How to eat before an exam? Two principles and five quick answers

The time for the college entrance examination, the middle school entrance examination, and the final exam is coming again, and various media have begun to discuss the topic of how to eat during the exam period. Even if it is not the college entrance examination, the final exam is also very important to students.

This topic has been discussed many times, and this year I will summarize the key principles for you.

Principle 1: As the exam approaches, the first thing to pay attention to is food safety.

Before the exam, you don’t need to expect a sudden improvement in your scores, but you should expect to perform at your usual level. If there is a problem with food safety, it may seriously affect the performance of the examinees, and they may even miss the exam due to fever or abdominal pain. Therefore, it cannot be overemphasized.

Food safety considerations include three aspects:

1. Avoid bacterial/viral food poisoning

Summer is a peak season for bacterial food poisoning, as the ambient temperature is high and microorganisms multiply very quickly. To avoid causing trouble to the candidates, parents need to do the following five things.

(1) When washing vegetables, cutting vegetables, serving rice, etc., raw and cooked food must be kept strictly separate . Wash your hands immediately after handling raw meat, raw fish, or raw eggs, and before touching any tableware or food that is eaten directly.

(2) When cutting salads and fruits, be sure to use a clean basin, cutting board, and knife. If you leave them at room temperature and do not finish them within 2 hours, you must throw them away and cannot eat them at the next meal.

(3) Raw fish, meat and seafood must be thoroughly heated and sterilized, steamed and cooked thoroughly . They should not be served to children in a half-cooked state, as the bacteria, viruses and parasites in them may not be fully killed.

(4) If food is not finished, it must be refrigerated immediately and taken out for the next meal and fully heated and sterilized before eating. If the food is found to have a bad taste, it must be thrown away immediately.

(5) If you order food at a restaurant at noon, try not to order salad, cold cuts, drunken shrimps and crabs, sashimi , etc. These dishes are often found to contain excessive bacteria in the summer. Be careful with homemade popsicles and snacks sold by individual vendors, as they may contain excessive bacteria. If you really want to eat them, it is not too late to eat them after the exam.

2. Avoid food allergies and food intolerances

Many students have food allergies and intolerances, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies have shown that COVID-19 infection can increase the risk of allergies or increase the severity of symptoms in those with allergies.

If acute or chronic adverse reactions such as laryngeal edema, dyspnea, general itching, eczema attacks, nasal congestion and runny nose, abdominal pain and diarrhea occur during the exam, it will cause great trouble to the candidates.

Even if a food has high nutritional value, it should not be provided to candidates during the exam period if it may cause intolerance. For example, although milk is good, if you don’t drink much milk on a daily basis, drinking it at this time may cause bloating due to lactose intolerance.

During the exam period, we must strictly avoid known allergic foods, but also prevent unknown allergic foods . In other words, do not rashly provide children with foods that they do not eat on a daily basis. If you want to comfort the candidates with new foods, it is best to wait until after the exam to eat them.

3. Avoid gastrointestinal discomfort and indigestion

During the exam, the candidates should try to eat food that they are familiar with and used to. The more homely the food, the safer it is, because their stomachs and intestines have already adapted to it. In terms of cooking methods, steaming, boiling, stewing and stir-frying should be the main methods, and frying, smoking and roasting should be avoided.

For some students with weak gastrointestinal function, eating a lot of shrimp, crab, crayfish, etc. may cause stomach discomfort. Some people may have indigestion after eating a lot of greasy meat. Eating too much of certain fruits and cold drinks can easily cause diarrhea. Eating too much of certain beans can easily cause bloating, etc. Parents should summarize their daily dietary experience and advise candidates to eat food that may cause discomfort in moderation and avoid overeating.

Key principle two: Achieve nutritional balance while maintaining basically unchanged daily habits.

1. Eat enough staple food

You should never go on a low-carbohydrate diet during exams, because the brain relies on blood sugar to work and needs the energy provided by carbohydrates.

Slowly digestible carbohydrates that slowly release energy, such as whole grains such as oats, brown rice, whole wheat, etc., can not only increase the supply of B vitamins, but also make blood sugar more stable after meals, prevent hypoglycemia, and provide a stable energy supply to the brain during the 3 hours of the exam.

Therefore, it is better to combine coarse and fine staple foods. For example, oatmeal porridge with milk, millet rice, whole wheat egg pancakes and other staple foods are all suitable for eating during the examination period. However, if candidates only eat refined white rice and flour on a daily basis and rarely eat whole grains and beans, they do not need to suddenly eat all coarse grains during the examination to avoid digestive system discomfort and gastrointestinal discomfort.

