The new evidence considers that the mental diet is up to its name, even when it starts later in life.
Medium -age and older participants in a large long -term study were less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease or other types of dementia if they followed a diet full of green and leafy vegetables, olive oil, whole grains and many berries, according to a report presented on Monday at the annual meeting of the American Nutrition Society.
Researchers at the University of Hawaii in Mānoa and the University of Southern California discovered that adhering to the mental diet, which combines the Mediterranean diet with the diet of the board that reduces blood pressure, results in a stronger reduction and more consistent in the risk of dementia than what is seen with other healthy diets.
The new findings suggest that it is never too late to change to a healthy diet, said the main author of the study, Song-Yi Park, an associated professor at Hawaii University in Mānoa. “It shows that sticking to a healthy diet, as well as improving the health of the person’s diet over time, is very important for older adults who want to prevent dementia.”
While all Diets related to the Mediterranean seem to be good for the brain, the mental dietary pattern was specifically designed for brain health.
“An important difference is that the mind includes berries, which have been related to brain health,” Park said.
The mental diet, or Mediterranean intervention for the neurodegenerative delay, obtains individual foods depending on how protectors they are and how much it is eaten. Bayas, especially strawberries and blueberries, for example, get a score of 1 if two or more portions are consumed per week. The score falls to 0.5 if only one portion per week is consumed and a 0 score is consumed if none is.
The individual diet of a person obtains a general rating by adding individual food scores. The higher the general score, the better it is for the person’s brain.
Park and his colleagues resorted to the data of almost 93,000 American adults who had provided information about what they ate as part of a research project known as the multiethnic cohort to see more closely how the diet influenced the risk of developing dementia.
The multiethnic cohort began in the early 1990s through a joint effort of the Cancer Center of the University of Hawaii and the Comprehensive Cancer Center of the USC Norris. The men and women enrolled in the study came from five ethnic/racial populations: American Japanese, Native Hawaiians, black, Latin and white.
At first, the 215,000 participants were between 45 and 75 years. When the data was analyzed for the new study, more than 21,000 participants had developed Alzheimer’s or a related dementia.
At the beginning of the study, the people who obtained a higher score for their adhesion had a 9% lower risk of developing dementia.
The amount of reduction varied between racial groups in the new analysis. A greater risk reduction was observed, 13%, in the participants who identified themselves as blacks, Latin or white.
Participants who improved their adhesion to the mind during the 10 -year period had a risk of 25% lower dementia compared to those whose adhesion decreased, and that trend was observed in all racial and age groups.
How to follow the mental diet
Some suggestions to reach the optimal score for mental diet, according to a 2015 study:
- Green leafy vegetables, such as curly, spinach, broccoli, bok choy and mustard: six or more portions per week
- Other vegetables: one portion per day
- Nuts, such as almonds, nuts or pistachios: five or more portions per week
- Cheese: less than one per week
- Whole grains: three or more per day
- Fish (not fried): one or more portions per week
- Red meat: less than one portion per week
- Fast fried foods: less than one per week
- Cakes and sweets: less than five portions per week
Park warned that, like all observation studies, the new research reports an association and does not prove that the diet prevents dementia.
It is a high quality study, Dr. Walter Willett, Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition at the Harvard Thard Thard School of Public Health and Professor of Medicine at Harvard’s Faculty of Medicine, in an email.
“It adds to the evidence that a Mediterranean type diet has important benefits to reduce the risk of dementia,” said Willett, who was not involved in the investigation. “The differences between the groups defined by race/ethnicity may be due to random variation, so it is reasonable to assume that this healthy dietary pattern has benefits for all groups.”
When it comes to green leaf vegetables, it is probably better to consume a variety instead of a single type, Willett said.
“In particular, spinach are good in many ways, but it has a high oxalate content and a high spinach intake can cause kidney stones,” he said.
In general, the mental diet is in line with the principles of the two diets that are built, said Dr. Yian Gu, associate professor of neurological sciences at the Medical Center of the University of Columbia. “Each of those diets has unique characteristics,” he said.
The Mediterranean diet emphasizes multiple daily portions of fruits and vegetables, along with whole grains, legumes, olive oil, shellfish and nuts and seeds, such as chia, linen, pumpkin and sesame.
Dash, or dietary approaches to stop hypertension, is intended to prevent hypertension, so it emphasizes low salt, which is not an important component in the Mediterranean diet.
The mental diet is easy to follow, Gua said, encouraging people to choose the green and leaf vegetables they prefer. The important thing is to increase the diversity of vegetables.
Another benefit of Mediterranean types: they are useful with other types of chronic diseases, including heart disease and cancer, he said.
