Eating Helps Us Make Good Decisions

If you were among those who thought eating was only designed for the pleasure (or on the contrary, the extreme distress) of our digestive tract and our figures, think again - as a recent study has come up with a rather surprising conclusion. Eating, say scientists from the Cambridge University in Britain, can be the key to making good decisions.

Which means that there may be some truth after all in the whole string of clich�s about "our stomach overruling our heads", or "thinking on an empty stomach". The key to this interesting discovery lies with a brain chemical called serotonin, which is responsible for controlling anger, aggression, mood, sleep, as well as appetite and metabolism.

Skipping meals lowers the level of serotonin in the brain, encouraging impulsive, reckless behavior, which in turn leads to making bad decisions. Serotonin compounds can be found in a variety of foods, such as red meat, nuts, seeds, dairy products, tuna, shellfish and soy products - so it's best to not leave such foods out of our daily diets in order to keep our brain working at full capacity.

"Our results suggest that serotonin plays a critical role in social decision making by normally keeping aggressive social responses in check. Changes in diet and stress cause our serotonin levels to fluctuate naturally, so it's important to understand how this might affect our everyday decision making", says PhD student Molly Crockett, who was part of the research team.

Serotonin is also known as the "happy hormone" - too much and we all become recklessly euphoric, too little and we get depressed, which is why antidepressants such as Prozac seek to maintain high levels of serotonin in the brain. The point is, therefore, not to starve our brains by abstaining from essential foods such as meat and dairy products, because the effects could be very serious in the long term.