Chapter 10: Physical Factors of the Mental Game
You might wonder why, in a book about the mental game of golf, I would be talking about physical factors. The truth is, physical factors affect your mental game and your mental game affects physical factors, so they're tied together.
Diet
Your brain is powered by glucose – blood sugar. The brain is the main consumer of glucose. With food in the digestive tract, glucose is provided by the digestion of carbohydrates, fats, and even protein if needed. Without food in the digestive tract, the brain uses glucose reserves in the blood supply. When that runs out, it resorts to reserves of glucose stored in the liver. The liver has about 300 calories of glucose reserves. A walking golfer burns about 300 calories an hour. That suggests that your brain could run low on fuel after a couple of hours on the course if you haven’t eaten anything. To make sure you have adequate brain fuel, you might need to snack on the course. That’s why you see the pros munching on snacks when they play.
Some dieticians advise not to snack on high sugar content snacks, as these tend to cause a rapid rise in blood sugar, followed by a rapid fall. They advise eating complex carbohydrate snacks rather than snacks that list sugar, corn syrup, or fructose as the first or second ingredient.