2. Have easily digestible protein and enough vegetables at every meal

If you only eat staple foods rich in starch, the food will be digested and absorbed faster, and your blood sugar will rise quickly and then fall quickly after the meal, which may cause a decrease in brain power 2 hours after the meal.

In order to maintain a stable blood sugar level and energy supply during the exam period, **each meal should provide 1-2 kinds of protein foods in addition to the staple food, plus enough vegetables. **You can add a handful of nuts to breakfast, and it is best to have some green leafy vegetables with high nutritional value for lunch and dinner.

Finally, let me quickly answer a few questions raised by parents.

Question 1

Are brain foods useful?

It is meaningless to supplement "brain-boosting food" when the college entrance examination is approaching. IQ level is affected by genetic factors and nutritional factors, but by the age of 18, brain cells have long stopped proliferating, and nutritional supplements will not improve IQ.

Eating animal brains, taking DHA, eating a lot of walnuts, etc., will not achieve the goal of "brain supplementation". Reasonable nutrition supply should be arranged during the examination period in order to make the existing brain structure play the best effect, not to improve IQ. The best way is to stabilize the current level and not let physical discomfort or unexpected situations affect performance.

Question 2

Can I drink glucose on the day of the test?

There is no benefit in taking glucose injections. Glucose does not need to be digested and can be directly absorbed by the human body. It raises blood sugar quickly, but also lowers blood sugar quickly, causing large fluctuations in blood sugar levels and increasing the risk of hypoglycemia 2 hours after a meal, which is not conducive to the efficient work of the brain. The correct approach is to follow the above method, eat enough normal staple food, preferably add some whole grains, and combine with enough meat, eggs, milk and vegetables to keep blood sugar levels stable within 3 hours after a meal.

If your child is prone to hypoglycemia, you can explain the situation to the test center staff and bring some sugar or biscuits to eat before the obvious hypoglycemia occurs to maintain blood sugar levels. Please note that you should not choose low-GI, high-fiber biscuits at this time, but choose biscuits with high carbohydrates and low fat content .

Question 3

Can I take vitamin supplements before an exam?

Many parents will give their children vitamin supplements at this time. The energy supply required for brain activity and the synthesis of neurotransmitters require the help of a variety of B vitamins to be successfully achieved. If the daily staple food is refined rice and white flour, or if you eat a lot of sweets, vitamin B1 and other B vitamins are prone to deficiency, and it is harmless to supplement them in moderation.

You can take a small tablet of B complex vitamins (a bottle costs a few yuan) with meals every day, or you can take a multivitamin and mineral supplement.

You don't need any expensive products. One capsule a day is enough according to the recommended amount . This is just to make up for the slight deficiency of daily diet. Don't take a lot of various nutrients, otherwise it will put a burden on the liver.

Question 4

Candidates are nervous and can’t sleep well. What should they eat?

Poor appetite and sleep due to nervousness are common, so don't worry. You must believe that 18-year-olds have very strong physical abilities. As long as their daily nutrition is good, under stressful conditions, their bodies will use their reserves to complete the exam tasks.

The quality of sleep at night will be affected by the food you eat at dinner. Too little carbohydrates will reduce the secretion of melatonin, which is not conducive to falling asleep in time, so you must eat staple food for dinner. However, eating too much protein and fat will also increase the burden on the digestive system and reduce the quality of sleep.

Therefore, the amount of food for dinner should be the same as usual, and light and easily digestible food can be the staple food. If you feel hungry easily before going to bed, you can have a small midnight snack around 9 o'clock, such as millet porridge with longan, brown rice porridge with lily and lotus seeds, warm milk, etc. It is not advisable to eat high-protein and high-fat foods, so as not to cause physical excitement.

Question 5

Can I drink coffee during exam period?

If candidates do not have the habit of drinking coffee, it is not recommended to drink coffee deliberately during the exam review period . Coffee only makes people ignore fatigue signals, but cannot solve fatigue itself, and has no additional benefits for improving brain power. The medical community in China does not recommend that school-age teenagers drink beverages containing large amounts of caffeine.

However, if you really didn't sleep well the day before, you can drink a cup of light coffee after breakfast to make you feel more excited in the morning. The premise is that the candidate has no adverse reaction to coffee. But it is not recommended to drink coffee at night, so as not to affect your rest at night.

It is especially important to note that some people have a weak ability to metabolize caffeine, which may cause problems such as rapid heartbeat, arrhythmia, gastrointestinal discomfort, etc. Some people may experience increased urination and bowel movements after drinking coffee, which may cause unnecessary trouble to the exam.

In short, the key point of eating during the exam is to ensure safety first. On the basis of ensuring nutritional balance, the more daily and bland the food is, the better. Create a relaxed atmosphere for the candidates and avoid causing more tension and stress.