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skeptical_lurker comments on SRG 4: Biological Cognition, BCIs, Organizations - Less Wrong Discussion

7 Post author: KatjaGrace 07 October 2014 01:00AM

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Comment author: skeptical_lurker 08 October 2014 02:30:08AM *  2 points [-]

I seem to remember that eating enough fruit/vegetables alone raises your IQ by several points.

But rather than IQ, stimulants affects focus and conscientiousness, which is just as important. You can still fail with an IQ of 150 if you can't sit down on focus on work. I would say the same is true of sugar.

If you can spend more time focused on work, it might raise your IQ as a secondary effect, but this isn't necessary for a boost in effective intelligence.

Comment author: Lumifer 08 October 2014 03:06:04PM *  3 points [-]

I seem to remember that eating enough fruit/vegetables alone raises your IQ by several points.

That seems highly unlikely. Links?

Certain nutrient deficiencies in childhood can stunt development and curtail IQ (iodine is a classic example, that's why there is such a thing as iodized salt), but I don't think you're talking about that.

Comment author: skeptical_lurker 08 October 2014 03:56:19PM *  2 points [-]

I'm not sure exactly where I read this, but here are some links with similarly impressive claims (albeit with the standard disclaimers about correlation not implying causation):

Based on parents’ reports, researchers assigned kids to one of three diet categories: a “processed” diet, high in fat, sugar and calories; a “traditional” diet (in the British sense), made up of meat, potatoes, bread and vegetables; and a “health-conscious” diet of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, rice, pasta and lean proteins like fish.Based on parents’ reports, researchers assigned kids to one of three diet categories: a “processed” diet, high in fat, sugar and calories; a “traditional” diet (in the British sense), made up of meat, potatoes, bread and vegetables; and a “health-conscious” diet of whole grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, rice, pasta and lean proteins like fish. ... For each unit increase in processed food diets, children lost 1.67 points in IQ.

http://healthland.time.com/2011/02/08/toddlers-junk-food-diet-may-lead-to-lower-iq

It would help if they said what a 'unit' is.

On measures of mental sharpness, older people who ate more than two servings of vegetables daily appeared about five years younger at the end of the six-year study than those who ate few or no vegetables.

http://www.nootropics.com/vegetables/index.html

Comment author: Lumifer 08 October 2014 04:17:05PM 3 points [-]

albeit with the standard disclaimers about correlation not implying causation

These standard disclaimers are pretty meaningful here.

The obvious question to ask of the first study is whether they controlled for the parents' IQ (or at least things like socio-economic status).

Comment author: skeptical_lurker 08 October 2014 04:43:38PM 0 points [-]

The obvious question to ask of the first study is whether they controlled for the parents' IQ (or at least things like socio-economic status).

Indeed. But I don't have the time to read their papers (not that the article linked to the original paper), and its not my field anyway. From a practical viewpoint, good diet might give significant advantages (if not in IQ, then in other areas of health) and is extremely unlikely to cause any harm, so the expected cost-benefit analysis is very positive.

Comment author: Lumifer 08 October 2014 04:57:21PM 3 points [-]

From a practical viewpoint, good diet might give significant advantages

Oh, that is certainly true. The only problem is that everyone has their own idea of what "good diet" means and these ideas do not match X-)

Comment author: skeptical_lurker 08 October 2014 05:50:47PM 3 points [-]

I think most people agree on vegetables, in fact this is one of the few things diets do agree on.

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