Will that heavily-advertised ‘brain food’ help your child become smarter? Will all those DHA-fortified baby cereals and milks with ‘brain activators’ really help your daughter or son get better marks?

OK - I am no expert either on nutrition or brain development. But common sense counts still, and I remind you there is no substitute for a good diet and good teaching and studying. These will help your child, DHA or no DHA.

Two reasons for this:

1) It’s difficult for lay people like us to make sense of all the health-related news we get from the media. DHA may be good for your brain, but will DHA pills and DHA-fortified foods make you smarter? None of the manufacturers and marketers will tell you, but the pills and supplements are not proven yet, and we really don’t know yet what effect for good or bad they will have.

To take an example, while the body’s own testosterone boosts sperm production, fertility doctors only recently found that synthetic testosterone can make men infertile. Synthetic testosterone is still taken by athletes and body builders for more energy, and by men who want better erections, who don’t understand its risks.

2) I don’t trust advertisements! In India, advertisers are still rarely held accountable for the things they say. Advertisers and marketers know that if they say something is good for your brain, parents will spend a lot of money on it. Read a book on advertising. Know how you are manipulated.

Having a good balanced diet with enough exercise and enough rest, and studying well, will help your child do well in examinations and in life. If you want her to get more DHA, give her more fish or foods containing flax oil or seeds, but always as part of a balanced diet.

Susan Vinodh Pandian

Read some more about brain development:

1. Depriving a child of affection can affect brain development

2. Marijuana use disrupts brain development in teens

3. Using methamphetamine when you are pregnant can affect your baby’s brain

4. Brain development is compromised in premature babies

Let’s talk about what nutrients you can get in a watermelon today – continuing on the theme of the importance of keeping yourself hydrated.

The nutritional value of a typical watermelon comes mainly from the water it contains. Which means it’s a good fruit to have lots of this summer. It also has potassium, which is important for people who are dehydrated because they lose potassium fast (lack of potassium causes the muscle cramps dehydrated people sometimes experience).

Besides, you also a bigger wallop of lycopene (the antioxidant pigment which makes watermelons and tomatoes red) from watermelons than you get from tomatoes. Lycopene from watermelons is more easily absorbed than from tomatoes (which need to be cooked to make the lycopene available). Lycopene protects you from cancer and heart disease.

It also has Vitamins A, C, and B6.

So go get that watermelon and eat it, or juice it and drink it. Enjoy!

Learn more about the watermelon! Go to:

1. Interesting facts about the watermelon

2. Watermelon juice

3. Watermelon for beauty

4. Watermelon - an aphrodisiac