does eating a healthy vegan diet increase IQ?

[andrew112]

does eating a healthy vegan diet increase one's IQ?

[scorpio1980]

The top foods science now knows boosts IQ are the following:
1) DHA found in fish
2) Choline found in eggs
3) Blueberries

[ginkgo]

It is one of many factors according to Dr Amen who does the brain scans. A lot of vegetarians were very smart like Einstein, Hitler, Da Vinci and Gregory Smith. The last one is the smartest guy in the world. He is a super genius who started college at age 10. He does not need to get any smarter. Fasting makes you smarter. That is why Pythagoras did it. They also know that exercise makes you smarter. Choline is also found in very high amounts in soybean lecithin which is said to make people smarter.

[aelle]

Well, you may have read the statistics that vegetarians typically have a higher IQ than the general population, so either it makes you smart, or it's the smart people who go vegetarian

[sirkinm]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

A lot of vegetarians were very smart like Einstein, Hitler, Da Vinci and Gregory Smith.

Neither Hitler nor Einstein were vegetarians. Hitler loved his sausage, and Einstein found vegetarianism a respectable pursuit, but was most definitely not vegetarian himself -- it is said that he may have eaten mainly vegetarian in his final year of life (well beyond the time that he made his significant contributions).

As for the "smartest guy in the world," now doubt the kid is smart, but don't get carried away.

[sirkinm]

Originally Posted by aelle

Well, you may have read the statistics that vegetarians typically have a higher IQ than the general population, so either it makes you smart, or it's the smart people who go vegetarian

Does it come as a surprise to anyone that people who investigate vegetarianism (or any alternative diet) and make a deliberate effort to shun mainstream practices might tend to have an above-average in IQ?

[andrew112]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

It is one of many factors according to Dr Amen who does the brain scans. A lot of vegetarians were very smart like Einstein, Hitler, Da Vinci and Gregory Smith. The last one is the smartest guy in the world. He is a super genius who started college at age 10. He does not need to get any smarter. Fasting makes you smarter. That is why Pythagoras did it. They also know that exercise makes you smarter. Choline is also found in very high amounts in soybean lecithin which is said to make people smarter.

good link; I found it interesting that he advanced from 2nd to 8th grade in only one year. when you think about it though, everyone's brains are super computers. not everyone treats their brains with respect though, so that is probably why everyone does not use their brain to its maximum ability/potential.

[ginkgo]

Originally Posted by sirkinm

Neither Hitler nor Einstein were vegetarians. Hitler loved his sausage, and Einstein found vegetarianism a respectable pursuit, but was most definitely not vegetarian himself -- it is said that he may have eaten mainly vegetarian in his final year of life (well beyond the time that he made his significant contributions).

As for the "smartest guy in the world," now doubt the kid is smart, but don't get carried away.

There is a difference between knowing what are the healthiest foods to eat and eating them, Right? Ask any fat person. Hitler and Einstein both publicly promoted the vegetarian diet. People can say that it is not good to get angry and yet they do it. This is the big issue with self improvement-- knowing what is best and also following it. People like the taste of some foods that they grew up with.

I lived in Philadelphia my whole life. Our city is famous for steak sandwiches. I have been vegetarian for over 30 years and am now vegan, but yesterday I ate a cheese steak sandwich. But the steak was vegetarian fake meat and the cheese was vegan soy cheese, but it could fool the majority of people. So Einstein and Hitler did not have any good fake meat places around. I am sure that Mike Tyson knew that it is a bad thing to bite someone's ear while boxing, yet he did it, TWICE!

He did it since he was angry and knew he may lose the match since his opponent head butted him. They say that butter is bad and margarine is worse so what do you put on your bread? They now have a healthy spreads to put on bread like Smart Balance. I bet that publicly Mike Tyson would say that it is not good to bite someone's ear while boxing them, even though he did it, TWICE. Mike Tyson does not promote ear biting while boxing even though he did it. Although this would be a great self defense move for a woman that a guy is trying to rape. I bet Einstein and Hitler liked the saying "Do as I say, not as I do."

Google says that your link is broken (coffee without heartburn).

[andrew112]

Originally Posted by scorpio1980

The top foods science now knows boosts IQ are the following:
1) DHA found in fish
2) Choline found in eggs
3) Blueberries

an egg is not the only source of choline; shitake mushrooms contain it as well. what nutrient is in blueberries that is so important for brain function that is not in other fruits or vegetables?

