General

Fish boosts intelligence scores

Teens who at fish regularly got results 12 per cent higher than those who didn’t

Fifteen-year-old boys who ate fish at least once a week had, by age 18, higher intelligence scores than those who ate it less often, according to a new study published in Acta Paediatrica. In what’s believed to be the first large-scale study of its kind, Swedish researchers showed that eating fish just once a week boosted males’ combined, verbal and visuospatial intelligence scores by an average of six per cent; when subjects ate it more than once a week, their combined intelligence scores were a whopping 12 per cent higher, on average, than those who ate fish less than once a week. The team surveyed 3,972 young men whose cognitive scores were recorded in the Swedish Military Conscription records three years earlier, and “found a clear link between frequent fish consumption and higher scores when the teenagers ate fish at least once a week,” says Kjell Torén from the Sahlgrenska Academy at the University of Gothenburg, who worked on the study. “When they ate fish more than once a week the improvement almost doubled. These findings are significant because the study was carried out between the ages of 15 and 18 when educational achievements can help to shape the rest of a young man’s life.”

Science Daily

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