Spain Brain Gain is Food for Thought

Better food and healthcare mean younger Spaniards are not only much taller than mamá and papá but seem to have bigger, better brains, researchers at universities in Madrid and Barcelona have discovered.

Today's children are almost 10% brighter than their parents were, the researchers say.

Analysing tests carried out on groups of seven-year-olds in 1970 and 1999, they found an increase in measured intelligence of 3% each decade, they say in a study published in the US journal Intelligence.

Rather than producing a generation of Einsteins, Spain appears to have sharply reduced the number of children who might previously have been classified as unintelligent.

While a quarter of seven-year-olds were rated at less than 45 on the Pressey IQ scale 30 years ago, only 5% now fall below that level.

The researchers say that most of the improvement in the tests has been in spatial intelligence, which is not easily taught, rather than verbal intelligence, which is.

Therefore, they put the improvements down to better nutrition and healthcare rather than to increased education.

Unfortunately, waistlines have grown even faster than brains.

However, according to government figures, 16% of Spain's six- to 12-year-olds are now obese, more than three times as many as 20 years ago.