What parent doesn’t want to brag about how smart their kids are?

What parent doesn’t want their kids to sleep at night?

What if I told you that the more fish your kids eat, the smarter they will be and the better they will sleep?

We all know that a healthy body often means a healthier mind, although when you see some professional athletes today, it seems to totally nullify that statement. When professional football players are paid millions of dollars to play a game and then jeopardize the financial stability of the game with stupid, unpatriotic and disrespectful protests, it doesn’t seem too smart, but chances are, your kids are not going to grow up to be a professional football player.

Most parents just want their kids to do well in school and be successful in life. They also want their kids to be healthy and sleep well.

According to a recent study, one way to help achieve that goal of every parent is to feed your kids fish at least once a week, starting as early as 10-months of age.

“Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania recently conducted an experiment, published in Scientific Reports, to determine the link between the seafood and improved cognition among children.”

“To do so, they observed 541 children, aged 9 to 11, administering a survey that asked them how often they consumed the meat in the past month. The girls and boys then took a Chinese IQ test, and their parents were later questioned about their sleeping patterns.”

“After analyzing the results, they found that children who ate fish at least once a week slept better and had higher IQ scores, compared to those who ate the food less frequently or not at all.”

“In fact, the subjects that ate fish weekly scored 4.8 points higher on the IQ exam than those who ‘seldom’ or ‘never’ consumed fish. And those who ‘sometimes’ dined on fish racked up 3.3 more points than those who ‘seldom’ or ‘never’ had it.”

The study also discovered a second benefit with those kids who ate more fish on a regular basis:

“Furthermore, those who gobbled fish down regularly had fewer disruptions in their sleep, which is associated with overall better sleep.”

Getting a good restful sleep has been proven to have numerous health benefits including lower risk of obesity, diabetes, heart problems, stroke, depression and more. Good restful sleep has also been associated with better mental cognition (skills).

Co-author of the study Jennifer Pinto-Martin commented, saying:

“If the fish improves sleep, great. If it also improves cognitive performance — like we’ve seen here — even better. It’s a double hit.”

The study did not specify what kind of fish or how it was prepared, but I seriously doubt if they’re talking about frying fish sticks. The study also didn’t say at what age the effects of fish in the diet aren’t as noticeable, but since much of a person’s mental ability is fashioned when they are young, it’s only logical to see the importance of starting them young and then maintaining the pattern of eating fish the rest of their lives. After all, fish is also healthy for adults, even if we don’t get the lQ boost.