Eat Your Way to Better Poker V – Get More Bs to Play Your A-game!

If you have been following our advice so far, you must be noticing an increase in your energy levels through the day and an improvement in your memory in general. Are you ready for the next stage of brain improvement? It’s time to talk about the B vitamins! Increasing your intake of these fabulous nutrients will make your brain sharper, your mood steadier, and even improve your skin and muscle tone.

Now that we have your attention, let us tell you more about the B group, 8 different vitamins which are very, very good for you: thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid and 4 less-known but no less important B-vitamins waiting to work their magic on you!

First the good news: an adequate intake of these vitamins can improve your general health, not to mention your mental alertness and efficiency. They also serve to stabilize the mood, preventing anger and depression as well as anxiety. Different vitamins tend to have different roles, and although the specifics of each one are just beginning to be discovered this is what has been found out so far:

Niacin is necessary for the synthesis and repair of DNA, and it aids the communication between brain cells.

Thiamin helps the brain make good use of glucose (sugar, its main food). If you are car-savvy, think of it as the electronic fuel injection of your brain’s engine, which makes sure the motor gets the right amount of fuel for optimal performance. If you think of it this way, it will be easy to see why even a small thiamin deficiency slows down your brainpower.

Folic acid helps keep your levels of serotonin normal. In case you don’t remember, serotonin is the neurotransmitter most related to your happy moods, and low levels of serotonin induce depression and other types of emotional instability. “You mean I can prevent depression by watching what I eat?” you’ll say. Indeed we do! A study of depressed patients showed a dramatic improvement in those who took folic acid supplements along lithium for a year, compared to those who took only lithium but no supplements.

B6 and B12 are especially interesting to our purposes, since they are used to form the myelin sheath around nerve cells, which is technical talk for saying they make the covering of nerve ends that speeds signals through the brain. To continue the car-related examples, think of them as the asphalt of the brain’s highways. And the better the road, the faster you can drive, right? Right! A clinical trial in Australia showed that speed of thought, memory and verbal skills improved when the subjects took increased doses of folate and vitamins B6 and B12. Project leader Dr Janet Bryan said, "We found that folate supplementation improved memory and planning ability and that B6 supplementation improved verbal ability" Did you see that? Improved planning ability and speed of thought! Now tell us you aren’t ready to chew old leather boots if that’s what it takes to get that edge over your competitors at the tables!

Don’t be fooled into thinking that some Bs are more important than others – they are all very important for your health, and tend to work as a team, meaning a deficiency in one will make the others less effective. So how do you make sure you are getting all the Bs you need to become an Ace player?

General indications are very similar to what we have been advising you already: a varied, healthy diet including lean meats and fish, brightly colored and leafy vegetables, beans and pulses and some whole grains should cover all the bases. Other good sources of B vitamins are nonfat milk and yogurt, wheat germ, bananas, seafood, whole grains and green peas. And in the case of B vitamins, experts are not against you taking a moderate supplement to ensure you are getting all the different B’s into your system!

Here is a short list to help you with the shopping:

B Vitamins

- Brewers or nutritional yeast
- Nuts and seeds
- Legumes
- Wheat germ
- Dairy products
- Lean meat and poultry
- Seafood
- Eggs
- Whole grains
- Spinach and leafy greens
- Carrots
- Asparagus
- Broccoli

Stay with us for more valuable nutritional info that will turn you into a shark at the card tables!

Coming up: read about the last nutrients in our list, plus some menu and recipe suggestions.