David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
Power Breakfast Recipe 1: Eat Protein
by Dr Charles Parker
February 25, 2007
The brain, nutrition and breakfast: almost too basic. Herein resides a solution.
"Protein?are you kidding me? I don't eat breakfast, period!"
Everyday I have this response from someone, actually from many someones. Amazing how little time we all have in the morning, from kids to adults. Lemme see?do they serve breakfast on the school bus? Could I grab a pop-tart on the way out the door? Is it OK if I eat a little later?about noon? I always eat supper well! Breakfast habits are terrible, and the problem is completely pandemic.
Experts agree, yet few practitioners have the clinical experience of Dr Sidney Baker regarding food, breakfast and brain health. He has written many books on the subject of brain health, and has extensive experience with that ominous canary in the coal mine: childhood autism. In his book on autism he specifically reviews the necessity for a nutritional protein breakfast.
So how does breakfast fit with that complex subject?
Well Dr Baker has also written another very interesting book called The Circadian Prescription that brings together the protein and breakfast question into an easy, practical perspective. Said in a snapshot: a Protein Breakfast will make the metabolic day work right. Breakfast directly helps with brain health.
From a psychiatric medication perspective it works like this:
The psych meds are often helpful, but quite often create a problem if taken on an empty stomach. They hop directly into the blood stream and can create odd mental/physical feelings. They can kill the appetite all day.
Further, psych meds only rearrange neurotransmitters ["reuptake inhibitors"], they don't build or create new neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters, in a word, come from protein. So if you only have a pop-tart for breakfast you are only poking the coals of a dying fire. Sure the carbs will carry you for the moment with energy, but we are using psych meds to actually have an effect on neurotransmitter activities, not carry you on fumes.
As they walk out the door you want your child's steam engine to carry them up that daily hill. But the steam engine won't go anywhere without wood on the fire.
Protein adds the wood, the meds poke the coals, now you have a fire. The foundation for neurotransmitter activity and the constructive rearrangement will improve brain function.
by Dr Charles Parker
February 25, 2007
The brain, nutrition and breakfast: almost too basic. Herein resides a solution.
"Protein?are you kidding me? I don't eat breakfast, period!"
Everyday I have this response from someone, actually from many someones. Amazing how little time we all have in the morning, from kids to adults. Lemme see?do they serve breakfast on the school bus? Could I grab a pop-tart on the way out the door? Is it OK if I eat a little later?about noon? I always eat supper well! Breakfast habits are terrible, and the problem is completely pandemic.
Experts agree, yet few practitioners have the clinical experience of Dr Sidney Baker regarding food, breakfast and brain health. He has written many books on the subject of brain health, and has extensive experience with that ominous canary in the coal mine: childhood autism. In his book on autism he specifically reviews the necessity for a nutritional protein breakfast.
So how does breakfast fit with that complex subject?
Well Dr Baker has also written another very interesting book called The Circadian Prescription that brings together the protein and breakfast question into an easy, practical perspective. Said in a snapshot: a Protein Breakfast will make the metabolic day work right. Breakfast directly helps with brain health.
From a psychiatric medication perspective it works like this:
The psych meds are often helpful, but quite often create a problem if taken on an empty stomach. They hop directly into the blood stream and can create odd mental/physical feelings. They can kill the appetite all day.
Further, psych meds only rearrange neurotransmitters ["reuptake inhibitors"], they don't build or create new neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters, in a word, come from protein. So if you only have a pop-tart for breakfast you are only poking the coals of a dying fire. Sure the carbs will carry you for the moment with energy, but we are using psych meds to actually have an effect on neurotransmitter activities, not carry you on fumes.
As they walk out the door you want your child's steam engine to carry them up that daily hill. But the steam engine won't go anywhere without wood on the fire.
Protein adds the wood, the meds poke the coals, now you have a fire. The foundation for neurotransmitter activity and the constructive rearrangement will improve brain function.
