Foods may affect the brain as well as the body

December 30, 2006 on 3:03 pm | Friedrich Braun | Health | | Email This Post | Print this Post

Foods may affect the brain as well as the body

Christen Brownlee

This is part two of a two-part series on lifestyle and brain fitness. Part I: “Buff and Brainy,” is available at http://www.sciencen ews.org/articles /20060225/ bob10.asp.

At family dinner tables around the globe, prodding mothers have dished out the same refrain for decades: “Eat your fish,” they say. “It’s brain food!” For children picking at crusty fish sticks or blobs of pink poached salmon, the statement raises suspicions. But the message is turning out to be more than just an attempt to get children to clean their plates. Recent research is suggesting that what you eat can influence the function of your brain.

Scientists are providing hints that what you choose to consume or avoid in your daily diet can have consequences on the brain’s resiliency in the face of injury or disease. Studies suggest that foods such as fish and a curry spice called curcumin, for example, can give the brain an added edge to stay healthy.

On the other hand, a steady diet of high-fat and starchy foods, such as that double cheeseburger from a favorite fast-food joint, may eventually do the brain a serious disservice. On the extreme end of dieting, some research indicates that paring food intake to the bare minimum may protect the brain from a lifetime of everyday insults.

Taken together, these results point in a direction that any kid could have seen coming: Once again, Mom was right.

Source: ScienceNews
http://www.sciencen ews.org/articles /20060304/ bob8.asp

1 Comment »

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  1. Cough (intermittent fasting) cough.

    Comment by Soren Renner — December 30, 2006 #

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