Stuff Your Brain Likes

Want the good news or the bad news first?

OK, this post covers the good news. The next post, the bad news.

The good news is fish makes us smart.

At least that’s what Taras Grescoe says in his new book, Bottomfeeder: How to Eat Ethically in a World of Vanishing Seafood.

“It is likely our seafood-rich diet provided the nutrients that make us the world’s brainiest primate. Without fish, we might still be micro cephalic apes, swinging through the trees.”

Fish has a high content of omega-3 acids. Omega-3 is the “good” fat, the stuff that boosts your good cholesterol and reduces the risk of coronary disease, among other things.

Your brain needs Omega-3

Sixty percent of our brain consists of fat, and scientists believe that at least 30% of this fat is Omega-3 fatty acids. These are necessary to develop the cells in our body.

Even though we don’t produce more brain cells after we are two years old, brain cells grow and develop “tendrils” to other cells, which is important for learning.

Electrical signals going through the brain get passed from one brain cell, or neuron, to the next. In the switch, a signal needs to leave one brain cell at a point called the synapse and cross a physical gap before entering the next neuron.

For signals to enter a neuron, they need to pass through brain cell membranes which consist almost entirely of fats. Twenty percent of these fats are Omega-3s.

Embedded in brain cell membranes are structures called ion channels that open to allow the flow of electrical signals into the cell by changing their shape.

Omega-3 makes the cell membrane more elastic, absorb nutrients more easily, and develop. Limited development of these ”tendrils” to the brain cells causes us to become forgetful and have problems learning new things when we become older.

Playing challenging video games on your PC may not have the same benefits of Omega-3 on your brain but they might put some of those cells to work. Check out our games at Brain Games Software.