If you’ve been consuming small amounts of apples, berries and tea, a new study indicates upping your intake could lead to protective benefits against Alzheimer's.
The study, which was published this week in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that older adults who consumed small amounts of flavonoid-rich foods — including apples, berries and tea — were two to four times as likely to develop Alzheimer's disease and related dementias over the course of two decades compared to people who consumed more of those foods.
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“Tea, specifically green tea, and berries are good sources of flavonoids,” said the study’s lead author Esra Shishtar, who at the time of the study was a doctoral student at the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in the Nutritional Epidemiology Program at the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA).
“When we look at the study results, we see that the people who may benefit the most from consuming more flavonoids are people at the lowest levels of intake, and it doesn’t take much to improve levels. A cup of tea a day or some berries two or three times a week would be adequate,” she said in a press release.
Scientists at the USDA HNRCA at Tufts University looked at the long-term link between eating foods containing flavonoids, which are natural substances found in plants, and the risk of Alzheimer’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).
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The epidemiological study was composed of 2,800 people age 50 and older. Researchers determined low consumption of three types of flavonoids, which have been associated with health benefits such as decreased inflammation, was tied to a higher risk of dementia compared to higher consumption of the plant chemical.
Among the findings, researchers discovered low consumption of flavanol-containing food and beverages including apples, pears and tea was associated with a two-times greater risk of ADRD. The risk of developing ADRD increased fourfold with a low intake of anthocyanin-containing food and beverages, including blueberries, strawberries, and red wine. Apples, tea and pears are also flavonoid polymers and lower consumption of them was linked to twice the risk of ADRD.
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Similar results were found for developing Alzheimer’s disease.
“Our study gives us a picture of how diet over time might be related to a person’s cognitive decline, as we were able to look at flavonoid intake over many years prior to participants’ dementia diagnoses,” said senior author and nutritional epidemiologist at the USDA HNRCA Paul Jacques in a press release. “With no effective drugs currently available for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, preventing disease through a healthy diet is an important consideration.”
For more information on how the study was conducted, visit the Tufts information hub.
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