Fish Not a Brain-Bulger.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXIII, Issue XXI, 19 November 1904, Page 58

Fish Not a Brain-Bulger.

There has been great diversity of

opinion among doctors and scientific food experts on the question of fish as a brain food. It has been popularly supposed all along that fish is rich in the elements that nourish the brain and sthnuatc thought. In the same way, though not for the same reason, the notion has prevailed that long hair was the sign of a highly developed fancy, hence the long-haired poet, and the long-haired literary man and the longhaired artist. No one has ever been able, however, to trace the scientific relation between a long and bushy crop

of hirsute and a highly developed imaginative faculty, and yet the poet, the musician and the artist continue to wear long hair. We long ago placed the fish proposition in the same category with the fellow who wears his hair long in order to le a deep thinker. Now cornea the declaration of science, as voiced by the London “Lancet,” to the effect that fish is no more a brain food than cabbage, or turnips or roast beef. This is unwelcome news for the ministers, teachers, writers and musicians who have been subsisting on a fish diet formally years. If they have not found out long ago the fallacy of this notion about fish, they can now contemplate the authentic statement contained in the London “Lancet,” and change to a diet that is just as nourishing, and much more easily procured. It is true, as a matter of fact, that fish contains phosphates, but so do nearly all other meats in larger or smaller proportion. The water we drink and vegetables we eat all contain phosphates. The human animal could be a profound thinker without ever tasting fish of any kind. It is true that fish is an excellent food because of its nourishing nature, because of the digestibility of its elements. It may be digested and assimilated by stomachs that will not dispose of the hardier meats and other articles of diet; but it is in no sense a brain or nerve food. If you want a good, clear brain, capable of sustained and efficient effort, drink plenty of good water, breathe plenty of oxygen from the outdoor atmosphere, take plenty of exercise and subsist on simple foods of highly nourishing value, easilv digested, easily assimilated. For a bulging brain you could have no possible use without a strong and vigorous body, a healthful circulation and rich blood to go with it.—“ What to Eat.”