[Creative]

Originally Posted by aelle

Well, you may have read the statistics that vegetarians typically have a higher IQ than the general population, so either it makes you smart, or it's the smart people who go vegetarian

I couldn't have put it better myself!

[Brutha]

It is one of many factors according to Dr Amen who does the brain scans. A lot of vegetarians were very smart like Einstein, Hitler, Da Vinci and Gregory Smith.

Einstein wasn't a vegetarian when he did his intellectual work. He came only a vegan in his last years of his life in which he was pretty unproductive.

High IQ are more likely to become vegetarians later in their lifes. Not the other way around. That an effect that's documented in studies.
That people are just more likely to make conscious decisions about what they are eating.

[MJones1]

Everyone smart enough will tell you that Correlation does mean causation. I think though that diet can indeed increase IQ, there is a special fat found in fish that's very good at this, and you can find this fat in Flax seeds, in bigger portions.

Vegetarians are merely more likely to get flax seeds for important protein and healthy fats. The good news about this is that you can just get flax seeds in your diet without going to extremes such as sacrificing meat, fish and eggs from it and still get the IQ benefits.

... OR you could just do excersises to increase your IQ it might even be more effective than just changing your diet.

Not like IQ has any correlation with success anyway

[Aware]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

It is one of many factors according to Dr Amen who does the brain scans. A lot of vegetarians were very smart like Einstein, Hitler, Da Vinci and Gregory Smith. The last one is the smartest guy in the world. He is a super genius who started college at age 10. He does not need to get any smarter. Fasting makes you smarter. That is why Pythagoras did it. They also know that exercise makes you smarter. Choline is also found in very high amounts in soybean lecithin which is said to make people smarter.

I don't believe that they were smart because they were vegetarian, I think they were vegetarian because they were smart.

[sirkinm]

Originally Posted by Aware

I don't believe that they were smart because they were vegetarian, I think they were vegetarian because they were smart.

Just to remind the readers, as stated above, Hitler & Einstein were not vegetarians, though they both had respect for the diet. Hitler practiced some form of vegetarian at times, and Einstein was only a vegetarian for perhaps his final year of life, if that.

[andrew112]

Originally Posted by Brutha

Einstein wasn't a vegetarian when he did his intellectual work. He came only a vegan in his last years of his life in which he was pretty unproductive.

High IQ are more likely to become vegetarians later in their lifes. Not the other way around. That an effect that's documented in studies.
That people are just more likely to make conscious decisions about what they are eating.

that is only because once people get older, they start to realize what they should have been doing all along; they are starting to realize that they should have been eating a healthy diet their entire lives.

[scorpio1980]

Originally Posted by MJones1

Everyone smart enough will tell you that Correlation does mean causation. I think though that diet can indeed increase IQ, there is a special fat found in fish that's very good at this, and you can find this fat in Flax seeds, in bigger portions.

Vegetarians are merely more likely to get flax seeds for important protein and healthy fats. The good news about this is that you can just get flax seeds in your diet without going to extremes such as sacrificing meat, fish and eggs from it and still get the IQ benefits.

... OR you could just do excersises to increase your IQ it might even be more effective than just changing your diet.

Not like IQ has any correlation with success anyway

DHA is the fatty acid you are talking about, but it is not found in flax seed, but is high in fish. Almost 60% of flax seed is ALA, which can be converted, but not in a reliable manner. DHA and EPA are the 2 most important fatty acids, and they just so happen to be very highly concentrated in seafood, and fish oils. I take 2 tsp of cod liver oil daily for the benefits of these fatty acids.

[MJones1]

Originally Posted by scorpio1980

DHA is the fatty acid you are talking about, but it is not found in flax seed, but is high in fish. Almost 60% of flax seed is ALA, which can be converted, but not in a reliable manner. DHA and EPA are the 2 most important fatty acids, and they just so happen to be very highly concentrated in seafood, and fish oils. I take 2 tsp of cod liver oil daily for the benefits of these fatty acids.

Fish are great food, don't give them up. However, DHA happens to just be one of many Omega-3 fatty acids, ALA is just as good and happens to be 6 times more abundant in flax seed:
http://www.aboutintelligence.co.uk/d...elligence.html

As always, a balanced, well-thought diet without crazy extremism will do wonders for your health

Alternating fish and flax oil in different days is great!

