Eat Leafy Greens and Veggies to Keep Your “Crystallized Intelligence”

By Heather Callaghan, Editor

Crystallized intelligence is the ability to use a lifetime’s accumulation of skills and knowledge you have learned and earned. (Fluid intelligence, on the other hand, is the ability to solve new problems, use logic in new situations, and identify patterns.)

A recent study of older adults has discovered a link between consumption of a pigments found in leafy greens to the preservation of crystallized intelligence.

What is this powerful pigment that accumulates in the brain providing a “neuroprotective role?”

It’s lutein!

Lovely lutein. Lutein is found in leafy greens like kale and spinach, cruciferous vegetables like cabbage and broccoli, eggs and other foods, too. It’s also found in high concentrations in the macula of the human eye.

The study reported in the journal Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience enrolled 122 healthy participants aged 65 to 75 who solved problems and answered questions on a standard test of crystallized intelligence. They collected blood samples to determine blood serum levels of lutein and imaged participants’ brains using MRI to measure the volume of different brain structures. Serum levels reflect recent consumption but are associated with brain concentrations of lutein in older adults, which reflect “long-term dietary intake.”

University of Illinois graduate student, Marta Zamroziewicz, who led the study with Illinois psychology professor Aron Barbey recalls that “previous studies have found that a person’s lutein status is linked to cognitive performance across the lifespan,” and that, “lutein accumulates in the gray matter of brain regions known to underlie the preservation of cognitive function in healthy brain aging.”

University Of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign reports:

The team focused on parts of the temporal cortex, a brain region that other studies suggest plays a role in the preservation of crystallized intelligence.

The researchers found that participants with higher blood serum levels of lutein tended to do better on tests of crystallized intelligence.

[…]

Those with higher serum lutein levels also tended to have thicker gray matter in the parahippocampal cortex, a brain region that, like crystallized intelligence, is preserved in healthy aging, the researchers report.

“Our analyses revealed that gray-matter volume of the parahippocampal cortex on the right side of the brain accounts for the relationship between lutein and crystallized intelligence,” Barbey said.

Zamroziewicz emphasized:

Our findings do not demonstrate causality – we did find that lutein is linked to crystallized intelligence through the parahippocampal cortex.

They ponder if lutein just has an anti-inflammatory role or aids in cell-to-cell signaling – either way, they think it directly helps the region of the brain needed to retain accumulated intelligence.

Psychology professor Aron Barbey, left, graduate student Marta Zamroziewicz, postdoctoral researcher Chris Zwilling and their colleagues conducted a new study linking blood levels of a key nutrient to brain structure and intelligence in older adults.

What do you think of these findings – has this story made you want to eat more greens? Have you found lutein to be helpful to your brain health? Share your story with others and share this with your friends!

DISCLAIMER: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Photo by L. Brian Stauffer

Top image made by Natural Blaze via pixabay pics

This article (Eat Leafy Greens and Veggies to Keep Your “Crystallized Intelligence”) can be republished with attribution to source article and Natural Blaze.com, keeping all links and bio intact. 

Heather Callaghan is an independent researcher, writer, speaker and food freedom activist. She is the Editor and co-founder of NaturalBlaze.

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