The Food Linked To Higher IQ

The foods boosts fluid intelligence, which is the speed at which the brain works.

The foods boosts fluid intelligence, which is the speed at which the brain works.

Eating organic food is linked to a higher IQ, a study finds.

School-age children who ate more organic food had higher scores on tests of fluid intelligence and working memory.

Fluid intelligence refers to the speed at which the brain works.

It is like the raw power of an engine or the speed at which a computer can process information.

Working memory, meanwhile, is vital to holding pieces of visual, verbal or other information in your mind while you manipulate them.

Better working memory has been linked to improved learning, attention and other vital outcomes.

The higher levels of nutrients in organic foods may account for the boost to IQ, said Dr Jordi Júlvez, study co-author:

“Healthy diets, including organic diets, are richer than fast food diets in nutrients necessary for the brain, such as fatty acids, vitamins and antioxidants, which together may enhance cognitive function in childhood.”

In contrast, eating fast food, being exposed to tobacco smoke and house crowding were all linked to lower scores on tests of fluid intelligence.

Children’s brains are sensitive

The results come from over one thousand children aged 6 to 11-years-old in six different European countries, including the UK and Spain.

The research examined 87 factors that the unborn child might be exposed to along with another 122 factors that could affect them during childhood.

The brain is still developing in childhood, so it is particularly sensitive to toxicity.

Low levels of toxicity that may have little affect on the adult brain can still influence children’s brains.

Dr Jordi Júlvez, study co-author, explained the main predictors of higher IQ:

“In our study, we found better scores in fluid intelligence and working memory with higher organic food intake and lower fast food intake.”

As for the predictors of lower IQ, Professor Martine Vrijheid, study co-author, said:

“We observed that several prenatal environmental pollutants (indoor air pollution and tobacco smoke) and lifestyle habits during childhood (diet, sleep and family social capital) were associated with behavioral problems in children.”

The study is notable because of its comprehensive approach to a huge range of variables, said Professor Vrijheid:

“One of the strengths of this study on cognition and the earlier study on behavioral problems is that we systematically analyzed a much wider range of exposure biomarkers in blood and urine to determine the internal levels in the model and that we analyzed both prenatal and childhood exposure variables.”

→ Other dietary changes linked to high IQ include nuts, a diet low in sugars, fats and processed foodsfruits and vegetables,

The study was published in the journal Environment International (de Bont et al., 2021).

The Familiar Food Linked To Higher IQ

One ubiquitous food could help people achieve higher IQs.

One ubiquitous food could help people achieve higher IQs.

Mothers who eat more nuts during pregnancy have children with higher IQs, research finds.

Eating around three 30g servings per week of all types of nuts was linked to higher cognitive function in children.

The scientists believe that nuts provide essential fatty acids that are crucial to brain development.

The fatty acids, such as omega-3 and omega-6, accumulate in the brain of the growing fetus.

The link was only found for mothers who ate the nuts in the first 12 weeks of pregnancy.

The study included 2,208 mothers and children who were followed from pregnancy.

Mothers were asked about their eating habits and the children were given standard tests of cognitive function.

The results showed that mothers who ate more nuts had children with better cognitive skills, such as memory and attention.

However, even those who ate high levels of nuts were still below recommended amounts, suggesting the benefits are potentially even higher.

Ms Florence Gignac the study’s first author, said:

“The nuts we took into account in this study were walnuts, almonds, peanuts, pine nuts and hazelnuts.

We think that the beneficial effects observed might be due to the fact that the nuts provided high levels of folic acid and, in particular, essential fatty acids like omega-3 and omega-6.

These components tend to accumulate in neural tissue, particularly in the frontal areas of the brain, which influence memory and executive functions.”

The study is the first to find a link between consuming nuts in pregnancy and cognitive development in the child.

However, it is not yet clear why the link only exists in the first trimester.

Dr Jordi Júlvez, study co-author, said:

“This is not the first time we have observed more marked effects when an exposure occurs at a specific stage of the pregnancy.

While our study does not explain the causes of the difference between the first and third trimesters, the scientific literature speculates that the rhythm of fetal development varies throughout the pregnancy and that there are periods when development is particularly sensitive to maternal diet.”

The study was published in the European Journal of Epidemiology (Gignac et al., 2019).

