97-Year-Old Brain Scientist Professor Michael Crawford reveals why the human brain has been physically shrinking for thousands of years, why he believes it was DHA, an omega-3 fat from the sea, and not your genes, that built human intelligence, and why the official advice to limit fish in pregnancy may be harming an entire generation of babies!
Professor Michael Crawford is Director of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition and a visiting professor at Imperial College London, with more than 300 published papers and the 1972 work that first linked DHA to the evolution of the human brain. At 97, he is still sharp, still publishing, and still arguing that modern nutrition has neglected the one organ that makes us human.
He explains:
◼️ Why the brain physically cannot work without DHA, full stop
◼️ Why it was DHA, not DNA, that shaped the human brain
◼️ Why he says the FDA is wrong about limiting fish in pregnancy
◼️ How seed oils quietly crowd this fat out of your brain cells
◼️ Whether dementia and Alzheimer's actually begin in the womb
◼️ Why humans could only have evolved big brains beside the sea
◼️ How chicken and eggs lost almost all of their brain fat
◼️ Why he believes DHA works like a semiconductor in your neurons
Episode Show Notes: https://livelongerworld.com/p/mcrawford
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TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 The Brain Food We Stopped Eating
00:32 "Your Brain Won't Work Without DHA. That's just full stop"
04:04 It Wasn't DNA That Made Us Human
06:50 How the Eye Built the Brain
08:00 Why Carnivores Are Sharper Than Herbivores
11:35 The Flowering Plant That Invented Pregnancy
14:22 The Placenta: An Organ Built From One Fatty Acid
15:35 Why Arachidonic Acid Is Wrongly Demonized
18:18 More Astrocytes Than Neurons: Who Really Runs the Brain
21:39 Health Stacked
22:38 DHA vs Arachidonic Acid: Two Different Origins
25:21 How the Fetus Hoards DHA and Rejects the Rest
30:31 Are Seed Oils Actually Starving Your Brain?
32:24 Why the FDA is wrong about Fish in Pregnancy
37:50 Do Fish Oil Supplements Work?
44:15 The Lack of Fish in Pregnancy is causing ADHD and Austism
50:10 Why Governments Only Care About Body Size, Not Brains
52:00 "A Race of Morons": The Warning From 1972
55:04 Does Dementia Actually Begin in the Womb?
59:16 Does the Father's Nutrition Matter Too?
59:40 The Importance of Arachidonic Acid that Infant Formula Leaves Out
01:02:24 How Often You Should Actually Eat Seafood
01:04:05 Can Vegetarians and Vegans Get Enough?
01:05:04 Can Genetics Let You Skip Seafood? The India Case
01:08:00 Why Humans Could Only Have Evolved Beside the Sea
01:11:55 Farming the Sea: What Japan Figured Out
01:17:22 The Collapse of DHA in Chicken and Eggs
01:20:52 Why Corn-Fed Everything Is Lower in DHA
01:22:32 The Semiconductor Theory of the Brain, Explained
01:27:20 What Dr. Crawford's Vision Is Like at 97 years old
01:28:39 The Rare Double-DHA Molecule in Your Retina
01:29:23 Where Dr. Crawford Lands on Saturated Fat
01:31:09 His Advice to Young Scientists: Challenge Everything
01:32:07 Closing: Why This Is a Three-Generation Emergency
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Dr. Michael Crawford:Book The Shrinking Brain: https://amzn.to/4vEJiZ3Introducing
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