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What should I be eating for optimal cognitive performance?

Nutty Nuggets. (Publix-brand grape nuts) You'll need the extra $$ for PTs.

Edit: Actually, some gunning 0L's might google this so I guess I'll answer seriously. Generally, any fish is good to eat since it has EFA's that help with memory apparently. you could also supplement with fish oil.

creatine

carbs. for glucose. and very ripe bananas since it's high on the GI.

Coffee was my study meal of choice. I get distracted when I'm even slightly full. I'm also weird, so YMMV.

It's really about one's diet as a whole, including hydration. However, the following, no doubt, are few of many superfoods:

Flax (meal, I think, is best; for digestion beyond mastication cannot break the seeds; and just the oil lacks many of the seeds' best components)

Organic Green Tea

Wild Alaskan Salmon (careful: farm raised is ****)

Walnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans (any nut is awesome)

Wild Blueberries

Pomegranate

(Extra Virgin) Coconut (oil)

Beets

Broccoli

Organic yogurt (with fat)

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Raw, unfiltered, organic honey

And there's nothing too special about oats (except, perhaps, their beta glucan content), but they're a (nutritionally) clean, quick, cheap, reliable source of energy; and several of the above mix with them well.

Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Costco supply almost all of my needs.

Assuming you arent rich and shop at whole foods like lex does...my comments are in bold

LexLeon wrote:It's really about one's diet as a whole, including hydration. However, the following, no doubt, are few of many superfoods:

Flax (meal, I think, is best; for digestion beyond mastication cannot break the seeds; and just the oil lacks many of the seeds' best components) Flax is ok, but its heavy in ALA Omega 3's which research has failed to show any real benefit from so far There are much better sources of better omega 3's than flax

Organic Green Tea-green tea is good, mix it with caffeine to make it even better....dont worry about it being organic

Wild Alaskan Salmon (careful: farm raised is ****) wild is better than farmed but depends on your budget here

Walnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans (any nut is awesome)yep

Wild Blueberriesextremely good for you, research has shown it increases short term memory

Pomegranateoverrated, overcommercialized "superfruit"...there are much better and cheaper alternatives like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries

(Extra Virgin) Coconut (oil)

Beets

Broccoli

Organic yogurt (with fat)

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Raw, unfiltered, organic honey whats the deal with everything being organic..yes its good but dont go overboard with the whole organic crap

And there's nothing too special about oats (except, perhaps, their beta glucan content), but they're a (nutritionally) clean, quick, cheap, reliable source of energy; and several of the above mix with them well.

Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Costco supply almost all of my needs.

OP, getting nutrition from foods is best but when cost and time and other factors come into play, supplements can be ok. I would recommend getting some omega 3 supplements derived from fish oil. Make sure most of the OM3 is in the form of DHA or EPA...as I said before..there is no real research to support ALA is good for you so far. Also dont bother with the gimmicky omega 6 and 9 supplements.

I would also recommend you eat some sort of berry or grape on a regular basis as I mentioned above, the really help with memory.

Also I wasnt joking with creatine...even though its mostly used as a muscle building supplement, research has shown it is also beneficial for the mind as well

And finally, in regard to all the organic stuff that lex seems to absolutely swear by...organic is good in the sense that it wont hurt you or be worse than the cheaper, walmart alternative. However, research has time and time again failed to note any significant difference in both nutrition and health between organic and non-organic crops.

if youre worried about pesticides, just wash the crop before eating or take off the skin (like an apple). Organic stuff is rarely justified due to its heavier environmental impact and cost to you.

Just eat take out for every meal to get used to life as a lawyer.

Idk, I ate ramen errday during my LSAT prep. Occasionally some eggs. Seemed to do fine without all this funky wild coconut-oiled blueberry salmon

cc.celina wrote:Idk, I ate ramen errday during my LSAT prep. Occasionally some eggs. Seemed to do fine without all this funky wild coconut-oiled blueberry salmon

You must not be a hippie.

Systematic1 wrote:What should I be eating for optimal cognitive performance?

Oatmeal + blueberries in the morning

+ a glass of OJ (take vitamins b-6 + b-12)

Considering supplements, these have helped me immensely (I've been taking them for over a year, but even with a month or so I felt as though it really started helping me focus and gave me energy throughout the day

Daily multi-vitamin (take ones that require you to spread them out throughout the day, as your body can only absorb x amount of types of vitamins in x amount of time.)
- A vitamin will definitely be of use, especially if you are having those extra long study days where you aren't able to eat the insane amount of foods required to meet the Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of fruits, vegetables, meats, dairy, etc. etc.

(2-3) Omega 3-6-9 Fish Oil supplements
- I feel like these really helped with my concentration, in addition to the B-vitamins I mentioned above.

Morning of the test have an Adderall for breakfast, its the best brain food.

This relates more to testing than to general study, but I find eating a breakfast high in protein before taking a preptest does wonders for my ability to concentrate throughout the whole test. Obviously, berries, vitamins, fish oil, etc are good to incorporate into your diet on a general basis, but I find protein in the morning to be key for me.

