Can food boost your intelligence?

Nutritional researchers reveal their secrets.

• Department of Precision Health
• NutriHealth

Nutritional researchers Dr Bohn from the LIH and Dr Bouayed from the University of Lorraine bring years of nutritional dos and don’ts into a set of simple guidelines that can improve health, prevent disease, and help achieve an optimal performance at work.

We’ve all heard it before: The supplements that can increase your memory; the vitamins that can ‘make you smarter’. Whether unwittingly searching for a magic solution or desperately trying to survive a particularly busy period, most of us will have come across so-called ‘miracle foods’ and ‘super foods’ that claim to be able to give our brains a boost. But is there any scientific evidence behind these claims?

Dr Torsten Bohn, Group leader of the Nutrition and Health Research team of the Department of Precision Health, and Dr Jaouad Bouayed from the Neurotoxicologie Alimentaire et Bioactivité team of the LCOMS laboratory tackle these myths from the expert perspective of nutritional researchers in an intriguing article published in the Career Column of Nature.  

As nutrition researchers, we are often asked to advise colleagues as well as members of the public on diet and exercise to promote good health. But do we always practise what we preach?

Questions Dr Bohn.

Using nine ‘evidence-based dietary commandments’, Dr Bohn and Dr Bouayed reveal what you should and shouldn’t eat to prevent disease, boost your health and, why not, even increase brain power. Fruit and vegetables, water, salt, and snack dos and don’ts are all tackled in practical and easy to follow scientific advice to keep your body and spirit going whether you work in a lab or at your office. Despite these clearly elaborated considerations for researchers, the bottom-line can easily be extrapolated to most careers. This enlightening article is short and witty and definitely worth a read – because after all, who wouldn’t want the brain of a researcher?