Smart diet makes you smarter

Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and physicist Steven Hawking are said to have an IQ of 160. Two super-chess players, Judit Polgar and Robert Byrne, both register around 170!

Now, upgrading your diet may not boost your IQ to those levels (50% of IQs fall between 90 and 110), but new research published in the journal Alzheimer’s and Dementia shows that if you eat a diet rich in whole fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes, fish and olive oil, and you reduce your consumption of red and processed meat (we say to zero!) and alcohol, you can protect your brain from cognitive decline.

It’s especially important to eat fish regularly. We’ve long said that the omega-3s in fish are good for the cardiovascular system, reduce inflammation and protect against cognitive decline (one study found they may help clear Alzheimer’s-associated amyloid tangles), just as sleep-related processes do. This study backs that up.

But you may wonder about the risks of pollution in fish. Well, a study in JAMA Open Network found that pregnant women who eat fish one to three times a week have metabolically healthier babies than those who do not, and benefits far outweigh risks. Another study shows eating one to two 3-ounce servings of fish a week can slash an adult’s risk of dying from heart disease by 36%.

Choices loaded with omega3s include salmon, sea trout, sardines, Atlantic mackerel, rainbow trout and mussels. Just avoid fish known to be high in mercury, such as king mackerel, orange roughy, shark, swordfish and tilefish.