Why a diet rich in fish is a no-brainer when it comes to cognition

IT’S bad enough that we are living through a severe climate crisis, but added to that is a global crisis in brain health.

That was the key message from The Food Programme on BBC 4 recently, in an episode entitled Feeding Your Brain: A User’s Guide.

The good news is that, with proper nutrition, we can help halt the decline into depression, dementia and anxiety.

Consuming Omega 3 fatty acids, found in fish and seafood, is a vital part of the solution. We know this; we’ve read about it before. But why is there so much emphasis on obesity and so little on nutrition for the brain?

As psychologist Kimberley Wilson said on the programme, using the analogy of an earthquake, if we knew the risk of a seismic event was high, we’d want to live in houses built to withstand shocks.

If science is telling us we could be feeling happier, more focused and more productive by eating to feed our brains, why are so few of us doing that?

Why wait for disaster to strike first, why wait for depression and panic attacks to occur, as well as burnout, before we address our brain health?

Visiting Professor at Imperial College London, Michael A. Crawford, who has been writing about feeding our brains since the 1970s, is now in his nineties, still fighting the good fight.

On the programme, he said he is “dismayed” that the information about good brain health “has been basically falling on deaf ears”. He finds it extraordinary that brain health has been “completely neglected” despite the fact that mental ill health has been escalating since the 1950s.

He spoke of Japanese women who eat fish and seafood every day of the week, sometimes more than twice a day, producing babies that grow up to have the greatest longevity, the least amount of depression, and the least amount of heart disease in the world.

The brain needs DHA, an acid for the signalling systems of the brain that was used by “the very first animals that evolved when oxygen became available and that started the evolution of the nervous system and hence the evolution of the brain...”

The main source for brain development and health is to be found in the marine food web. But many of us have diets that don’t contain much DHA, with virtually none coming from the intensely reared food system which we mostly rely on.

DHA enables us to think, see, hear, touch and feel. If you don’t have enough of this acid, your cognition will suffer.

A study in the Bristol area of England examined the diets of 14,000 mothers during their pregnancy. The researchers went on to look at the psychological and other measures of the resulting children when they were eight years of age.

They found there was a direct relationship between the amount of fish and seafood that the mothers ate during pregnancy and the verbal reasoning power of the kids, as well as behavioural scores and motor scores.

The children of the mothers that didn’t consume much fish and seafood had the worst outcomes.

On the programme, it was pointed out that fish and seafood can be expensive, particularly during the current cost-of-living hikes. But, as Professor Crawford said, some of the simplest forms of seafood are the cheapest such as mackerel, sardines, cockles and mussels.

There really is no excuse for neglecting to feed our brains.

Education is key. Relying on information from the people in charge of food companies is folly. They haven’t been educated about the significance of nutrition on brain health. Proper nutritional courses in schools should be taught.

Feeding the brain throughout life is important. One of the predictors of the risk of dementia is a slowing down in our walking speed.

A study of a group of women over 60 showed that the ones given omega 3 fatty acid capsules over time walked faster than the women that were given a placebo.

The development and protection of the brain is a life-long project. We need to improve our hippocampus, which is the complex brain structure that plays a major role in learning and memory.

As Ted Dinan, Professor of Psychiatry at UCC, said on the programme, a better diet with less processed food, along with exercise, is good for the hippocampus.

Eating fish should be mandatory when it comes to brain health. Other ways of improving the hippocampus include drinking coffee, eating blueberries and dark chocolate, practising mindfulness and stimulating the brain. When you learn something new, you build new neural pathways and strengthen the ones that already exist.

Looking after your valuable brain is hardly a big sacrifice when it comes to choosing food and beverages. Fish, blueberries and cocoa chocolate – what’s not to like? Even coffee is recommended.

It’s a no-brainer.