Comment · Tue, September 16, 2014 · Ceretropic
Is walnuts good for your brain?
Original post in this thread
P3rkoz · 8 points
I'm curious, if walnuts are good for our mental health. I heard that they are rich in Omega 3 acid. Personally I eat a lot of walnuts everyday, because I have more than one hundred years old walnuts tree in my garden, and more walnuts than I can eat whole year..
Can somebody give me some research if there any, because in my native language there is any research I can find. I know that walnuts are generally good for brain, thats all.
Can walnuts be replacement for fish oil? Or should I take both?
What they were answering
Direct reply to the original post — see the thread post above.
u/MisterYouAreSoDumb · Ceretropic
Effects of walnut consumption on cognitive performance in young adults
No significant increases were detected for mood, non-verbal reasoning or memory on the walnut-supplemented diet. However, inferential verbal reasoning increased significantly by 11·2 %, indicating a medium effect size (P = 0·009; d = 0·567). In young, healthy, normal adults, walnuts do not appear to improve memory, mood or non-verbal reasoning abilities. However, walnuts may have the ability to increase inferential reasoning.
_____
Effects of walnut oil on learning and memory of mice
The results showed that walnut oil lengthened SDL by 30.4%～102.5%,shortened EL by 35.3%～58.9% and food-hunting time by 3.3%～37%.At the same time,Walnut oil reversed the disruption of memory induced by NaNO_2 and ethanol,which meant that walnut oil could obviously improve the learning and memorizing ability of mice.
____________
Effects of Walnuts \(Juglans regia\) on Learning and Memory Functions
Analysis of brain monoamines exhibited enhanced serotonergic levels in rat brain following oral intake of walnuts. The findings suggest that walnut may exert its hypophagic and nootropic actions via an enhancement of brain 5-HT metabolism.
_____________
The Morris water maze test showed that,compared with negative control group,the escape latency detected in middle,high dose group of walnut oil and low,middle(P0.05),high(P0.01)dose group of perilla oil decreased significantly;the times of striding over platform tested in middle,high dose group of walnut oil and middle dose group of perilla oil increased significantly(P0.05).The activity of AChE in brain tissue of rats fed with middle,high dose group of walnut oil increased significantly(P0.05),the activity of SOD increased significantly in high dose group of perilla oil and high dose group of α-linolenic acid(P0.05).MDA content in middle,high dose group of perilla oil was lower than the negative control group(P0.05).During development period of weaned rats,adding walnut oil or perilla oil could promote the ability of spatial learning and memory,and simply adding α-linolenic acid,linoleic acid could not take similar effect.
_________________
So it looks like walnuts can be beneficial for the brain, albeit not significantly.