Lead Exposure Has Cost 824 Million IQ Points In U.S. Alone (M)

Around half of all Americans alive now were exposed to damaging levels of lead in their childhood.

Around half of all Americans alive now were exposed to damaging levels of lead in their childhood.


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A Wonderful Sign Of High IQ

A range of positive traits like this one are linked to higher intelligence.

A range of positive traits like this one are linked to higher intelligence.

People with higher IQs are less aggressive and tend to follow the rules, research suggests.

Since higher intelligence is linked to better behaviour, intelligent people are less likely to steal and cheat.

In contrast, younger people with lower IQs are more likely to alarm and harass others, as well as taking part in antisocial behaviour.

Antisocial boys typically have IQ scores 10 points lower than their more social peers.

The insights come from a study of over 1,116 pairs of twins in the UK.

The children were given tests of externalising behaviour and IQ.

Externalising behaviour refers to stealing, cheating, physical aggression and rule-breaking.

The study’s results showed that higher IQs were linked to lower levels of externalising behaviours.

Naturally, lower IQs were linked with more antisocial behaviour.

The study’s authors write:

“Low IQ is a consistent risk factor for emergence and continuity of antisocial behavior across the life course in both prospective and cross-sectional studies, even when other relevant risk factors are statistically controlled.”

Both genetic and situational factors are likely important in the link, the study’s authors write:

“…cognitive deficits might promote antisocial behavior if children with low IQs misunderstand rules, find it too difficult to negotiate conflict with words, find school frustrating, or become tracked with antisocial peers.”

Studies have also linked other positive traits to higher intelligence.

For example, one study has found that being cooperative is a sign of high intelligence.

Cooperative people are good at learning from experience and seeing the bigger picture.

They are generally helpful, mutually supportive and believe in teamwork.

More intelligent people tend to cautiously trust others at first and then build on this over time.

This helps them cooperate better in the long-run, the researchers found.

The study was published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology (Koenen et al., 2008).

10 Lazy Ways to Appear Smarter (M)

Forget the thick glasses and carrying a book, here are 10 real tricks to appear smarter, based on science.

Forget the thick glasses and carrying a book, here are 10 real tricks to appear smarter, based on science.


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The Personality Trait That Decreases Suicide Risk

It is also a generally protective factor against health problems.

It is also a generally protective factor against health problems.

More intelligent people are at a lower risk of suicide, research finds.

In fact, intelligence emerges as a generally protective factor against health problems.

People with higher intelligence are also less likely to suffer heart attacks and have accidents.

Dr David Batty, the study’s first author, said:

“People with higher IQ test scores tend to be less likely to smoke or drink alcohol heavily, they eat better diets, and they are more physically active.

So they have a range of better behaviours that may partly explain their lower mortality risk.”

The conclusions come from a study of one million Swedish men.

They were conscripted into the Swedish army at 18 and their health was followed into middle age.

The researchers think the link could be partly down to healthier behaviours of those with a higher IQ.

Dr Batty said:

“If you believe the association between IQ and mortality is at least partially explained by people with a lower IQ having worse behaviours – which is plausible – then it might be that the messages used to change health behaviours are too complicated.”

IQ can be increased through preschool education and nutrition, studies have found.

Dr Batty said:

“Messages about diet, including how much or what type of alcohol is beneficial, aren’t simple, and the array of strategies available for quitting smoking are diverse and actually quite complicated.

If you clarify the options available to people who want to, say, quit smoking, in the short term that may have an effect.”

A further study by Dr Batty and colleagues on 4,000 US soldiers found the same thing: that those with higher IQs lived longer.

The study was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology (Batty et al., 2017).

The Clothes That Make People Appear More Intelligent

How to use clothes to appear more competent.

How to use clothes to appear more competent.

Wearing more clothing makes you look more competent, a study finds.

Something as simple as taking off a sweater is enough to make you look less competent, the researchers found.

The finding applies to both men and women, said Dr Kurt Gray, the study’s first author:

“An important thing about our study is that, unlike much previous research, ours applies to both sexes.

It also calls into question the nature of objectification because people without clothes are not seen as mindless objects, but they are instead attributed a different kind of mind.”

The effect occurs because seeing more flesh encourages us to think about a person’s body, rather than their mind.

Dr Gray said:

“We also show that this effect can happen even without the removal of clothes.

