Get your omega-3 fatty acids! 🙂
See below for a geek-out from my dissertation on brain-body health.
Ingredients:
-3 to 5 ounces salmon (we use Idaho trout in our house given our Sun Valley address)
-butter or olive oil
-lemon
-vegetables of choice (carrots, leeks, peas)
-salt and pepper
Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Rip off a piece of parchment paper for each piece of fish you have for dinner. In the center of the piece of parchment paper, place a 3 to 5 ounces piece of your yummy fish (rinse in water first).
Top with your favorite vegetables (leeks, peas, carrots).
Add a slice of lemon and a bit of salt/pepper.
Dot with butter.
Fold the paper to enclose.
Bake on a baking sheet for about 14 minutes. (Salmon may take a few minutes longer). Enjoy!
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Geek out on brain-body health:
The primary type of fat for brain health to focus on are the Omega 3 fatty acids, which have been shown to affect the brain development of babies from the time of conception.
Omega-3 fats nourish the brain, eyes, joints, and digestive tract and are so important to the body that they are called essential fatty acids. The term “essential” actually comes from the fact that the body cannot produce these fatty acids on its own; they must be consumed in the diet.
Omega-3 fats are a type of polyunsaturated fat found primarily in fish, but they can also be found in eggs and grass-fed dairy products, and meat from grass-fed cows.
Omega-3 fatty acids consist of two types of fatty acids: DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid), which circulate throughout the body and assist with various chemical reactions. When the body needs to use fat for a particular reaction, using an Omega-3 fatty acid can help to reduce inflammation (while using a non-omega-3 fat, such as an Omega 6 or 9 fatty acids can increase inflammation).
There are non-animal sources of omega-3 fatty acids, but the body must make an additional chemical process to convert the ALA (alpha-linolenic acid), from sources such as walnuts and flaxseeds, into DHA and EPA.
While the human body is an extraordinary system capable of carrying out hundreds if not thousands of complex processes every day, the process of converting ALA into DHA and EPA is not particularly efficient. So thus, we love to eat fish 1-2 per week in our house.
To your healthy brain!
