Medical Questions » Diet Questions » Question No. 1199
| Question: | Is it true that ßsh makes you brainy? |
| Answer: | Fish is the best brain food on the market. The dry weight of your brain is 60 per cent fat, but only special types of fat make it work well. Most vital of these is DHA, a member of the omega-3 fat family, of which fish is a particularly rich source. DHA not only improves learning and age-related memory, but is also a prime mood enhancer. So important are these omega-3 fats that the amount in an infant' s blood correlates with their IQ at age five.
Fish - and especially sardines - are also good sources of two other important brain nutrients, choline and pyroglutamate.
You' re best off eating fish three times a week, but if you don' t like it, at least take a fish oil supplement rich in omega-3 fats DHA and EPA. You need at least 400mg a day of the omega-3s (that' s EPA plus DHA). Cod liver oil is a very rich source; pickthe high-strength kind that contains these amounts of EPA and DHA. |
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