[scorpio1980]

Originally Posted by MJones1

Fish are great food, don't give them up. However, DHA happens to just be one of many Omega-3 fatty acids, ALA is just as good and happens to be 6 times more abundant in flax seed:
Does Diet Play a Role in Intelligence? - About Intelligence (UK)

As always, a balanced, well-thought diet without crazy extremism will do wonders for your health

Alternating fish and flax oil in different days is great!

Don't get me wrong I agree flax seed is a healthy addition to any diet, but this thread is about foods that increase IQ. ALA has not proven itself worthy of being classified in the same group as DHA, and EPA. DHA has been proven in countless studies to help increase IQ. Not only IQ, but it is also the most highly sought after fatty acid for heart health.

[ginkgo]

Originally Posted by sirkinm

Just to remind the readers, as stated above, Hitler & Einstein were not vegetarians, though they both had respect for the diet. Hitler practiced some form of vegetarian at times, and Einstein was only a vegetarian for perhaps his final year of life, if that.

Many super geniuses have become mathematicians. You could say that Einstein was a physicist. But he was a mathematics professor at Princeton U. So I will introduce mathematics to your statement. I heard that Hitler was 25% Jewish. The Hallelujah Acres group have and promote an 85% raw diet. Now the people that are 100% raw can say that either you are 100% raw or not a raw foods person.

But they explain why they chose 85% over 100%. So you could say that Hitler was at least 90% vegetarian. Are people right all of the time or right a certain percentage of the time? Or you could say that Hitler was a vegetarian that cheated. If Einstein got wiser with age then you could say that it was significant that it was his last year that he was vegetarian.

Now what will you say about me if I become very famous but die within 6 months? I was a vegetarian for over 30 years, but have only been a vegan for 6 months. So if people say about me that I was a vegan, then I guess you will say that I was only a vegan in the last year of my life, if that. So how long that I am a vegan depends on my lifespan. There is a great chance that if Einstein lived for 20 years longer then he would have been a vegetarian for 20 years. He has some profound statements about the vegetarian diet.

I am actually betting my life on my belief that the vegan diet is healthier than the vegetarian diet. Someone can be on a vegetarian diet and consume more cholesterol than a meat eater (plant foods have no cholesterol). They can eat a lot of eggs, a pound of cheese a day and a quart of Ben & Jerry's ice cream a day. It is my belief that Ben & Jerry's ice cream tastes great but is extremely unhealthy. Note that being a premium ice cream means that a quart of it weighs more than a quart of non-premium ice cream since it contains more cream and sugar and less air.

Also I have 2 friends that have been vegan for many years. If the vegan diet is healthier than the vegetarian diet, then they deserve (all else being equal) to live longer than me. I bought a book of Einstein quotes today. Einstein said (August 1953; Einstein Archives 60-058) "I have always eaten animal flesh with a somewhat guilty conscience." He died in 1955

[RagsToRiches]

Correlation does not equal causation.

These conclusions are extremely weak - I have seen more convincing evidence that vedgetables are poisonous and damaging than this "link" between intelligence and vedgetarianism.

I'm not saying I am attached to either view point, I'm merely pointing out that the statements being made here are scientifcally WEAK.

Frankly when you are comparing anything to the average Joe who eats a Mac and Fries every other day I think you'll find that pretty much anything else makes you more intelligent.

Correlation does not equal causation.

[JSB]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

I heard that Hitler was 25% Jewish.

While this would make for a great dramatic film character (the man so filled with self-loathing that he attempts to wipe out his own race), it's not true.

Despite wild, invented claims by conspiracy theorists that Hitler's father Alois was fathered by one of the Rothschild's, Hitler's true ancestry was Austrian German.

[Jthorn]

Same old debate. I doubt it 'll ever end.

Anyway, I 'll chip in; in his own words, Garry Kasparov would eat before each game smoked salmon, steak and tonic water.
His trainer made him change his diet in his late thirties. But he became world champion at 22. Draw your conclusions.

[Brutha]

Everyone smart enough will tell you that Correlation does mean causation.

It's rather the other way around. There are a lot of things that correlate with each other but most aren't.
It might be horrible news, but just because you wake up each day when the sun shines doesn't mean that the fact that you wake up each day makes the sun go up each day.

If Einstein got wiser with age then you could say that it was significant that it was his last year that he was vegetarian.

