depleting its energy supply and compromising your brain's power to concentrate, remember, and learn. Mental activity requires a lot of energy.

Carbohydrate Topics:
Brain Energy Demand
Complex vs. Simple Carbohydrates
Brain Power – The Energy of Thought and Memory Read this one
Too Much Blood Sugar – Too Little Brain Sugar
Soft Drinks are Hard on Your Brain
Sugar, Diabetes and The Brain
How to Control Blood Sugar Swings
Check the Glycemic Index

Brain Energy Demand Your brain cells need two times more energy than the other cells in your body. Neurons, the cells that communicate with each other, have a high demand for energy because they're always in a state of metabolic activity. Even during sleep, neurons are still at work repairing and rebuilding their worn out structural components. They are manufacturing enzymes and neurotransmitters that must be transported out to the very ends of their– nerve branches, some that can be several inches, or feet, away. Most demanding of a neuron's energy, however, are the bioelectric signals responsible for communication throughout the nervous system. This nerve transmission consumes one-half of all the brain's energy (nearly 10% of the whole body's energy).