24 Fish-Free for Life: Why Plant Omega-3s are Better for You and the Environment
by the age of 30 had an IQ five points children with developmental coordination “...it was never intended, and the County
higher than average when they were 10. disorders (DCDs) such as attention Council never suggested, that it would use
Perhaps not surprisingly, people with deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), this initiative to draw conclusions about the
a higher IQ tend to be healthier – and dyslexia and dyspraxia, were given a daily effectiveness or otherwise of using fish oil to
vegetarians generally suffer less heart supplement of fish oils while others were boost exam results.” So it seems fish oil was
disease, hypertension, obesity, diabetes, given olive oil as a control. not the magic bullet Durham Council was
various cancers, diverticular disease, looking for.
bowel disorders, gallstones, kidney stones After three months, there were significant
and osteoporosis. improvements in reading, spelling
and behaviour in those taking fish oil
If not eating fish was a serious threat to supplements. Perhaps not surprisingly,
brain development, vegetarians would the conclusion was that EFA supplements
generally fail at school, university and are an effective way of improving the
work. They don’t! performance of children with these Most children in the UK eat such appalling
problems. At this time, the VVF asked diets that nutritional deficiencies are
Fish oils for brainy kids? the researchers in Durham if they would inevitable. Correcting the deficiencies will,
The evidence that fish oil consider using flaxseed oil in future in many cases, improve performance of
can improve brain power trials to see if similar results could be those kids. This is not the same as saying
comes mainly from achieved without exposing children to that fish oil will turn kids into geniuses,
trials on children with potential toxins but our suggestions were which is how the media interpreted the
behavioural problems completely ignored. findings.
and is largely
anecdotal, not A follow-up trial in Durham was conducted Publicity from this kind of research has
scientific. more recently whereby three million fish encouraged companies to produce so-
oil capsules were given to 2,000 children called functional foods, such as the St Ivel
The Durham- over eight months to see if their GCSE Advance Omega-3 milk. Adverts for this
Oxford Study results improved. Unfortunately the results ‘clever milk’ implied that because of its fish
is the work were rather disappointing but this was not omega-3 content, it may make children
usually quoted. press-released by the County Council. In more intelligent. The Foods Standards
Over 100 some very fast back-pedalling they said: Agency issued a short briefing which was
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