What should Leaving Cert Students be eating during their exams ?
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What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
The Pat Kenny Show. With Timber Living Log Cabins. Saturday and Sunday from 10am. On Newstalk. Conversation that counts.
Well, now, it's a big week, has been a big week so far for people doing exams, be it the junior cert or the leaving cert. And you wonder, how do you keep yourself fuelled up for the exams? Well, we're joined now to talk about the do's and don'ts of exam dieting and well-being. Registered dietitian and nutritionist, Sarah Keogh. Sarah, good morning. Morning. Do you need to change anything or as you were?
What should Leaving Cert students eat during exams?
To be honest, if you're kind of going along fairly OK, I wouldn't change a whole lot. It's not the time to suddenly start some sort of completely new diet in case you end up upsetting your digestive system. But there's a couple of things you can add in and a couple of things you can do that we know do support memory and concentration and the big thing, recall, when it comes to exams.
So what are they? What are these magic foods?
The most amazing thing is carbohydrate. And people have spent years giving out about poor carbohydrate foods. But we know that particularly if you have a carbohydrate based breakfast, your focus and memory and concentration is just better after that. So if you can, eating breakfast is just really important and going for a slow release carb. So something like your bowl of porridge, your granola, your whole grain toast, something like that is really, really good to set you up for going into that exam.
Now, athletes famously use bananas. Tennis players, you often see them. Perfect. Long, long match. Could be three or four hours even. And they chomp on bananas.
And they're brilliant. What you want is the slow release carb at your breakfast and then about 20 minutes before you go into the exam, that's where you add in the sugar. And that's where something like a banana, packet of jellies, you know, those dextrose tablets you see everyone taking, you know, rid of fruit juice. So quick release sugar then close to. And if you're able to take something into the exam, the jellies are great. Jelly babies, things like that are brilliant.
Now, the thing is, though, when you take in sugar, your body's designed to get rid of that sugar fairly quickly.
Why is it important not to change your diet drastically before exams?
Convert it. Isn't that so?
Well, it does. And that's what we want. The brain needs glucose. It really needs it rapidly. And it goes through a huge amount. And when you're actually using your brain in an exam, it's like exercising. So you want to fuel it in the same way as you say a sports person is going to fuel in the middle of a match with that.
What foods can enhance memory and concentration during exams?
So that's what you're doing for the brain there.
OK, now stimulants. If you normally have a coffee in the morning, stay with it?
Oh, definitely.
And what about things like Red Bull? I'll use the trade name. Any of these energy drinks.
What we would say is that if you're not used to them, this is not the time to start giving yourself big jitters in the middle of exams. And some of them, like some of the smaller ones, have the same caffeine as one cup of coffee and some would have the same caffeine as two cups of coffee. So if you're used to that...
How do carbohydrates impact brain function for exams?
They can be helpful. And we do know that caffeine does help support the brain a little bit. But I would go with your cup of tea or cup of coffee, you know, something like that. And as I said, if you're not used to caffeine, this is not the time to start it.
Now, there are some foods that stimulate blood supply to the brain.
What are they? What we found is there's good few foods that actually increase blood flow to the brain. So blueberries are a key one for that. And there's a huge amount of research looking at the sort of cognitive effects of blueberries in terms of getting blood to the brain. And when you do that, that's improving sort of memory recall retention. And what's really interesting is if you add cocoa to that. So there's a really couple of very interesting studies on this where they initially were looking at people kind of with dementia. And they found if they gave them blueberries and cocoa powder together as a kind of a drink,
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:01–0:35
2
What should Leaving Cert students eat during exams?
0:35–1:53
3
Why is it important not to change your diet drastically before exams?
1:53–2:08
4
What foods can enhance memory and concentration during exams?
2:08–2:33
5
How do carbohydrates impact brain function for exams?
2:33–4:35
6
What quick-release sugars are beneficial before an exam?
4:35–9:47