Your mother was right: Eating fish does make you smarter. A Swedish study released on Monday found that eating fish regularly was linked to higher IQ levels in teenage boys.
“We discovered a clear connection between frequently eating fish and higher [teenage IQ] scores,” professor Kjell Toren, who led the study at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Gothenburg, said in a statement.
The study, published in this month’s issue of the child health journal Acta Paediatrica, examined the IQ scores, verbal abilities and spatial understanding of 3,972 Swedish boys in 2000 when they were 15 years old and again when they were conscripted in the military three years later.
Boys who at the age of 15 ate fish at least once a week on average scored 7 percent better on a general IQ test three years later, while those who ate fish more than once a week scored 12 percent higher, the study found.
“There was a clear connection between regular consumption of fish at the age of 15 and improved cognitive abilities at the age of 18,” said Maria Aaberg, who co-authored the report.
When it came to verbal abilities, 15-year-olds who ate fish once a week scored 4 percent higher than their peers in tests three years later, while those who ate fish more than once a week did 9 percent better.
As for spatial understanding, fish eaters did 7 percent and 11 percent better respectively in tests at the age of 15 and 18.
Fish is a direct source of omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to be essential for cognitive development and normal brain functioning, and a number of international studies have shown that eating fish during pregnancy improves fetal intellectual development.
Other studies have found that fish consumption can slow cognitive decline in elderly people.
Aaberg said the Swedish study took into account variables such as ethnicity and the education levels of the boys’ parents.
The researchers have now begun examining whether consumption of particular types of fish has an impact on intellectual development.
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