To Good Health ... and Good Grades

Tips for Students 

Good health and good grades are highly correlated; research shows that students in good health perform better in school, in general, than students in poor health do. Therefore, promoting health in students’ lives represents a positive educational goal.

Here are some tips for how best to maintain good health in order to perform well as a student:

First, time is limited! Students today are busier than ever, so their healthy lifestyles should match this reality. Therefore, exercise could be intense and brief in duration when time is limited: 10 to 15 minutes of intense exercise twice a week can have an enormous, beneficial effect on students’ immune systems, stress levels, and energy states. Moreover, in the nutrition department, maintaining good health and energy levels can help students immensely. Currently, students eat far too many simple carbohydrates in the forms of high-fructose corn syrup, flour, starches, and sugars. These foods cause insulin spikes in students’ bodies and, after the body attempts to deal with all this sugar in the bloodstream, causes students to feel more tired than they did before they ate. Often, when tired from lack of sleep, students consume these simple carbohydrates for energy boosts; however, this sets off a feedback cycle because these foods actually exacerbate tiredness, prompting students to eat more sugars in hopes of gaining short term energy. To combat this poor health and energy draining spiral, students must eliminate the bad carbohydrates, get sleep (take naps, for instance), and then, when rested, consume energy protecting and healthy foods such as vegetables, meats, nuts, eggs, and berries. Soft drinks, Gatorade, and other sugar-based liquids appeal for their taste and short-term energy promise, but, in reality, these are poor energy sources for our metabolisms and thus actually decrease our energy levels and abilities to function optimally.

Every one loves feeling energetic, and avoiding bad carbohydrates is one large step toward achieving good health. Hopefully, good grades will follow suit!

To good health.