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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