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.
Fasting and CR only are protective of the brain in certain areas. In other areas, the animals actually do poorer. It is not a uniform across the board improvement. Also, the mechanisms for longevity and calories are poorly understood. The theory of free radicals and DNA damage isn’t robust and probably will not survive. It is also important to remember that the animals being studied do not get the same health care as a typical human, so the calorie poor animals outlive the controls by a large degree. In humans, since we do have health care, the average age of death is being pushed back. So a person might expect to live from 80-90 maybe an extra 20 years on the most severe of diets. You aren’t going to see 150 year old people running around. Genetic and anatomical weaknesses that CR doesn’t have an effect on will take over. In theory, you could use genetic therapies, organ and tissue generation, but that is expensive, and unethical when many others lack access to any health care.
Comment by jcl — December 5, 2008 @ 12:43 am
Interesting … your statement that “Fasting and CR only are protective of the brain in certain areas. In other areas, the animals actually do poorer” is not reflected in any IF studies I’ve seen (CR is not IF and though I report CR studies in this blog, it is out of interest in the similarities, not because results are always the same). Do you have an IF study that supports that statement? As for longer life, as I’ve said several times in this blog, I doubt that we will see much longevity effect, having started this too late in life. Our main hope is that we will have a healthier old-age, and perhaps avoid developing diabetes. It also seems to improve our weight, bringing us closer to our ideal weights. Any benefits to brain functioning would be just another bonus, and certainly a welcome one.
Comment by admin — December 5, 2008 @ 10:52 am