Dear Healthy Friend,

Classic, rock, pop, hip-hop... There are so many different genres of music out there... And we all like different songs, rythms and melodies... Children love music too, but is this because you, as an adult, encouraged them to listen to it? Or is it because you were hoping to turn the little tyke into a brainiac?

Jenny Thompson reveals why sticking headphones, with Mozart blaring from them, onto your prenant belly might not be what you were hoping for...

In the name of good health,

Taryn Strugnell
Managing Editor of Nutrition & Healing

P.S. In Thursday's edition of Health Bytes, we delved a little into the Mediterranean diet and some of the heart benefits... Today I give you a little more....

Singing a new tune....
Jenny Thompson,
Editor, Health Sciences Institute

Mozart never had a top 40 hit, but he suddenly became very popular in the early 90s after a study showed that kids who listened to his music had better spatial abilities than kids who didn't.

Spatial ability involves aptitude for analysing and comprehending, which plays into recognition of patterns and critical problem solving.

In short, advanced spatial ability equals smarts. So for years, parents, day-care centres, paediatricians, etc., have been pumping Don Giovanni and other Mozart favourites into little ears, certain the little brains were getting sharp.

Turns out they weren't.

Psychologists from the University of Vienna reviewed dozens of studies that addressed the Mozart/spatial ability question. Their conclusion: Children might learn to love (or maybe hate) classical music, but if they bring home straight As, it won't be because of the maestro.

If you want to make kids smarter, minimise their intake of sugar, television, video games and the Internet. Then maximise their intake of nutrients that we KNOW support cognitive function - vitamin D, vitamin B-12 and omega-3 fatty acids for starters.

Then put on some tunes you like and dance around like nobody's watching with your brainy kids.

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Spanish researchers believe they've broken the code - a genetic code, in fact. And it's the secret to why olive oil is so heart healthy.

Twenty subjects with metabolic syndrome consumed meals that included either a high phenol olive oil or a low phenol olive oil.

As I've mentioned before, phenols contain biologically active compounds that are remarkably high in antioxidants. Olive oil phenols are most highly concentrated in extra virgin olive oil, which is made from cold-pressed olives - no heat or chemicals are used in refining.

Results of the Spanish study showed that the high phenol extra virgin olive oil repressed the inflammatory activity of nearly 100 genes that play a key role in prompting inflammation.

In the journal BMC Genomics, the authors note that their results provide a likely explanation for the reduced risk of heart disease among those who follow a Mediterranean diet.