Food Affects the Brain
Food affects the brain. Well, duh … why don’t I find that headline surprising. Actually, the full headline (not being so succinct as I am) reads: Scientists Learn How Food Affects The Brain: Omega 3 Especially Important. The study being reported is simply an analysis of the literature, so it summarizes all the preceding studies on the subject — I guess that’s why the results are so unsurprising.
The main points of the report are that we need omega 3 fatty acids, probably more than we typically get in a normal diet. Salmon seems to be the best source for these, though tuna has them to a lesser extent, and even walnuts and kiwi fruit are sources of some omega 3 — but the report notes that particular types of omega 3 are more beneficial than others, such as docosahexaenoic acid, which is abundant in Salmon.
The report also cites the benefits to the brain of folic acid — a supplement that used to be recommended primarily for women who were, or might become, pregnant. Not only is folic acid essential for the proper development of a fetus, it is an important nutriment for efficient brain functioning.
This report also mentions something called brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) but that seems to be produced in the brain, rather than derived from food. The news report seems to associate BDNF with curcumin, without explicitly stating that a relationship exists. Never the less, curry (which contains high levels of curcumin, or the spice cumin) is also beneficial to brain functioning — whether by stimulating or facilitating BDNF is left to us to conjecture.
Bringing the discussion around to intermittent fasting, the report also states that:
A long-term study that included more than 100 years of birth, death, health and genealogical records for 300 Swedish families in an isolated village showed that an individual’s risk for diabetes and early death increased if his or her paternal grandparents grew up in times of food abundance rather than food shortage.
so that:
Controlled meal-skipping or intermittent caloric restriction might provide health benefits, he said.
Well that is cautious enough, isn’t it? Evidence certainly suggests that intermittent fasting WILL improve brain functioning, along with most of the body’s other systems — with or without caloric restriction. Somehow it is not greatly surprising that it is possible to pass some of that benefit on to your children, but why would it benefit grand-children? And particularly through the paternal line? I’ll have to try to track down the original study mentioned, to see if it can offer any plausible explanation.
