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Food for thought

One of the secrets to Napoleon's amazing success (and he was a guy who definitely got things done) was embracing the high-tech innovation of canned food. He's the one who coined the phrase "an army marches on its stomach," after all. After observing my own habits, I know what he means.

It's not just that being hungry throws me off (although it does). It's that if I want to think clearly for any length of time (like, say, four hours in a row), I can't be loaded up on potato chips, peanut M&Ms and whatever other delicious junk food has piled up on the snack table in my office. I need the stuff my *mom* made me eat.

Forget things like heart disease and obesity. The difference it makes in my brain is subtle enough that if I wasn't paying attention, I'd miss it - but once I started keeping track, I realized it's freakin' huge.

Of course, the snack table is easier. It's more tempting, too.

Here's how I fight off its dreadful, mind-wrecking lies:

  • Edamame - You'll see these parboiled soybeans in particularly authentic sushi bars sitting on the counter like peanuts. We get 'em from a local (Florida) farm, but you can find them in the freezer section of any decent Asian market. Stick in boiling water just long enough to turn bright green, salt to taste, stick in a Ziploc baggie and go.
  • Green beans - Blanched, with lime juice and pepper (or whatever acid+savory is easy to reach). Easiest thing in the world to make, and you can eat 'em like french fries… that is, fries from the Light Side of the Force.
  • Peanuts - At the office, I prefer them roasted, but research says the boiled variety is more nutritious. (And contrary to what you might expect from roadside food, is as delectable as a fine paté.)
  • Cold Salmon - Tastes good, won't stink up the workspace, and will help counteract the effects that junk food fats have on your concentration, judgment and cognitive ability. Other people might look at this as "leftovers," but for me, it's a secret weapon.

You can read more about eating for your brain at Psychology Today and LifeHack. And you might have some great snack-hacks I don't know about - in which case, spill.


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FloatingProcess's picture

Re: Food for thought

Good post. I agree about keeping the brain fueled for optimum performance.

I am not a fan of soy, however,

http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/index.html

terceiro's picture

Re: Food for thought

Speaking of Napoleon, a favorite description of how he came up with canned food is James Burke’s Connections, which is required viewing for all nerds anyway.

Speaking of food your mom made you eat, there’s also the argument that food, rather than nutrition is the right answer anyway. That’s what Michael Pollan says, anyway.

Oh, and I like raisins as my mid-afternoon snack, sometimes with peanuts, sometimes just plain.

scott neumyer's picture

re: Food for Thought

Great ideas. I always have peanuts nearby and I find that pretzels sometimes help to satiate the hunger pangs as well.

ogreteeth's picture

re: Food for Thought

@FloatingProcess: A collection of media reports and studies showing correlations does not make for solid evidence. Dollars to doughnuts, if you’re eating any processed food today, you’re eating soy.

Cooked soy is safe. If it wasn’t, an immense portion of the world’s population would be in much worse shape than it is. Food scientists are developing renewable soy products for the Mars mission because it has a unique complete nutritional profile.

That said, I don’t much like soy either… But that’s just my preference. I like peanuts (which happen to be acutely toxic to a lot of people, but don’t get the same bad rap).

ogreteeth's picture

re: Food for Thought

@FloatingProcess: A collection of media reports and studies showing correlations does not make for solid evidence. Dollars to doughnuts, if you’re eating any processed food today, you’re eating soy.

Cooked soy is safe. If it wasn’t, an immense portion of the world’s population would be in much worse shape than it is. Food scientists are developing renewable soy products for the Mars mission because it has a unique complete nutritional profile.

That said, I don’t much like soy either… But that’s just my preference. I like peanuts (which happen to be acutely toxic to a lot of people, but don’t get the same bad rap).

hansdekker's picture

Napoleon's GTD system

I have used the following GTD anecdote about Napoleon’s productivity system a few times. Does anyone know if it’s true?

The anecdote:

Napoleon got a lot of mail, documents. Pretty much everything said “extremely urgent”. He’d just stack everything on his desk in a big pile. Every week he’d start a new pile. He’d take care of the most urgent business and the rest he’d take care of when people came to his office. Get paper out of the pile, take care of it.

The piles moved from right to left every time a new week - and thus a new pile - was started. His desk fitted 6 piles.

On the left of his desk was a bin…every week all paper that was in the 7th pile (so hadn’t been taken care of and no one came into his office calling for action) went straight to the bin.

As you say, Napoleon got things done!

1idii's picture

eating to work

You know, my husband and I have talked about this a lot. Due to health concerns, we follow Dr. Fuhrman’s (Eat to Live) recommended diet: Beans, Salads, Cooked Vegetables, Nuts (raw) and Seeds, and Fruit. (It’s not as limiting or impossible as it looks, either.)

We both notice that our concentration is just so much sharper - we simply don’t get tired during the day anymore - and we don’t need to snack. True story.

So keep eating those greens, fellas, and keep up the great work on this blog!

grant's picture

@terceiro - James Burke! On

@terceiro - James Burke! On YouTube! Why did I have to read this while I’m at work? Productivity is tapping at the window, striving to fly free….

I loved that show! Thanks for letting me know it’s still out there, in one form or another.

About grant

grant's picture

Bio

grant lives in a palatial suburban estate in West Palm Beach, Florida, surrounded by chickens, dogs, cats, children and semi-animate piles of clutter. Older, irregular writings on various topics can be found at Flying Fists, although lately he spends more time trying to get people to join him recording songs of discovery (and reading the latest weird science headlines) at The Guild of Scientific Troubadours.

He is an Aquarius, a vayu/kapha body type with a tendency to stagnant liver heat, and remembers when the internet was just a bunch of UFO enthusiasts and HAM radio nuts dialing up to local BBSes to post on something called FIDOnet.

His day job is writing about unexplained phenomena for Sun, a magazine that has yet to catch up with FIDOnet’s amazing technological breakthrough, but can be found on dead trees in supermarkets nationwide.

 
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