Alzheimer’s: Fishing for Brain Food

In the effort to avoid Alzheimer’s disease, brain fat is where it’s at. And apparently, fat from a good piece of fish goes right to your head. In a review of the diets of more than 800 elderly people, published in a recent issue of Archives of Neurology, folks who ate fish at least once a week for four years had a whopping 60 percent lower risk of developing the disease than those who rarely or never ate it. Credit fish’s omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to make brain cells more supple, says Martha Clare Morris, study author and assistant professor at the Rush Institute for Healthy Aging, in Chicago. The study results were so promising that experts say it’s time to begin making dietary recommendations related to Alzheimer’s. “Healthy fats in fish, vegetable oils, vegetables, and nuts should be encouraged, and fats from meat and dairy products minimized,” suggests an editorial accompanying the study. Fish with high levels of omega-3s include salmon, sardines, mackerel, and tuna. So replenish that tackle box—and the next time somebody calls you a fathead, just smile and say, “You’d better believe it.”

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