Eat your fish, broccoli, berries, leafy greens and more and you’ll boost your brain health and potentially ward off Alzheimer’s. That’s the message from a new study reported in the October Issue of Tufts University Health & Nutrition Letter.
Researchers at Rush University, in Chicago, showed that combining aspects of both a Mediterranean-style diet and the DASH (Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension) are associated with brain benefits that may help prevent Alzheimer’s. Rush University developed MIND (which stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) that focuses on eating more plant-based foods, berries and green leafy vegetables and less animal and high saturated fats.
The study found that participants who followed the MIND approach “had a slower rate of cognitive decline — equivalent to 7.5 years of younger age.”
“Those with the highest MIND diet scores were 53 percent less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those with the lowest scores,” Tufts reported.
In the Tufts report, study author Martha Clare Morris of Rush University developed, along with colleagues, the MIND diet score with a focus on “the dietary components and servings linked to neuroprotection and dementia prevention.”
Morris believes the finding “will motivate people.”
“One of the more exciting things about this is that people who adhered even moderately to the MIND diet had a reduction in their risk for AD (Alzheimer’s disease),” said Morris.
With the MIND approach, they dropped the DASH recommendation for high dairy consumption and opted for only weekly fish consumption, which is lower than the recommendation of the Mediterranean diet. While the diet emphasizes fish and vegetables, it also includes grains and nuts, gives an extra nod to increasing berries and leafy greens and allows 1 daily serving of alcohol.
Here's the list of foods and recommended servings that appeared in report: http://bit.ly/1GUj2v1
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