The Seafood Nutrition Partnership (SNP) has released a new whitepaper outlining strategies to help improve brain health in the U.S. through nutrition, public policy, and targeted investment.
“Brain nutrition must become part of the national infrastructure that supports Americans throughout their lives by default,” SNP Founder and President Linda Cornish said in a release. “We have an opportunity to translate scientific evidence into meaningful action, but it will require philanthropy, public policy, and private investment to work together.”
The report, titled "Brain Health is National Infrastructure: A Call to Action for Philanthropy, Public Policy, and Investment Community," highlights the link between the U.S. food system and the country’s increasing cases of brain disorders, noting that Alzheimer’s and related dementias cost the country USD 409 billion (EUR 365 billion) in 2026, with these health issues on pace to nearly triple in cost by 2050 to over USD 1 trillion (EUR 893 billion).
Nutrition offers a scalable solution to improve brain conditions, the report said, arguing that “the brain is a physical structure, built from what we eat, and the American food system – along with the federal infrastructure built on top of it – is not reliably supplying the building blocks it needs.”
The whitepaper explains that the modern American diet is lacking in several key nutrients required to build and sustain the brain, including omega-3 fatty acids, iodine, and zinc, all of which can be found in seafood. The U.S. federal government recommends at least three servings of seafood per week to increase omega-3 fatty acid intake, noting that Americans only consume an average of 110 milligrams per day of omega-3s EPA and DHA compared to the recommended 500 milligrams.
Building on findings from its 10th Annual State of the Science Symposium, held in September in partnership with the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), SNP outlined three priorities to advance brain health in the U.S., including:
- Private investments to support seafood innovation, omega-3 testing, and sustainable food systems.
The whitepaper also includes SNP’s 10-year roadmap for advancing brain health in the U.S., which proposes bringing together stakeholders across key sectors to coordinate research, policy, markets, delivery platforms, and communications. The organization said it plans to convene stakeholders around a working draft within the next two quarters.
