Fish carcasses from a massive fish kill in the Bayou Chaland area of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, September 10, 2010.
Fish carcasses from a massive fish kill in the Bayou Chaland area of Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, September 10, 2010. Reuters

Many scientists firmly believe today that more than 80 million people will have dementia by 2040.

According to the report by Science Daily, eating baked or broiled fish once a week is good for the brain, regardless of the amount of omega-3 fatty acid it contains.

The study which was carried out in the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine got published online recently in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"Our study shows that people who ate a diet that included baked or broiled, but not fried, fish have larger brain volumes in regions associated with memory and cognition," Dr. Becker, professor of psychiatry, Pitt School of Medicine said. "We did not find a relationship between omega-3 levels and these brain changes, which surprised us a little. It led us to conclude that we were tapping into a more general set of lifestyle factors that were affecting brain health of which diet is just one part."

Lead investigator Cyrus Raji along with the team analysed data from 260 people who gave detailed information on their dietary intake, provided high-resolution brain MRI scans, and were cognitively normal at two time points during their participation in the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), a 10-year multicenter effort that began in 1989 to identify risk factors for heart disease in people aged over 65.

The participants answered questions about their eating habits and while examining their bran scanning reports, scientists took it into consideration the fact that baked or broiled fish has higher levels of omega-3s than fried fish because the fatty acids get destroyed through the high heat frying demands.

It was found that participants who preferred eating baked or broiled fish at least once a week had greater grey matter brain volumes in regions of the brain that accounts for memory (4.3 percent) and cognition (14 percent).

Dr. Becker concluded that lifestyle factors which in this case is consuming fish, more than biological factors contribute to structural changes in the brain.

Include more baked fish in your daily intake to enjoy a better life later.