I also focus on having a good meal the night before to fuel me through the next day. Complex carbs are essential for long term energy. My approach to nutrition may be heavily influenced by my lifetime of athletics, but I do think it translates to testing to a certain extent.

Also, keep track of what you eat on a given day and how you feel while studying or taking a preptest to find what works for you. I found that the only four days I ate eggs with my breakfast are also the four days I had my highest scores. Therefore, eggs cause me to score better. (correlation = causation, don't question my logic!!) At any rate, I'm going to keep eating them.

HuskyHopeful wrote:Morning of the test have an Adderall for breakfast, its the best brain food.

Morning of the test

thederangedwang wrote:Assuming you arent rich and shop at whole foods like lex does...my comments are in bold

LexLeon wrote:It's really about one's diet as a whole, including hydration. However, the following, no doubt, are few of many superfoods:

Flax (meal, I think, is best; for digestion beyond mastication cannot break the seeds; and just the oil lacks many of the seeds' best components) Flax is ok, but its heavy in ALA Omega 3's which research has failed to show any real benefit from so far There are much better sources of better omega 3's than flax

Organic Green Tea-green tea is good, mix it with caffeine to make it even better....dont worry about it being organic

Wild Alaskan Salmon (careful: farm raised is ****) wild is better than farmed but depends on your budget here

Walnuts, macadamia nuts, pecans (any nut is awesome)yep

Wild Blueberriesextremely good for you, research has shown it increases short term memory

Pomegranateoverrated, overcommercialized "superfruit"...there are much better and cheaper alternatives like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries

(Extra Virgin) Coconut (oil)

Beets

Broccoli

Organic yogurt (with fat)

Extra Virgin Olive oil

Raw, unfiltered, organic honey whats the deal with everything being organic..yes its good but dont go overboard with the whole organic crap

And there's nothing too special about oats (except, perhaps, their beta glucan content), but they're a (nutritionally) clean, quick, cheap, reliable source of energy; and several of the above mix with them well.

Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, and Costco supply almost all of my needs.

OP, getting nutrition from foods is best but when cost and time and other factors come into play, supplements can be ok. I would recommend getting some omega 3 supplements derived from fish oil. Make sure most of the OM3 is in the form of DHA or EPA...as I said before..there is no real research to support ALA is good for you so far. Also dont bother with the gimmicky omega 6 and 9 supplements.

I would also recommend you eat some sort of berry or grape on a regular basis as I mentioned above, the really help with memory.

Also I wasnt joking with creatine...even though its mostly used as a muscle building supplement, research has shown it is also beneficial for the mind as well

And finally, in regard to all the organic stuff that lex seems to absolutely swear by...organic is good in the sense that it wont hurt you or be worse than the cheaper, walmart alternative. However, research has time and time again failed to note any significant difference in both nutrition and health between organic and non-organic crops.

if youre worried about pesticides, just wash the crop before eating or take off the skin (like an apple). Organic stuff is rarely justified due to its heavier environmental impact and cost to you.

An obviously wanting reply.

thederangedwang wrote:Flax is ok, but its heavy in ALA Omega 3's which research has failed to show any real benefit from so far There are much better sources of better omega 3's than flax

There's a good amount of research supporting the benefits of ALA consumption, along with its postcursors EPA and DHA.

E.g., these PDF's and, especially, their citations:

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/agnic/flax/doc_i ... s_ndsu.pdf

http://www.flaxcouncil.ca/english/pdf/F ... lax_R2.pdf

thederangedwang wrote:green tea is good, mix it with caffeine

I think the original poster asked for "Brain Food" recommendations, not a drug which is likely to be synthetic, or genuinely unnecessary as an additive to green tea.

thederangedwang wrote:wild is better than farmed but depends on your budget here

It's not surprising that 'the deranged wang' would insinuate that it might be worth eating farm raised salmon, even if its price varies greatly from that of Wild Alaskan (at any rate, it doesn't). For an indication of the straight up dangers as well as the other literally unpalatable realities of farm raised salmon, please see:

--LinkRemoved--

--LinkRemoved--

thederangedwang wrote:Pomegranate overrated, overcommercialized "superfruit"...there are much better and cheaper alternatives like blueberries, raspberries, blackberries

"Better", how? Different species of fruit have unique phytochemical profiles; that is to say, Pomegrante gives you things that no other fruit can (naturally) give you. None of these things need to be in the diet, but they are shown to boost the brain; and variety in the diet, ceteris paribus, is certainly a good thing.

Unique pomegranate profile:

http://www.globalsciencebooks.info/Jour ... 77-87o.pdf

Some further benefits:

http://www.llu.edu/news/today/today_story.page?id=1048

http://www.livestrong.com/article/28129 ... ate-juice/

thederangedwang wrote:...organic is good in the sense that it wont hurt you or be worse than the cheaper, walmart alternative. However, research has time and time again failed to note any significant difference in both nutrition and health between organic and non-organic crops.

if youre worried about pesticides, just wash the crop before eating or take off the skin (like an apple). Organic stuff is rarely justified due to its heavier environmental impact and cost to you.

