Fish really is brain food and eating enough of it can make you years younger, researchers said in a study released on October 10.
Scientists at Rush University Medical Center found that elderly people who ate fish at least once a week had a 10 to 13 percent per year slower rate of cognitive decline than those who did not eat fish regularly.
"The rate reduction is the equivalent of being three to four years younger in age," lead researcher Martha Clare Morris wrote in the study posted online Monday in the American Medical Association's Archives of Neurology. It will be published in the print edition of the journal in December.
Fish is a direct source of omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to be essential for cognitive development and normal brain functioning, according to background information in the article.
Fish consumption has been associated with lower risk of dementia, stroke and Alzheimer's disease and recent studies have suggested that consumption of one omega-3 fatty acid in particular, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), is important for memory performance in aged animals.