Several months ago, Tero International President Rowena Crosbie shared some helpful tips on how green plants are good to have in the workplace. Crosbie passed along more advice on how to perk up your work. 

“Participants in workshops at the Tero Learning Center are offered refreshments that support learning,” she emailed, and she supplied these tips.

– When it comes to learning, sugar is not good or bad, it is both. It’s all a matter of what you have with the sugar. Sugar when eaten with carbohydrates impairs learning (i.e., Danish or doughnuts). Sugar when eaten with protein is beneficial to learning (i.e., trail mix).

– Many learning problems are really cases of under-nutrition. A nibbling diet (frequent healthy snacks) has been shown to maintain better insulin levels and better glucose tolerance, which leads to better learning. Studies of people with marginally deficient diets (not really bad diets) showed 300 percent poorer performances than those with healthy diets.

– The average learner is dehydrated, and dehydration leads to poor learning. Athletes have learned to boost water consumption for peak performance. Brain specialists recommend eight to 15 glasses of pure, clear water per day.

– While too much caffeine has been shown in studies to impair learning, a small amount seems to be ideal (one cup of coffee per day or one soft drink per day). Caffeine does play an important role in elevating morning brain power. However, too much stimulation from caffeine leads to mistakes on details.