This is not only utterly unsupported, but demonstrably false.

Do you trust Cornell?

On the question of environmental impact and actual costs:

"Organic agriculture seeks to augment ecological processes that foster plant nutrition while conserving soil and water resources. Organic systems eliminate agrichemicals and reduce other external inputs to improve the environment as well as farm economics."

"Heavy agricultural reliance on synthetic-chemical fertilizers and pesticides is having serious impacts on public health and the environment. The estimated environmental and health care costs of the recommended use of pesticides in the U.S. are about $10 billion per year (Pimentel 2005). In the United States over 90% of corn farmers rely on herbicides for weed control (Pimentel et al. 1993). Atrazine, one of the most widely used herbicides on corn, is also one of the most commonly found pesticides in streams and groundwater (USGS 2001)."

http://ecommons.cornell.edu/bitstream/1 ... t_05-1.pdf

How about Carnegie Mellon University?

http://www.ce.cmu.edu/~gdrg/readings/20 ... ystems.pdf

Or The University of California?

On the question of nutrition and health:

"For example, in two studies conducted by Carbonaro et al., higher levels of total phenolics were found in organic peaches and pears when compared with their conventional counterparts.(23-24) In a study of five vegetables common in the Japanese diet, Ren et al. demonstrated that organically grown spinach contained 120 percent higher antioxidant activity while Welsh onion, Chinese cabbage and qing-gen-cai contained 20-50 percent higher antioxidant activity compared to their conventionally grown counterparts.(25) In our own studies, we have found consistently higher levels of total phenolics and ascorbic acid in organic strawberries, marionberries and sweet corn.(26)...In more recent, unpublished studies at the University of California Davis, we have found higher levels of total phenolics, soluble solids and ascorbic acid, as well as the flavonoid aglycone quercetin in two organically produced tomato cultivars."

--LinkRemoved--

Derangedwang, you probably don't understand that. What it means: the sorts of compounds that have been shown to boost brain health (antioxidants, flavonoids, polyphenols) are found in greater amounts in organic foods.

Further, see this Rutgers study:

"Organic fruits and vegetables possess fewer pesticide residues and
lower nitrate levels than do conventional fruits and vegetables. In
some cases, organic foods may have higher levels of plant secondary
metabolites; this may be beneficial with respect to suspected antioxidants
such as polyphenolic compounds..."

"Because organic fruits and vegetables do not use pesticides or
synthetic fertilizers, they have more biochemical energy to synthesize
beneficial secondary plant metabolites such as polyphenolic
antioxidants..."

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~insects/rob ... rganic.pdf

And note that decreased pesticide residues and nitrate levels are a good thing as regards health, and "more...beneficial secondary plant metabolites" are the type of things the original poster is looking for.

By the way, it's common knowledge that the peel of an apple, or of fruits in general, is the most nutritionally dense component.

Also, Creatine Monohydrate is made by the body naturally, and is provided by foods such as beef. It's not a food, in itself, just like caffeine is not. On another note, as even creatine-monohydrate.org and just about any bodybuilding forum will generally concede, Creatine shrinks the size of the male gonads.

I heard organic pubes were good to eat. High in protein and bacteria. Also heard bath salts "light up the lamp"

Lex is angry lol...and way to get personal..speaks highly about your character and your BS in nutrition

Just a short response since I aint gonna take the time to find studies that contradict your studies.

Organic foods have lower crop yields..surely you agree with me here. As a result of lower crop yields, studies have suggested that they offset any environmental benefits they might initially offer since more arable land is needed for the same yield.

And wtf with the creatine? There is no research indicating that it shrinks gonads...at least none I can find..maybe thats why you didnt link an article/study supporting this utterly ridiculous assertion.

And on that website you did link...it doesnt say it shrinks your gonads bro...it appears your best evidence that it does shrink gonads are rumors swirling around on bodybuilding FORUMS..lol at using a forum as a justification.

I normally have some roe on a slice of toast. It's not that filling, but it is delicious.

Guys, seriously. Eat things that are tasty and not completely terrible for you. A good lsat score (and a happy, fulfilling life) is going to come from how you choose to spend your time, not the amount of organic brussels sprouts you consume.

Protein, B-Vitamins, and Caffiene in the morning.

if you're not eating baby food or some other preprocessed alternative, you're wasting energy on chewing that could be better used for crushing RC questions.

Get an IV (just not inserted into your bubbling arm) so you can have a steady drip of water, electrolytes, and glucose.

HuskyHopeful wrote:Morning of the test have an Adderall for breakfast, its the best brain food.

This is actually credited.

thederangedwang wrote: OP, getting nutrition from foods is best but when cost and time and other factors come into play, supplements can be ok. I would recommend getting some omega 3 supplements derived from fish oil. Make sure most of the OM3 is in the form of DHA or EPA...as I said before..there is no real research to support ALA is good for you so far. Also dont bother with the gimmicky omega 6 and 9 supplements.

Where do I buy these? How about something like http://www.vitacost.com/vitacost-norweg ... 0-softgels?