Eating less can sharpen the mind

Eating less can sharpen your mind—at least if you're a worm. The benefits of calorie restriction, such as extending the lifespan of flies, mice, and monkeys, are somewhat known. Now, Kaveh Ashrafi of the University of California, San Francisco, has found that calorie restriction may also boost brainpower. The findings were recently published in the journal PLOS Biology.

Ashrafi's team trained Caenorhabditis elegans worms to associate the smell of a chemical—butanone—with a food reward. The proportion of worms that moved from the center of a circle to the butanone side demonstrated how well they had learned the "lesson." The opposite side of the circle smelled of alcohol.

The worms being tested were allowed to eat freely, fasted for an hour, or given a calorie-restricted diet. Worms consuming half their normal calories moved twice as often as those allowed to eat freely. Fasted worms showed the same effect. This suggests that low-calorie diets and short-term fasting produce similar results.

Reduced calorie intake may work by depleting a brain chemical called kynurenic acid. This, in turn, activates neurons involved in learning. When researchers reduced kynurenic acid, the worms' learning improved even without calorie restriction.

Ashrafi noted that a similar phenomenon occurs in mammals. A 2008 study found that people around 60 years old who reduced their calorie intake by 30% were better at learning word lists.

From an evolutionary perspective, this makes sense, says Devin Wahl of the University of Sydney in Australia. "When you're foraging, your brain needs to be operating at a high level because you're trying to outcompete others," Wahl says. "Once you've had a big meal, all you want to do is sleep." However, the study found that intense hunger impairs cognitive function. This may be because extreme hunger focuses people's minds on thoughts of food.

(Bioon.com)

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