Eat to Boost your brain
Adding fish to your diet can help your memory, mood and mental health. Dietitian and nutritionist for Seafish Week Juliette Kellow shows you how to pack more of it into your diet. Her recipes will get you hooked...
The claim that fish is good for your brain is not just an old wives’ tale. As your body’s control centre, your brain keeps your heart beating, lungs breathing and lets you move, feel and think.
That’s why it’s a good idea to keep your brain in peak working condition.
The foods you eat play a key role in keeping your brain healthy – and can improve specific mental tasks such as memory and concentration.
When people talk about brain foods, oily fish is often at the top of the list. The main ones to go for include salmon, trout, mackerel, herring, sardines, pilchards, kippers, fresh tuna, salmon and trout.
All are rich sources of omega-3 fatty acids – which is important because about 60 per cent of your brain is made of fat, and half of that fat is the omega-3 kind.
Your brain uses omega-3s to build brain and nerve cells, and these fats are essential for learning and memory.
Omega-3s have some additional benefits for your brain – they may slow age-related mental decline and help ward off Alzheimer’s disease.
And they may help make the “good mood” brain chemical, serotonin.
Not getting enough omega-3s is linked to learning impairments, as well as depression and memory loss. One study found people who ate baked or grilled fish regularly had more grey matter in their brains. And that’s the stuff that hosts most of the nerve cells which control decision-making, memory and emotion.
To gain all these benefits, health experts recommend we eat at least two portions of fish each week – one of which should be from the varieties above that are rich in omega-3s.
The recommendations are based on a serving of around 140g, that’s about 170g before cooking.
So if you’re only eating small portions – for example half a can of tuna provides around 60g of fish – you may need to eat fish more often.
It isn’t just the brain that benefits. Omega-3 may help relieve joint pain in rheumatoid arthritis, while seafood helps bones, teeth, blood pressure, the immune system and processing food. The panel to the right gives a few ideas on how to put more fish into your weekly family menu. Below are three tasty recipes to help you along.