Walnuts and olive oil, two of the healthful choices for your brain. Photo by Sally Kneidel
Readers –
I just received an email from Cindy Cullen at the Culinary Arts College, asking if I would post a link to their article
How Food Affects Your Brain: 10 Facts We Now Know.”
Some interesting information in the post, so I’m passing it along.
I need to add a couple of things, though, in relation to their list of foods. If you eat fish, please choose fish and seafood responsibly. Our oceans are being emptied of fish by over-harvesting, and many species once common are on the verge of extinction. In addition, many fish species contain dangerous levels of mercury and other pollutants.
Use these guides to choose seafood wisely:
Seafood Selector from Environmental Defense Fund
Sustainable Seafood Guide from the Natural Resources Defense Council
Health Alerts Seafood Guide from EDF
Seafood Recommendations from the Monterey Bay Aquarium
Choose organic
In regard to the fruits and vegetables on the Culinary Arts College list, please choose organic. Strawberries are on the list, and 54 different pesticide residues have been found on non-organic strawberries by the USDA Pesticide Data Program (according to the Pesticide Action Network). Buying organic not only protects the future health of you and your children, it also protects ecosystems and wildlife.Pesticides sprayed on crop fields are washed into nearby streams, rivers and lakes. They’re also ingested by birds and other animals feeding near croplands.
For more information, here are a few of my previous posts on the importance of choosing organic products:
Did your shopping list kill a songbird?
Organic cotton: it’s worth every penny
Top 10 eco-friendly diet choices
Bird-protecting chocolate and coffee
A few of my previous posts on over-harvesting of fish and on pollutants in fish:
Number of imperiled fish almost doubles in 20 years
Tuna is the biggest source of mercury from fish: is it safe to eat fish?
Review of the documentary: “End of the Line: where have all the fish gone?”
Top 10 ways to help wildlife
New book about how overfishing is changing the world
Farmed salmon vs. wild salmon
Lice from fish farms attack wild salmon
Key words: organic overharvesting of fish salmon depletion of fish mercury overharvesting of ocean fish disappearing fish imperiled fish threatened fish endangered strawberries pesticides
