Top 100 Foods to Improve Your Productivity

Rich McIver from Bootstrapper sent my this article on the top 100 things you can eat to make you more productive that they published. Sounds like an interesting article - but I just can't get through it. I always get caught up in errors or poor word choice.

For example, the first food they extole is eggplant - which "contains the nutrient naunin, which keeps your brain sharp by increasing communication between your brain cells and messenger molecules." Really? I think they actually mean nasunin (no big deal, we all make typos), and nasunin (as far as I know) is a pigment that is an antioxidant that is very effective at protecting the cell membranes in the brain. I've never heard of any studies showing bandwidth increases due to consumption of nasunin.

The next food highlighted is raisins, that concentrated packet of grape sugar. The article says, "If you need a boost of energy, steer clear of the carbs and grab a pack of raisins." Seems a little odd to me. Raisins are almost 90% carbohydrate (by mass). Even subtracting fiber, it's still 70% sugar! It's one of the most carbohydrate laden foods you can consume.

The third food listed is the lima bean. Where the author says, "Lima beans give you tons of energy from iron and dietary fiber…" I don't know if this is a typo or what. Some energy does come from the dietary fiber (but that's a small percentage of the total carbohydrates in lima beans) and extracting energy from iron is not something our bodies are very good at doing. Anyway, with 23% carbs and 7% protein (by mass), I doubt the 0.0025% iron would contribute much energy even if we could extract measurable amounts of energy from iron consumption.

There are 97 more foods… anyone else want to play?