Rewire Your Brain: Think Your Way to a Better Life

break - fast
. Think of breakfast as the fuel for the day. 
I often say, “ Would you run your car on an empty tank of gas? ” Just 
before your car runs out of gas, it runs unevenly, then splutters to a 
stop. The same goes for your brain. The symptoms are low energy, 
decreased short - term memory, anxiety, and mild depression. 
Breakfast is the foundation meal for your brain, so that it can pay 
adequate attention, remember what you experience, and learn. For 
example, in a study measuring these cognitive skills, schoolchildren 
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were given a glucose drink, a breakfast cereal, or no breakfast at all 
on diffi cult days. Their attention and memory were measured at 
intervals of 30, 90, 150, and 210 minutes later. Those who drank 
the glucose drink or ate no breakfast showed poorer attention and 
memory than those children who ate the breakfast cereal. 
There are a number of cognitive benefi ts to eating breakfast and 
a number of costs to your thinking ability if you don ’ t eat breakfast. 
Here is a brief summary of what has been shown to occur with 
either eating or not eating breakfast:
Skipping Breakfast 
Eating Breakfast
↓
Problem - solving ability 
↑
Problem - solving ability
↓
Short - term memory 
↑
Arithmetic skills
↓
Attention and episodic memory 
↑
Vigilant attention
Mood and energy are two other critically important factors to 
keep in mind when considering the importance of eating breakfast. 
The emotional and energy - related symptoms of not eating breakfast 
include the following: 
•
Diffi culty concentrating
•
Low energy
•
Increased stress reactivity
•
Mood swings
•
Increased anxiety and depression
If stress is what you ’ re concerned about, consider this: skipping 
breakfast is associated with high cortisol levels, whereas eating a 
nutritious breakfast cereal is associated with lower cortisol levels and 
lower susceptibility to colds and upper respiratory tract infections. 
In a study involving hundreds of inner - city elementary school 
students in Baltimore and Philadelphia, it was found that those who 
ate breakfast had 40 percent higher math grades and were less apt 
to be absent from school or tardy. Those who did not eat breakfast 
were twice as likely to be depressed, four times as likely to suffer 
from anxiety, and 30 percent more likely to be hyperactive. 
To achieve optimum brain performance throughout the day, you ’ ll 
need to consume a smart balance of foods at each meal. For example, 
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an optimum breakfast is an egg (protein), whole - grain toast (carbohy-
drate), and juice (fruit). As I pointed out to Sonya, the egg provides 
not only protein but also the amino acid choline, the precursor of 
acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that is critical for memory. I ’ ll 
describe the role of amino acids and how they help to develop neu-
rotransmitters later in this chapter. The point here is that a balance 
of foods helps you to start the day with the biochemistry you need to 
thrive so that you don ’ t drag yourself through the day. 
For lunch, eat a meal that is higher in protein than in carbohy-
drates. This will contribute to less of a tired feeling in the afternoon. 
If you eat a high - carbohydrate lunch, you ’ ll dampen your ability to 
focus and pay attention, a phenomenon known all too well to seminar 
leaders who speak to audiences right after lunch. Your dinner can be 
the reverse: higher in carbohydrates than in protein. Then you ’ ll 
be sedated and mellowed out in the evening before you go to sleep. 
Generally, when your stomach is full, a hormone called
gastrin
is secreted by the lower part of your stomach. Gastrin acts as a 
neurotransmitter on the vagus nerve, which enables the belly to 
communicate with the brain. Another hormone, called cholecystoki-
nin (CCK), acts on your appetite. CCK is released after food moves 
into the small intestine. Like gastrin, it appears to act on the vagus 
nerve. Two neurotransmitters, norepinephrine and serotonin, are 
also very active in the digestive system. When activated, they signal 
the feeling of satiety. In fact, more serotonin is potentially active in 
your gut than in your brain. 
Finally, consider that the older you get, the more protein you ’ ll 
need in your diet. Also as you age, you ’ ll be less tolerant of sugar in 
your blood and will have trouble absorbing vitamins when you con-
sume them. Let ’ s take a closer look at the role of sugar.
Sugar Factors 
The brain uses glucose as fuel, but when it gets too much of it at 
one time, this can create a number of problems. It is no accident 
that many of your organs — including the pancreas, the liver, the 
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thyroid, the adrenal glands, the pituitary gland, and the brain — are 
enlisted in controlling the amount of glucose in your blood. When 
your blood sugar drops too low, your brain (specifi cally, the hypo-
thalamus) signals your pituitary gland and your thyroid gland to alert 
your liver to process more sugar from body fat. 
Too little blood sugar results in hypoglycemia, and too much 
sugar results in hyperglycemia. Either way, your ability to think 
clearly and maintain balanced emotions becomes compromised. 
When your blood sugar rises after eating, your pancreas secretes 
insulin to help move sugar out into your cells. If your blood sugar 
drops below the normal level, your brain sends out a distress signal, 
which triggers the release of the hormone epinephrine (adrenaline) 
to signal your liver to make more glucose. As a result, you may feel 
nervous, dizzy and light - headed, fatigued, weak, or shaky, or you 
may have heart palpitations. 
The symptoms of low blood sugar are particularly compromising 
if you tend toward hypoglycemia and consume coffee on an empty 
stomach. If you have diabetes, your system is all the more fragile, 
and you ’ ll need to be scrupulous about managing your blood sugar. 
The symptoms I listed above, such as nervousness and fatigue, are 
more obvious than the ones that relate to your attention span, your 
short - term memory, and your mood stability. 
After you consume an excessive amount of sugar, you ’ ll trigger a 
boost in stress hormones that will last for as long as fi ve hours. This 
occurs because excessive sugar makes your pancreas secrete more 
insulin than usual and takes too much sugar out of your system. 
Anthony Cerami of Rockefeller University points out that a diet 
high in sugar contributes to accelerated aging. Sugar has an adverse 
effect on protein. It toughens up the molecules by creating pigments 
called