Food!

Back to my usual theme of ways to enhance learning. One thing to consider is food. Eating healthily is definitely beneficial in many more ways than learning. There are things like: Vitamin B (specifically Niacin, I believe) is linked to increased mental performance. That's actually not what I want to get in to right now. The thing is, I've got a pretty busy schedule, and sometimes I don't eat very well during the day -- such as lunch.

The research evidence shows that being hungry helps learning. This is very counter-intuitive to me since I do horribly when I'm hungry. I can't think of anything else until I've eaten. Still, there is a reason why being hungry helps and the data supports it. The reason is that when you become hungry (as a primitive animal) your awareness heightens. You are in more need of food, and you need to do a better job getting it otherwise you die. So you take in more and remember it better for the future. This also seems to indicate that right after a big meal you will learn less and be more lethargic. I can easily agree with this one, not personally, but from watching people in class right after lunch time. Personally, I do much better on a full stomach. Perhaps being hungry helps when taken to a small extent, but hurts when overdone. I'm sure that's true of most things.

I encourage anyone who reads this to post a comment on what their personal experience with this has been.