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Eat Your Way to a Higher SAT or ACT Score

Preparing for the college admission tests while eating potato chips and drinking cola? You may not be as ready for the SAT or ACT as you think. We talked to dieticians about an important part of test preparation that often gets ignored: food.

Food to Help Your Brain

“For optimal brain function, you can’t rely on a single [food] or even a handful of ‘super foods’ for a few days before a test,” says registered dietician Dalia Perelman from the Camino Medical Center in Mountain View, Calif.

“Foods that contain less-processed forms of carbohydrates, such as whole grains, beans, whole fruits (not juice) and starchy vegetables, will provide a steady source of energy to the brain,” she says. “When the sources of carbohydrates in the diet are sugars (as in cookies or cakes made with white flour), the levels of sugar in the blood are less stable, thus affecting brain function.”

“Adolescents need foods from all food groups,” adds Dr. Karen Cullen, associate professor of pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. “To find out about healthful food and beverage choices, students can check out www.mypyramid.gov.”

Don’t Skip Breakfast

“There’s a lot of research on the overall impact that breakfast has on academic achievement,” says Mary Angela Miller, registered dietician at Ohio State University in Columbus. “You don’t want to work on old energy storages from the day before. It is important to have a fresh supply of carbohydrates each day.”

Perelman concurs: “If you don’t refuel your body in the morning, you will have to draw fuel from your own energy stores. When using reserves, your body tries to save as much energy as possible, and all nonessential functions will not receive much fuel. So creative thinking, memory, attention span, all suffer.”

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