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You probably know about the Mediterranean diet which includes healthy food like olive oil, whole grains, legumes, and fatty fish. You may also have heard of the DASH diet that promotes foods for reducing blood pressure and improving heart health.
But have you ever heard of the MIND diet, which combines these two healthy diets? According to a press release from The American Society for Nutrition the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay or MIND diet was designed for your brain health. Now, a recent study that was presented at the organization’s annual meeting has shown that adhering to the MIND diet, even later in life, shows a significantly reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and other types of dementia.
About the Study
The study, led by Song-Yi Park, PhD, associate professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, analyzed data from 93,000 American adults who provided details about their diet in part of a research project called the Multiethnic Cohort Study that began in the 1990s. The participants were all between the ages of 45 to 75 at the beginning of the study.
At the end, 21,000 of the study’s participants developed Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia. The study found that the participants who followed the MIND diet had a 9 percent lower risk of dementia. The risk reduction for African Americans and Latinos was 13 percent.
“Our study findings confirm that healthy dietary patterns in mid to late life and their improvement over time may prevent Alzheimer’s and related dementias,” Park said in the press release. “This suggests that it is never too late to adopt a healthy diet to prevent dementia.”
Previous Research
Since an estimated 7.2 million Americans are suffering from Alzheimer’s, reported CBS News, studying the disease is vitally important. The new study also backs up previous research that suggested that eating a healthy plant-based diet could help prevent dementia.
A 2023 study, published in the journal Neurology, found that people who follow the MIND or Mediterranean diets show fewer signs of Alzheimer’s in their brain tissue. While the research didn’t definitively prove that a healthy diet results in fewer amyloid plaques, a sign of the disease, the correlation between a healthy diet and brain health was established.
Foods in the MIND Diet
The MIND diet, which is a combination of the two healthiest diets, does not dictate what you can or cannot eat like diets that deal with weight loss, according to Healthline. Instead, there is a list of nine foods that you should eat more of and a list of the five foods that you should avoid.
The nine foods include eating six or more servings of green leafy vegetables, other non-starchy veggies, beans, whole grains, berries, nuts, olive oil (use as your main cooking oil), and fatty fish that contain omega-3s. Most of these foods are plant-based but you should also try to eat lean poultry twice a week
The foods to avoid are those that contain saturated fats including fried food, pastries and sweets like ice cream, cheese, butter and margarine (unless it does not include hydrogenated oils), as well as red meat.
While no one is sure exactly how the MIND diet works, scientists believe that it is the high antioxidant content that reduces oxidative stress and inflammation, and this helps protect the brain from cognitive decline and dementia. The good news is that it is never too early or too late to start protecting your brain health.
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