FOOD FOR THOUGHT VAN NUYS HIGH STUDENTS HONORED FOR EXPERIMENT ON BEST `BRAIN FOOD'.

Byline: MARK KELLAM Valley News Writer

What type of diet is best for doing complicated mental tasks? A power bar full of carbs, a Balance bar with carbs and protein or a snack of potato chips and cookies?

If you chose the Balance bar, you're right.

That was the outcome of an experiment conducted by a group of students from Van Nuys High School. Their project came in second in a competition sponsored by The Aerospace Corp., headquartered in El Segundo. They placed in the high school experiments category at the 29th annual Robert H. Herndon Memorial Science Competition, held at The Aerospace Corporation.

Team members were Tanaaz Jasani, Zsofia Mercz, Anna Rambhatla, Viktor Shoman, David Yi and David Hong. Dr. Irwin Pascul was the team's coach. Each team member received a $500 savings bond for the second-place finish.

In their experiment, the students had six subjects. Twice each day over a three-day period, the subjects ate a different diet -- once during nutrition period in the morning and again at lunch. After lunch, they solved a word puzzle.

Each of the subjects alternated eating a different diet each day.

The students found that the ideal diet had a blend of protein and carbohydrates, with a leaning toward protein.

Pascul explained that a high- carb meal, such as the spaghetti dinners runners often eat before marathons, burns slowly over time, which is good for routine tasks like running. However, they don't give a burst of energy like you get from protein.

Three word puzzles were administrated, a different one to different subjects each day. Each puzzle featured names of 12 U.S. states randomly placed forward, backward, up, down and diagonally by a computer program created by students in the high school's computer programming class. Each puzzle had 20 rows and 20 columns.

The students looked to see if other factors became apparent. They found that gender didn't play a factor. Also, students didn't get faster at solving the puzzles as the three-day experiment went along.

Pascul, who is a computer teacher at Van Nuys High, is no stranger to the competitions sponsored by The Aerospace Corporation. He's taken teams from Van Nuys High School 16 times. His teams have come in first place seven times and second or third place four times, he said.

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

(color) Van Nuys High School students David Yi and Tanaaz Jasani, right, prepare to answer questions from judges Dr. Rami Razouk, left, Dr. Sumner Matsunaga and Harlan Bittner about their experiment, which looked at what kind of diet best prepares someone to do complex mental tasks.