Marshall Brain's Blog

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The August, 2003 issue of Discover magazine has a blurb on children and test scores:

A sugar high can sweeten test scores: In districts that served high-calorie lunches, fifth-grade math pass rates increased by 11 percent, and verbal and history pass rates increased by 6 percent... Figlio is not surprised that the strategy was a success; many studies have found a link between sugary foods and short-term cognitive ability.

Whenever I am doing a lot of writing, I've noticed I eat a lot more. The fourth book I wrote was especially long and had a very short deadline. It was one of those 18 hour a day kind of projects. I remember gaining about 10 pounds while I was working on it. One possible explanation: The fact that there was a McDonald's right next door. But now I wonder -- is it possible for the human brain to figure out what it needs to work most efficiently, and then to make sure it gets it?

One way to burn off those excess pounds would be to race in the Tour de France. This article mentions the fact that a Tour rider can burn 8,000 to 10,000 calories in a day of racing. That's a lot of calories. If you were to get those calories from spaghetti, you would have to eat more than 5 pounds of spagetti a day to replace 9,000 calories. If you were to get the calories from pizza, you would have to eat four large pizzas a day. It's hard to imagine how the riders take in that many calories.