BRAIN FOOD

 A new study links what one eats to how one thinks.

A study conducted by researchers at Oregon State University and published in the journal Neuroscience  suggests that high-fat, high-sugar diets have a detrimental effect on what they refer to as “cognitive flexibility,” or the power to adapt and adjust to changing situations. 

The research was performed using laboratory mice that consumed different diets with varying levels of fat and sugar before facing a gamut of tests—primarily mazes and basic puzzles — to monitor changes in their mental and physical function. The researchers paid specific attention to the types of gut bacteria present in each control group.

“Bacteria can release compounds that act as neurotransmitters, stimulate sensory nerves or the immune system, and affect a wide range of biological functions,” Kathy Magnusson, a professor in the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine and principal investigator with the Linus Pauling Institute, said in a statement. “We’re not sure just what messages are being sent, but we are tracking down the pathways and the effects.”

In about four weeks, the mental and physical performances of the rats fed on a high-fat, high-sugar diet started to drop significantly, especially when one or more variables in the test changed. One of the most disparate physiological factors within the groups of mice, and the suspected reason for the decreased brain function, was gut bacteria.

People have been paying more attention to their guts than ever. Yogurt companies are using the term “probiotic” to peddle their sugary treats to would-be health junkies, and celebrities like sportscaster Erin Andrews are now digestive health spokespeople for hire, trying to finally make gut bacteria the hip and cool subject it deserved to be all along. But the scientific community has also started paying keener attention to those trillions of stomach-dwelling microflora as well.

One of the first studies to ever to link gut bacteria to brain function was performed by researchers at the Gail and Gerald Oppenheimer Family Center for Neurobiology and Stress.  They took three groups of women and had one group eat yogurt loaded with supplemental probiotics daily for four weeks, another group eat a substance that looked and tasted like yogurt but had no probiotics, and the third group was given nothing specific to eat. Not only did the sans-probiotic group suffer in cognitive tests, just like the mice did in the recent Oregon State study, but they also faltered in emotion based tests, linking poor gut health to stress. 

“This work suggests that fat and sugar are altering your healthy bacterial systems, and that’s one of the reasons those foods aren’t good for you.” Magnusson said. “It’s not just the food that could be influencing your brain, but an interaction between the food and microbial changes.”

The old wise tale, "you are what you eat," seems to have some scientific foundation. 

This could explain why the LOST main characters, the survivors, were slow to adapt and adjust to the changing situation of survival. The diet they had was sharply diminished from their standard life style until junk food was reintroduced with the Hatch discovery and food drop. One of the nagging issues during the series was that the main characters never asked viewer questions to each other in order to figure out what was going on. It was more action without thinking than thinking of a plan then acting it out. The latter leaders who had better brain food diets such as Ben or Sayid seemed to grasp island situations better than Hurley, Charlie or even Jack.

DIGESTING CLUES

When the 815 survivors finally get into the Hatch, Desmond uses the opportunity to flee his bondage to the computer and The Numbers.

He instructs them what to do every 108 minutes; then tries to escape. Jack chases him through the jungle. He confronts Desmond, who remembers Jack from the stadium stair run. Desmond asks Jack about the woman Jack said he "failed," and as Jack becomes emotional while pointing a gun at Dez, Desmond says "go ahead and shoot me." When Jack does not, Desmond presses on: what ever happened to the girl? Like pulling a tooth, Jack tears up and Desmond pushes for an answer. Jack's failure is his sudden admission that he married her. The situation quickly defuses, and Desmond runs off into the jungle while Jack sulks back to the Hatch.

During the same episode, the alarm timing begins to wind down. Locke begins to input the Numbers into the computer terminal. Hurley arrives and suddenly becomes aware that Locke his repeating "his" cursed numbers. He wants him to stop. Locke continues: 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 32. Hurley then changes his mind and says "go ahead." But as Locke was going to press EXECUTE, Jack returns to tell him he has the wrong number. The last one is 42, according to Desmond. Locke corrects the input, but he refuses to press execute - - -  he wants Jack to do it, but Jack yells at him that he will not push the button on faith. The button is pressed and the timer is re-set, and Locke takes the first watch.

During Hurley's first "watch," he is shown in the Hatch pantry: first gorging on an Apollo candy bar; then a bag of chips, and then he opens a cardboard box and lifts out a fully cooked steak dinner on a white plate. He takes a large bite of the steak, when his dream is interrupted by Kate who shows him that it is time to re-set the computer.

In this short, condensed and emotional episode, we have three important elements explode to the surface. First, the emotional breakdown of Jack in the jungle. This is the first time we really see Jack break from his calm, cool and collected leader role. Second, we have Locke trying to impose his will on Jack - - - blindly taking on faith the importance of pushing the buttons. Jack believes nothing will happen if the alarm goes off. This is a precursor to show that infallible Jack is wrong. Third, it puts dreams of Hurley front in center into the Numbers mystery. There was no reason for Hurley to dream about food when he had access to real food in the pantry. Food had always been the trigger for Hurley's emotional and mental depression. It foreshadows more island mental illusions, including the return of Dave.

If we look at these events through the spectrum of Hurley alone, we can postulate that Desmond could represent Hurley's desire for love. Desmond was desperately trying to win back Penny. He would risk his life to get her back. Hurley on the other hand never fought for the love of a girl. Also, Jack could represent Hurley's desire to be a strong, effective and forceful leader. These are character traits that a low-end fry cook like Hurley would want some day. Hurley's career path was stuck at Mr. Cluck's. And finally, Hurley's dream at a critical time brings into play why Hurley's past experiences (whether true or not) such as the Numbers continually show up in the series. The reason could be as simple as that the Numbers are all in Hurley's head, and the events happening to Hurley then are also happening in his head.

FOOD DROP

In the segment of "The Man in Charge," Ben goes to the Dharma Guam logistics shipping warehouse to terminate the two pea can labeling pallet jockeys. Ben says he is from the home office, and the men's services are no longer required because there is a new man in charge ("Hurley")

The whole purpose of this DVD bonus segment was to allegedly answer one of the hardcore fan's mysteries . . . why, after Dharma was wiped out, the Island continued to receive food pallet drops.

It was speculated by the blast door and Hatch workers that it was triggered by a breach of the count down timer, presumably opening a window into the Island's electromagnetic snow globe for the pallet to fall through.

But the DVD explanation of two robotic workers filling pallets with Dharma labeled food containers does nothing to solve any mystery of the series. In fact, it is counter intuitive. The worker's dot matrix printer goes off with the coordinates for the launch window. He tells the other guy to hurry up with the pea labels because the pallet is ready to go. Go where?

At the Lamp Post, Eloise told Jack and the rest of the O6 people that the Island had moved and it was difficult to locate. The large pendulum and computers were used to try to locate it. After a while, she said Ajira 316 was the only way to get back to the island because it would fly over the island just as Oceanic 815 did. She also said that Jack had to re-create the flight as close as possible, or "so help us God."

So, in reality, it was not difficult for the Guam suppliers to get the coordinates for the food drop. How they were signaled the Island coordinates, unknown. Why they were located in Guam, unknown. Why no one from the "home office" ever showed up at the place before, unknown.

But it does give me the sense that the two guys were stuck in a monotonous packing routine for eternity - - - - a form of corporeal punishment. Now that Hurley was in charge, the workers were released from their bondage, in their purgatory.

Yes, if you want to try to fit this extra scene into the LOST as shown on television picture, the sideways world, the Lamp Post, the Island , and now the Guam station, were all creations of the dead Dharma people who used their experiences to create memories so they could be remembered by others in the afterlife in order to move on.