Eating fish is linked to better sleep and a higher I.Q. for kids

Kids who eat fish at least once a week sleep better and have IQ scores that are 4 points higher, on average, than those who eat fish less frequently or not at all, a new study shows.

Previous studies showed a relationship between omega-3s, the fatty acids in many types of fish, and improved intelligence, as well as omega-3s and better sleep. But researchers hadn’t connected all three before.

The findings reveal sleep as a possible mediating pathway, the potential missing link between fish and intelligence.

“This area of research is not well-developed. It’s emerging,” says Jianghong Liu, associate professor of nursing and public health at the University of Pennsylvania and lead author of the study, which appears in Scientific Reports. “Here we look at omega-3s coming from our food instead of from supplements.”

For the work, a cohort of 541 9- to 11-year-olds in China, 54 percent boys and 46 percent girls, completed a questionnaire about how often they ate fish in the past month, with options ranging from “never” to “at least once per week.”

Children also took the Chinese version of an IQ test called the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, which examines verbal and non-verbal skills such as vocabulary and coding.

Visit full story:  Eating fish is linked to better sleep and a higher I.Q. for kids