Beginning when I was a preteen, I lived with my grandparents in southern California. My grandfather’s hobby was fishing. Often he was successful and that meant that fish would be served. Prior to those years, fish was not a frequent offering on the table. My grandmother would frequently recite the little cliché: Fish is brain food. There has been a question in my nutrition-based brain for a very long time: When and why did the adage about fish and the brain begin? How on earth did they ever know or guess that there was a connection? I wish I had an answer; but …… well, I don’t. Some people say it’s just an old wives tale; but I find that fascinating. Over and over again studies have provided evidence to support the “old wife’s” adage.

Like all of you, I’m getting older each and every year. The fear of Alzheimer’s is not a small thing. As related to fish, there’s also the concern about the possible mercury contamination in the fish, causing dementia. But just in case you’re a worrywart about that mercury, like me, I thought that I should share the results published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). This study has a two for one worry-reduction potential. That is, a single study putting two fears to rest. First they found that those consuming a moderate amount of seafood were correlated with lower incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. (A moderate amount is 2-3 times per week). And the frosting on the cake is that even though they had higher brain levels of mercury, the levels were not correlated with brain neuropathology. Yahoo!!! The researchers that did this work at Rush University’s Memory and Aging Project actually examined autopsied brain tissue from 286 participants average age almost 90 years old, all of whom were genetically predisposed to Alzheimer’s.

Young children and pregnant and breastfeeding mothers should still look at charts and be careful of the species of fish that are high in mercury. (Note: Tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico, shark, swordfish and king mackerel are among the highest.) But for adults who are not new mothers, the benefits of seafood consumption outweigh any risks from mercury. (Still, it doesn’t hurt to go easy on the higher risk categories of fish when you can find other kinds with lower risks of mercury).

In earlier studies, greater fish consumption has been linked to lower risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s regardless of genetics. But this new unusual study actually looked at brain tissue to evaluate the impact of the mercury.

The JAMA study also found that “fish oil supplementation had no statistically significant correlation with any neuropathologic marker. So we can’t jump directly to taking fish oil; if we want to benefit with a possible protection from dementia and Alzheimer’s let’s just eat fish.

Therefore, Grandma – you were a good old wife, but it appears that you were definitely on to something.