Simply focusing on someone’s attractiveness, in essence concentrating on their body rather than their mind, makes you see her or him as less of an agent [someone who acts and plans] more of an experiencer.”

Showing bare skin, though, does have some advantages, explained Dr Gray:

“A focus on the body, and the increased perception of sensitivity and emotion it elicits might be good for lovers in the bedroom.

Others appear to be less inclined to harm people with bare skin and more inclined to protect them.

In one experiment, for example, people viewing male subjects with their shirts off were less inclined to give those subjects uncomfortable electric shocks than when the men had their shirts on.”

The study’s authors write:

“Even more than robbing someone of agency, the increased experience that may accompany body perceptions may lead those who are characterized in terms of their bodies to be seen as more reactive and emotional, traits that may also serve to work against career advancement.”

The study was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Gray et al., 2011).

The Musical Sign Of High IQ

This is a sign of higher nonverbal IQ.

This is a sign of higher nonverbal IQ.

People with musical talent have a higher IQ, research finds.

Being good at recognising a tune and having rhythm is linked to higher nonverbal intelligence, psychologists have discovered.

It doesn’t matter whether or not people have had musical training — musical aptitude is still linked to higher IQ.

People with an aptitude for music are more likely to study it and improve their skills even further, which further enhances their IQ

The conclusions come from a study of 133 people, around half of whom had had musical training.

Many studies have already linked musical skill to higher IQ, the authors write:

“Musically trained children and adults score higher on intelligence tests than their untrained counterparts.

Moreover, as duration of training increases,
so does intelligence.”

However, this study wanted to see what comes first.

All were given tests of both melody and rhythm.

The melody test involved listening to short tunes and judging whether they were the same or different.

The rhythm test was something similar, except with beats rather than notes.

The results showed that people with more musical ability had higher intelligence, even when musical training was taken into account.

So,the link between being musical and a higher IQ is down to both an aptitude for music and training.

At its root, the link between music and IQ is partly genetic, the authors write:

“…both music aptitude and intelligence have significant genetic components that overlap to an extent.

The specific genotypic structures of general intelligence and music aptitude are not well understood, but it is clear that intelligence is substantially heritable, and that the impact of genetic factors increases from childhood (heritability ≈50%) to adulthood (≈80%)”

The study was published in the journal Intelligence (Swaminathan et al., 2017).

This Bodily Measurement Is Linked To Your IQ

The study of almost 10,000 people used MRI scans to measure abdominal fat and blood flow through the brain.

The study of almost 10,000 people used MRI scans to measure abdominal fat and blood flow through the brain.

Higher body fat is linked to the brain being slower to process information — a critical component of IQ.

The more abdominal or ‘belly fat’ that people have, the lower their scores on tests of cognitive function.

The study of almost 10,000 people used MRI scans to measure abdominal fat and blood flow through their brain.

Professor Sonia Anand, the study’s first author, explained the results:

“Our results suggest that strategies to prevent or reduce having too much body fat may preserve cognitive function.

The effect of increased body fat persisted even after adjusting for its effect on increasing cardiovascular risk factors like diabetes and high blood pressure, as well as vascular brain injury, which should prompt researchers to investigate which other pathways may link excess fat to reduced cognitive function.”

A healthy body weight is key to a healthy brain, said Dr Eric Smith, study co-author:

“Preserving cognitive function is one of the best ways to prevent dementia in old age.

This study suggests that one of the ways that good nutrition and physical activity prevent dementia may be by maintaining healthy weight and body fat percentage.”

Nutrition and cognitive function

Nutrition is often linked to cognitive function by research.

For example, a study on rats found that high-fat foods can reduce intelligence in just 9 days.

Cognitive performance was reduced by 20 percent in just over a week after eating a high-fat diet.

The study on rats fed them a diet equivalent to human junk food.

Another rat study also found that diets high in saturated fats can slow brain function.

In contrast, healthier diets have repeatedly been linked to better cognitive function, higher IQs and a lower risk of dementia.

For example, people fed a healthier diet from an early age have a higher IQ, one study found.

Even eating organic food in childhood is linked to a higher IQ.

Finally, the MIND diet could lower the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease by over 50 percent and improve your brain health.

The study was published in JAMA Network Open (Anand et al., 2022).