Broccoli May Make You Smarter, Or Not

Yes, broccoli may make you smarter, or at least boost something called “crystalized intelligence,” which is defined as “the ability to use the skills and knowledge one has acquired over a lifetime.”  The magic ingredient appears to be lutein, which is also found in green leafy vegetables and in egg yolks. A University of Illinois news release reports that researchers at the school studied 122 people aged 65 to 75 who solved problems and answered questions on a standard test of crystallized intelligence. When the researchers collected blood samples to determine blood serum levels of lutein and imaged participants’ brains using MRI to measure the volume of different brain structures, they found that participants with higher blood serum levels of lutein tended to do better on tests of crystallized intelligence. Serum lutein levels reflect only recent dietary intakes, the researchers say, but they are associated with brain concentrations of lutein in older adults, which reflect long-term dietary intake. The researchers caution that their findings do not mean that lutein necessarily makes you smarter. Rather, they suggest that lutein may play an anti-inflammatory role or aid in cell-to-cell signaling. The findings do suggest, they say, that particular nutrients slow age-related declines in cognition by influencing specific features of brain aging.