(23-10-11) Research says eating walnuts improves critical thinking

by Kim Evans


(NaturalNews) Walnuts have long been known to influence the brain and in the
natural health world, they're known as a key brain food. Now, according to
research published in the British Journal of Nutrition, eating walnuts
regularly can significantly increase critical thinking and especially what's
called inferential reasoning.

Inferential reasoning is the ability to infer truth from other known truth and
it is also the ability to deduce information based on prior experience and
context. It's sometimes thought that there are two fundamental types of
reasoning. So dramatically improving one is an enormous step in the right
direction, and it's nice that it can be done by an easy dietary addition.

This research was done at Andrews University and led by Peter Pribis,
associate professor of nutrition and wellness. Two groups of Andrews students
were used: the students either ate banana bread with ground walnuts in it or a
similar looking and tasting banana bread without walnuts. Then, after eight
weeks of either eating walnuts or not, the students were tested for inferential
reasoning and other cognitive skills. And especially for inferential reasoning,
the results were impressive.

According to Pribis, "We discovered that students who consumed walnuts
experienced improvement in critical thinking, specifically inferential
reasoning." They actually found that eating a half cup of walnuts a day for
eight weeks led to an 11.2 percent increase in inferential reasoning skills,
which is the difference between an A or a B, or a B and a C.

According to the researchers, walnuts contain a wide number of neuroprotective
compounds including vitamin E, folate, melatonin, polyphenolics, and
significant amounts of a-linolenic acid, or ALA. Because ALA is the precursor
for EPA and DHA, with plenty of ALA our bodies can make more EPA and DHA too.

The researchers also tell us that DHA is important for brain membrane
stability, brain plasticity, and gene expression. Further, DHA increases the
speed of brain signal transmissions while increasing serotonin and dopamine
concentrations. Serotonin and dopamine are essential for brain and mood health
and many brain medications manipulate these natural compounds.

Walnuts are also key sources of omega three fatty acids and most American
diets lack these important fatty acids. Actually, the brain is almost 60
percent comprised of the structural fats that are found in walnuts.

Walnuts, like many other nuts, are great sources of protein too and they can
be key replacements for animal eating. With benefits like these and other
recent news that plant based vegetarian diets can prevent or reverse a variety
of serious illnesses, it really seems the way to go.

Source : naturalnews
More:
http://journals.cambridge.org/walnuts
http://newhope360.com/news/walnuts-...
http://www.thebrainhealth.com/walnu...
http://www.personal.rdg.ac.uk/~lds0...
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/art...

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