College entrance exam season is coming, it is best not to eat these 7 kinds of food! "Brain nourishment" recommended to eat these →

The college entrance examination season is coming again! The days of hard study are about to bear fruit. Students are excited and nervous. Parents are thinking about what to feed their children before the college entrance examination. In order to let their children eat well and enter the examination room energetically, parents also try their best, with fish, meat, seafood and everything on the table...

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Here, I would like to remind all parents that it is necessary to supplement children's nutrition, but it is not necessary to be too rich. In order for students to maintain a good mental state for the college entrance examination, this article sorts out the foods that are best not to eat before the exam and the two recommended "brain-boosting" foods to help you.

01

Don't eat these foods

Although the college entrance examination is very important, don’t feed your child everything at once. If something goes wrong, it will lead to a bad result. Pay attention to the following 7 points in diet:

① Don’t eat out: The food in restaurants outside may not be clean and hygienic, especially small restaurants and street food. If you get an upset stomach, it will not only affect your review, but also your performance in the exam.

② Do not eat cold dishes: The college entrance examination is in the hot summer, so do not make cold dishes for your children. Cold dishes are prone to breed bacteria under high temperatures. If you ignore some small details, it is more likely to cause physical discomfort or food poisoning, such as not handling the ingredients cleanly, not separating raw and cooked food on the chopping board, soaking the fungus for too long...

③ Don’t eat raw pickled food: Raw pickled food is to mix salt, white wine, garlic, vinegar, chili and other ingredients together, then add fresh shrimps and crabs, and then put them in the refrigerator to pickle. Although many people think that eating this way is delicious and nutritious, homemade raw pickling basically cannot replace thorough cooking.

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The Hong Kong Food Safety Center states that raw pickled seafood is a high-risk food. Pickling fish and crabs with wine, vinegar, soy sauce, garlic, chili, etc. cannot kill these harmful microorganisms and parasites. [1, 2]

④ Do not eat aquatic plants raw: Water chestnuts, lotus roots, water chestnuts, houttuynia cordata, etc. are all aquatic plants. Aquatic plants are easily contaminated by some parasites in the water during their growth process , the most common of which is the ginger worm. The ginger worm mainly parasitizes the duodenum of the human body. After eating food containing ginger worms, symptoms such as abdominal pain, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, fever, allergies and edema will occur ; severe cases can also cause intestinal obstruction and even death. Therefore, this kind of food must not be eaten raw. If you want to eat it, you must cook it thoroughly and heat it up.

⑤ Avoid allergenic foods: You must know what foods your child is allergic to, and never mix them when cooking. If you don't know your child's allergens, try to avoid foods that are prone to allergies, such as fish, shrimp, crab, mango, pineapple, peach, peanut, silkworm pupa, etc. Don't eat foods you haven't eaten before, and don't be curious.

⑥ Be cautious when drinking milk: If you are not lactose intolerant , you can drink milk without worry. If you are lactose intolerant or allergic to milk, don’t drink it. For children who don’t usually drink milk, they must not drink it on the morning of the college entrance examination to avoid lactose intolerance. Abdominal pain, bloating, and diarrhea will affect their performance.

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⑦ Don’t eat too much staple food, and pay attention to the combination: staple food is rich in carbohydrates, and most of them are high GI foods. If you eat too much, your blood sugar will fluctuate greatly after the meal, making you easily sleepy and unable to concentrate, which will also affect your thinking activity. Especially for lunch on the day of the exam, you must pay attention.

It is best to combine coarse and fine grains. Increasing the intake of whole grains can make blood sugar more stable and increase the sense of fullness, such as oatmeal rice, buckwheat rice, black rice, brown rice, chickpea rice, red bean rice, buckwheat noodles, buckwheat buns, etc.

In addition to the above dietary precautions, sleep quality is also particularly important. It is best not to drink coffee the day before the exam to prepare for the exam, and do not drink too much water before going to bed to avoid affecting sleep and thus affecting the performance of the next day.

02

Two major nutritional elements for brain supplementation

The college entrance exam is very "brain-intensive", but there are techniques to "replenish the brain". Some foods can help the brain, and if your child is not allergic, be sure to arrange them!

① Foods rich in DHA: DHA is a nutrient that everyone is familiar with. It is a type of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid. It is very important for the health of the brain and optic nerves. It participates in the formation and development of brain cells, maintains the normal physiological activities of nerve cells, and participates in the brain's thinking and memory formation process.

