Your brain is affected by what you put into your body as much as what you do with it. You may have been told as a child that eating oily fish, such as sardines, kippers, mackerel and herring, was good for your brain. And unfortunately for fish-haters, this is true.

And a particular type of long-chain fatty acid, found in breast milk and oily fish, is vital for brain function. Norwegian and Danish research has shown that babies who were breasted for less than three months were more likely to score below average for mental skills when they were five years old. It is interesting to note also that the lowest rates of dyslexia are found in Japan, where the diet includes a lot of fish.

When I was a small child it was wartime and, with rationing many foods were in short supply. I remember I was forced to eat many repulsive foods. Reconstituted dried egg wasn’t so appalling, but I found cheese completely repellent. I still remember meals at the age of two or three. I recall being seated on my nanny’s knee in the kitchen being fed liquid cheese, while my parents were comfortably ensconced in the dining room. I still have a loathing – of all cheese to this day. No doubt the fat in it was good for brain development, but not nearly as good as the spoonfuls of cod–liver oil we were forced to eat. One swallow and a feeling of extreme nausea followed rapidly. But the Scandinavian research shows that my parents, like many other wartime couples, were not so short of the mark and were being cruel to be kind. A child’s brain contains a huge amount of fat, and fat intake is needed – especially during the first twelve months of life – for its adequate growth. And fish oils turn out to be remarkably good for brain development. Nowadays we can take them in more sophisticated ways – for example, in a pill capsule.

My family have always been convinced that fish helps make you brainy. My maternal great-grandfather was a rabbi and rather bookish intellectual. He lived for much of his later life in Ramsgate, by the sea. In the belief that fish was really good for the brain, he eventually brought himself a large rod and spent many fruitless hours in often bitter weather on Ramsgate pier. My great-grandmother constantly teased him about his passion for fishing because he always came home wet but empty-handed. After one frustrating day spent in this useless activity this normally honest and highly moral man decided he would impress his family with prowess. On the way home he guiltily slipped into the local fishmonger and furtively purchased two fish, which the fishmonger quickly wrapped for him. On his return he proudly laid his prized catch on the kitchen table. The triumphant hunter-gatherer glanced round smugly at his expectant family. My grandmother, then a little girl, rushed to the table, picked up the fish and said, ‘Oh, Dad, aren’t you clever? Did you catch both these kippers?’.

A recent experiment in Durham involved giving fish oil supplements to primary school children over a period of six months. Educational psychologist Madeleine Portwood selected a group of 120 children, aged six to eleven, who all showed evidence of learning difficulties, such as problems with coordination, reading, handwriting and spelling. Some of the results have been dramatic. After only three months of taking the supplements, one child’s reading age improved by four years. For others, there has been a two-year leap in learning abilities.

Dr Portwood points out that, as a nation, we are not consuming nearly enough of the fatty acids so vital for healthy brain function. The government recommends eating one to two portions of fish like salmon or mackerel a week but only around a third of us serve it up regularly. In addition, she believes some children are deficient in fatty acids, not because of their diet, but because their bodies fail to make proper use of the fatty acids they are getting. It seems that these substances help neurons to grow and to form connections with one another. They may also be important in the brain’s construction of myelin, giving the white matter its colour. This is the fatty sheath that covers neurons and conducts electrochemical messages through them.

Numerous studies have confirmed the importance of long-chain fatty acids in brain function. Laura Steve and John Burgess of Purdue University in the USA have discovered that children with higher amounts of the acids in their blood show better overall academic achievement and are specifically better at mathematics. Meanwhile, work being performed at Oxford University has shown that fish oil supplements can be useful in controlling the symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder. In a six-month study, children attending a school for learning disorders were divided into two groups. One group took supplements for the whole period of the study, while another group switched after three months from taking a placebo to taking supplements. The results showed that taking the supplements led to a reduction in cognitive problems, behavioural problems and anxiety. Bernard Gesch, also of Oxford University, is taking this knowledge into the British prison system, where he has found evidence of a poor diet, low in some mineral and selenium, and high in the wrong kinds of fats.⁽¹⁾ He has found that young offenders in an Aylesbury institution showed a 30 per cent drop in the instance of aggression when given fish oil supplements with their daily diet.

Extract from "The Human Mind", see below for details:

⁽¹⁾ Eves, A., and Gesch, B., “Food provision and the nutritional implications of food choices made by young adult males, in a young offenders’ institution. Journal of Human Nutrition and Diet (2003), 16: 167-79

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