Does fasting make us smarter?

In fact, fasting can help develop brain cells and enhance the brain, helping to remember longer.

When you are hungry, how will you feel? Smarter and sharper, ready to accept things, or obsessed with food? Researchers believe that fasting may increase brain activity and this is thought to be caused by "hungry hormones".

Ghrelin is a hormone released primarily from the stomach, signaling the brain that you are hungry. Researchers believe that ghrelin levels increase during your hunger and will return to normal a few hours after eating.

A short hunger will help the brain work better, but should not abuse this.(Artwork: Shutterstock).

However, molecular biology professor Jeffrey Davies at the UK Swansea University said ghrelin is not only a source of hunger. In Davies' research paper, ghrelin is a hormone that can stimulate brain cell growth and improve memory in mice.

Another function of this hormone is to respond to changes in the environment, called homeostatic. This function is released while the body has less calorie intake, to activate appetite stimulation mechanisms and restore metabolic state.

In this study, rats were fed 70% of their diet for 14 days, they developed many neurons in the part of the brain that had a learning and memory role. This process is called neural development (neurogenesis) , improving long-term memory ability.

Davies said that in fact, fasted mice can enhance the brain's ability, and this can be applied to humans. However, he said this does not mean that we skip meals just to make the brain work better.

"The meaning here, is the restriction of harmful calories in the body, as well as exercise, it enhances health. Fasting is not recommended, you should only limit it" , Davies adds.