No.
Einstein didn't produce the thing for which he's famous in those years and even didn't understand the way physics progressed and thought that the young physicists that developed quantum physics were wrong.

There no way that Einstein becoming in vegatarian in 1953, 54 or 55 made him intelligent when we did his major work in 1905 and 1911.

[Kprime]

Originally Posted by andrew112

does eating a healthy vegan diet increase one's IQ?

Yes, because a healthy vegan diet gives a lot of nutrients that your body needs. It increases one's metabolism. The fiber this kind of diet contains eliminates blockage in the arteries which means better blood flow. With better blood flow, more oxygen is transported to the brain. With more oxygen, more dendrites are formed, neural connections become faster, brain functioning is optimized therefore, one understands better, processes more information more efficiently and effectively therefore IQ increases.

[Kprime]

Originally Posted by scorpio1980

The top foods science now knows boosts IQ are the following:
1) DHA found in fish
2) Choline found in eggs
3) Blueberries

Omega fatty acids in fish too!

[Kprime]

Originally Posted by aelle

Well, you may have read the statistics that vegetarians typically have a higher IQ than the general population, so either it makes you smart, or it's the smart people who go vegetarian

That's a nice thought. I wonder which is which?

[KazeCraven]

Either way, I think it's safe to say that going vegetarian is the better idea. Either you get smarter by doing it, or you are doing what the smart people are doing.

Or it could just be something else entirely...

[jamesbiz]

Originally Posted by Kprime

Yes, because a healthy vegan diet gives a lot of nutrients that your body needs. It increases one's metabolism. The fiber this kind of diet contains eliminates blockage in the arteries which means better blood flow. With better blood flow, more oxygen is transported to the brain. With more oxygen, more dendrites are formed, neural connections become faster, brain functioning is optimized therefore, one understands better, processes more information more efficiently and effectively therefore IQ increases.

Umm, that made no sense what's so ever. Eating the things that a vegan eats, a meat eater will get the exact same nutrients and fiber that your body needs. What's your point?

[ginkgo]

Apparently everyone missed the food or superfood that makes you smarter. Its low molecular weight proteins pass through the blood-brain barrier. The Japanese discovered it when looking to cure the radiation poisoning from FAT MAN and Little Boy. That was the name of the 2 atom bombs dropped on it.

It has more omega-3s than fish, more B-12 than liver, more beta-carotene than carrots, more calcium than milk, more iron than spinach and more protein than meat. But it is neither a plant nor an animal. It existed before they existed and it is the ancestor of plants and animals.

It is spirulina that is technically cyano-bacteria.

[funchy]

Originally Posted by jamesbiz

Eating the things that a vegan eats, a meat eater will get the exact same nutrients and fiber that your body needs.

This is a little off-topic but I'll reply anyway.... meat-eaters do not get the same nutrients as a vegan. They also get only a small fraction to almost no fiber at all. A high meat diet means fruits and veggies are ignored.

You're also adding in things the vegan doesn't get: the saturated fats, cholesterol, higher levels of contaminants, drug residues, hormones/steroids, etc. Your body's working harder to deal with all the toxic sludge in it. Ever feel sluggish after overeating tons of "comfort" foods?

Back to the original topic: vegan diets and IQ. I'm going to say there isn't enough research yet. Logically I might think a healthier overall body would make for a healthier central nervous system, but I can't prove it.

The nervous system needs oxygen and glucose to run on, plus proper electrolytes to allow neurons to fire. Also, unlike muscle cells, neurons can't run on free fatty acids when blood glucose goes dangerously low (which is why diabetics get brainfog or pass out when blood sugar is too low). It takes effort for the body to convert fats & proteins into glucose, so one of those high-meat/no-carb diets probably isn't so great for brain function. A crappy diet of any kind would definitely be bad; if important vitamins/minerals are lacking, the whole body will be less efficient.

The bigger picture is overall health: treating heath problems, being active & exercising regularly, not starving yourself, not abusing recreational drugs. Avoid head concussions, which may sound obvious, but if you play a lot of football or do boxing, you do risk some damage.

If you want to boost IQ outside of diet, a proven way is to simply use the brain. The more you get the brain working, the more new connections are formed and existing ones strengthened. Take a college class, start reading more books, do brain teasers, or any other sort of brain 'exercise'. I'd worry more about people who lay around on the couch watching tv; it's true in a way that kind of living does rot the brain.