The role of nutrients brain development in child and adults is very important.
Many of the key nutrients identified important to neurodevelopment include
the long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (LCPUFA),
docosohexaenoic acid (DHA) and
arachidonic acid (AA)
DHA, is strongly associated with
fish consumption, but this is also the predominant source of the neurotoxicant
methyl mercury (MeHg).
Iodine: The benefits of optimal iodine or thyroid
status are likely to be directly related to neurodevelopment during
late fetal growth.
Iodine supplementation given before the third
trimester predicted higher psychomotor test scores for
children relative to those provided iodine later in pregnancy
or at two years of age.
Iodine deficiency (ID): this is the single most
important cause of preventable brain damage after starvation.
ID can produce different degrees of mental retardation [www.who.int/inf-
fs/brain_therapy_neurology/fact121.html].
Damages in the Central nervous system are seen in some people with
neurological cretinism, neurological deficits can occur with ID.
Choline appears to be benefical and is found in a range of foods with eggs and fish being a
particularly rich source
Choline: induce spatial memory facilitation in rodents because changes the
distribution and morphology of neurons involved in memory
storage within the brain. Also produce biochemical changes in the
hippocampus via the cholinergic system; and
electrophysiological changes in the hippocampus.
Choline also protects against neurotoxicity in the rat.
Whether these choline availability findings in rats are
applicable to humans is open to conjecture. Certainly, there
are major differences in developmental physiology in that
human and rat brains mature at different rates, the rat brain is
comparatively more mature at birth than is the human brain
while hippocampal development in humans may continue for
months or years after birth.
Iron:
Iron deficiency is very common on many human populations.
Infants are likely to be the most vulnerable during
the brain growth spurt from 6 to 23 months.
Iron deficiency in infants leaves a permanent cognitive deficit
A slowed central neural processing is a
key component in neural dysfunction in iron deficiency, even
without anaemia. The mechanisms associated with
behavioural and cognitive developmental delays observed in
iron-deficient infants include abnormalities in
neurotransmitter metabolism, decreased myelin formation
and alterations in brain metabolism. Some vegetables, meat and fish are
particularly rich sources of dietary iron and also have high
bioavailability.
Zinc and copper are other trace elements, deficiencies of
which are known to cause abnormalities in neurological
development in animals but human data are sparse
Such sequelae appear to be found only in severe deficiencies.
For example, there is no effect of zinc
supplementation of pregnant women (with plasma zinc
concentrations below the established median for gestational
age in the population) on the mental and psychomotor
development of their children at 5 years. Nevertheless fish,
and especially shellfish, are particularly rich in both of these
trace elements. Measurement of body status of either of these
trace elements, however, is fraught with difficulty.
Vitamin B 6 and riboflavin have direct effects on
neurodevelopment both prenatally and postnatally and may
also impact on MeHg toxicity.
NeuroDevelopment -
The brain site 
The role of nutrients brain development in child and adults is very important.
Many of the key nutrients identified important to neurodevelopment include