A study of 228 people investigated whether DHA could improve cognitive abilities in healthy young adults in a 6-month randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind intervention study. The participants were aged 18 to 45 years, did not smoke, did not take medication, and had a low intake of DHA in their diet. They were divided into two groups, one group supplemented with 1.16 grams of DHA and 0.17 grams of EPA per day, and the other group took a placebo high-oleic sunflower oil. After 6 months, the group that supplemented with DHA had significantly improved their working memory and episodic memory. [3]

Therefore, adequate intake of DHA in the diet is very helpful for the formation of brain thinking and memory. This component cannot be synthesized directly by the human body and must be obtained from food. The European Food Safety Authority (EU) recommends that people aged 2 to 18 years old supplement DHA + EPA 250 mg per day. [4]

How to supplement it? That is to eat fish. Eating fish is the most direct, effective and safe way to supplement DHA. Studies have also shown that people who eat fish regularly have a lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. [5]

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Common seafood rich in DHA include mackerel, salmon, cod, sea bass, hairtail, yellow croaker, grouper, etc. Among them, 60g of salmon can provide more than 500mg of DHA, and 50g of mackerel can provide more than 700mg of DHA[6]. Both are very good choices.

It is important to note that you should avoid choosing fish with high mercury content, such as mackerel, bigeye tuna, marlin, swordfish, New Zealand redfish, etc., as they may harm the health of the brain and nervous system. [7]

▲Image source: U.S. FDA fish consumption recommendations

If you have a child who is about to take the college entrance examination or will take the college entrance examination in the future, try to arrange for him to eat fish as early as possible. According to the recommendation of the "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents", you should eat aquatic products at least twice a week, and eat 300-500 grams per week.

▲Photo: Half a mackerel weighs about 80 grams

② Foods with high lecithin content: Lecithin is the most important basic structural material for brain cells. It can provide choline and is closely related to brain health. The content of lecithin in brain nerve cells accounts for about 17% to 20% of their mass. Sufficient intake of lecithin can promote the synthesis of brain neurotransmitters, thereby promoting communication between synapses and improving memory and intelligence. Lack of lecithin will cause people to have reduced memory and affect cognitive function.

There are many foods that can supplement lecithin on a daily basis. As long as you eat a variety of foods, you will not lack lecithin. Egg yolks, lean meat, animal offal, soybeans, etc. are rich in lecithin. The content of lecithin in egg yolks is as high as 9.4%, and the content of soybeans is 1.5~3%. [8]

Therefore, try to ensure that you have 1 egg and beans every day. The "Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents" recommends eating 25 grams of soybean products every day, which is roughly equivalent to 1 fist of northern tofu or tofu shreds or tofu skin or 2 pieces of dried tofu.

Summarize:

You need to be careful about your diet during the college entrance examination. You don't need to take a lot of supplements. You can just eat simple meals at home. Pay attention to food diversification and avoid eating raw, cold, or irritating foods. Keep a good attitude and don't be too nervous.

I wish all the students’ dreams come true and they can be admitted to their ideal universities.

References:

[1] Centre for Food Safety, Hong Kong https://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/multimedia/multimedia_pub/multimedia_pub_fsf_177_01.html

[2] Centre for Food Safety, Hong Kong https://www.cfs.gov.hk/english/multimedia/multimedia_pub/multimedia_pub_fsf_118_01.html

[3]Stonehouse W, Conlon CA, Podd J, Hill SR, Minihane AM, Haskell C, Kennedy D. DHA supplementation improved both memory and reaction time in healthy young adults: a randomized controlled trial. Am J Clin Nutr. 2013 May;97(5):1134-43. doi: 10.3945/ajcn.112.053371. Epub 2013 Mar 20. PMID: 23515006.

[4]https://efsa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.2903/j.efsa.2010.1461

[5] Wang Zhiming, Zhou Qiang, Lu Shuhuan, Yu Chao, Xiao Min, Li Xiangyu. Efficacy of DHA in the prevention and adjuvant treatment of Alzheimer's disease[J]. Food Industry Science and Technology, 2014, 35(22): 397-400. DOI: 10.13386/j.issn1002-0306.2014.22.078.

[6] U.S. Department of Agriculture Food Center. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/175119/nutrients

[7]https://www.fda.gov/food/consumers/advice-about-eating-fish

[8] Yang Yuexin, Ge Keyou. Chinese Nutrition Science Encyclopedia 2nd Edition (Volume 1)[M]. People's Medical Publishing House, 2019

Author: Xue Qingxin, one of the first nutrition instructors of the National Health Commission, and a registered nutritionist in China

Review | Zhang Na, Associate Researcher, Doctoral Supervisor, Peking University School of Public Health

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