Misplaced your keys? Can't place that face? Study
findings suggest that you may be able to lessen the frequency
of these "senior moments' simply by eating more fish. And the
more fish you eat, the bigger the effect, according to
research conducted in Norway.
Investigators found
that elderly men and women who more frequently ate fish scored
better on memory, visual conception, spatial motor skills,
attention, orientation, and verbal fluency tests.
"All
six cognitive tests were performed better by those who ate
fish," principal author Dr. A. David Smith of the University
of Oxford, UK, told Reuters Health. Furthermore, he added, the
effect was stronger as fish consumption increased up to a
limit of about 80 grams per day.
Smith and colleagues
assessed cognitive ability and the average the daily amount of
fish and seafood in the diets of 2,031 men and women, between
70 and 74 years old, recruited from the general population of
Western Norway
Overall, 1,951 of the
study participants reported eating 10 or more grams per day of
fresh, frozen, or canned fish and seafood, or fish products
such as cod liver and fish oil, the investigators report in
the American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition. The remaining 80 participants ate
less than 10 grams daily.
Study participants who
reported more frequent consumption of fatty or lean fish as
their main meal performed significantly better in five of the
six cognitive tests, compared with those who did not eat fatty
or lean fish.
Processed fish or fish
sandwiches were likewise associated with better performance on
three of the cognitive tests, the investigators note. By
contrast, seniors who consumed only fish oils performed better
on just one of the tests.
The investigators propose
the need for additional research to determine whether the
cognitive benefits from fish and seafood consumption depend on
the type, the species of fish or on the
preparation.
"Secondly, we need to
discover what components of fish are important," Smith said.
Since we found that lean fish was as good as fatty fish, it
may not just be the omega-3 fatty acids that confer cognitive
benefit, he commented.
SOURCE: American Journal of
Clinical Nutrition, November 2007 - (Joene
Hendry)
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