Division of Human Nutrition, Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
Ann Nutr Metab. 2012;60(4):272-92. doi: 10.1159/000337945. Epub 2012 Jun 1.
Nutrition is one of many factors that affect brain development and functioning, and in recent years the role of certain nutrients has been investigated. B vitamins and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) are two of the most promising and widely studied nutritional factors.
In this review, we provide an overview of human studies published before August 2011 on how vitamin B(6), folate, vitamin B(12) and n-3 PUFA may affect the brain, their nutrient status and the existing evidence for an association between these nutrients and brain development, brain functioning and depression during different stages of the life cycle.
No recommendation can be given regarding a role of B vitamins, either because the number of studies on B vitamins is too limited (pregnant and lactating women and children) or the studies are not consistent (adults and elderly). For n-3 PUFA, observational evidence may be suggestive of a beneficial effect; however, this has not yet been sufficiently replicated in randomized controlled trials (RCTs).
We found that the existing evidence from observational studies as well as RCTs is generally too limited and contradictory to draw firm conclusions. More research is needed, particularly a combination of good-quality long-term prospective studies and well-designed RCTs.
营养是影响大脑发育和功能的众多因素之一，近年来，某些营养素的作用一直受到研究。B 族维生素和 n-3 多不饱和脂肪酸（PUFA）是最有前途和广泛研究的两种营养因素。
在这篇综述中，我们提供了截至 2011 年 8 月之前发表的关于维生素 B(6)、叶酸、维生素 B(12)和 n-3 PUFA 如何影响大脑、它们的营养状况以及这些营养素与大脑发育、大脑功能和不同生命周期阶段的抑郁之间的关联的现有证据的概述。
不能就 B 族维生素的作用提出任何建议，因为关于 B 族维生素的研究数量太少（孕妇、哺乳期妇女和儿童），或者研究结果不一致（成年人和老年人）。对于 n-3 PUFA，观察性证据可能表明有益处；然而，这在随机对照试验（RCT）中尚未得到充分证实。
我们发现，现有的观察性研究和 RCT 证据通常太有限且相互矛盾，无法得出明确的结论。需要进行更多的研究，特别是高质量的长期前瞻性研究和精心设计的 RCT 的结合。
