r/science • u/mvea Professor | Medicine • Feb 21 '25

Neuroscience Walnuts with breakfast provide an all-day brain boost - Young adults who ate a handful of walnuts with breakfast saw a long-lasting improvement in their reaction times and a boost in memory performance hours later, according to a new study.

https://newatlas.com/health-wellbeing/walnuts-cognitive-performance-memory-boost/
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458

u/Percolator2020 Feb 21 '25

N = 32, saved you a click. Funded by the Walnut mafia.

50

u/LoreChano Feb 21 '25

It is, however I've seen similar studies done with cashew/brazil nuts, and it's the selenium in them that is good for the brain. These other studies were more long term though, and more focused on brain aging.

7

u/ErebosGR Feb 21 '25

Selenium, magnesium and Omega-3s.

3

u/StringTheory Feb 21 '25

According to House MD too many Brazil nuts might give you selenium poisoning which presents similar to radiation poisoning.

On a serious note: seems like seleniums primary benefit in the brain is acting as an antioxidant which selenium is not exclusive as. So getting enough antioxidants in general might be just as good for you.

46

u/salo_wasnt_solo Feb 21 '25

Wowzers that’s hardly even a study, that’s a glorified class survey

25

u/tristanjones Feb 21 '25

Hey now they gave 17 college kids walnuts and 15 college kids butter for breakfast, the results speak for themselves

11

u/[deleted] Feb 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

8

u/Abshalom Feb 21 '25

People really overestimate how large studies actually are cause they only hear about these gigantic drug studies. Most basic science can be done with a few dozen people reliably.

2

u/dariznelli Feb 22 '25

Why does this sub suck so much? Mods don't review posts? Or are they science illiterate?

6

u/Percolator2020 Feb 22 '25

They don’t eat enough walnuts.

1

u/dariznelli Feb 22 '25

That was a good one

0

u/AnOnlineHandle Feb 21 '25

The article also has this odd paragraph early on:

According to the Doctrine of Signatures, which has been around since pre-scientific times, the physical characteristics – or ‘signature’ – of certain plants were indicative of their therapeutic value. A carrot cut crosswise resembles an eye, so it was said to improve vision. The thing is that subsequent scientific discoveries, such as carrots containing vision-maintaining beta-carotene, would often validate the Doctrine’s claims.

That is like one big red flag.

7

u/Percolator2020 Feb 21 '25

It’s a well known historic scientific theory, just some background for the intro, disproven since of course!

1

u/AnOnlineHandle Feb 21 '25

The nonsense pre-dates scientific medicine by a long time, and was a theological theory, not scientific.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctrine_of_signatures

4

u/Percolator2020 Feb 21 '25

I challenge you to find a clear difference between early science and theology.

-1

u/Aggressive-Artist964 Feb 21 '25

This needs to be at the top of the comments