The Cleverness Capsule ; the Mail Asked a Class of Seven-Year-Olds to Take Fish Oil Capsules (Said to Improve Brain Power) for Three Months. The Results? Reading Ages Improved by Up to Three Years. And the Children Became Calmer, Cleverer, Better Behaved and Best of All Happier . . . Good Health

Daily Mail › May 10, 2005

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Summary

JAMIE OLIVER may be responsible for revolutionising school dinners, but now it seems one simple change to children's diet could not only boost their brain power but also make them better behaved. Last week, a major new study found that a daily dose of fish oil supplements had a dramatic effect on the abilities of underachieving children in Durham Now in an exclusive Daily Mail study, conducted in conjunction with eminent specialists, fish oil supplements have been found to have a dramatic, and at times almost immediate, effect - even on children who have not been diagnosed with learning or behavioural problems.

Children on both trials were given similar doses of a fish oil supplement called Eye Q, containing Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids.

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Extract

The Cleverness Capsule ; the Mail Asked a Class of Seven-Year-Olds to Take Fish Oil Capsules (Said to Improve Brain Power) for Three Months. The Results? Reading Ages Improved by Up to Three Years. And the Children Became Calmer, Cleverer, Better Behaved and Best of All Happier . . . Good Health

The main difference was that in the Mail's study, the supplement (available as capsules or a fruit-flavoured solution) was offered to pupils regardless of whether they exhibited behavioural or learning difficulties.

The results, according to parents and Dr Madeleine Portwood, a Senior Educational Psychologist at Durham LEA and principle investigator of both trials, were impressive.

At the start of the experiment Dr Portwood's tests revealed that the Mail's children - seven and eight-year-old pupils from Little Heath Primary School in Potters Bar, Herts - already had an average reading age nine months above their actual age.

But afte...

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