10 Foods That Fight Alzheimer’s
A new diet could more than halve a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to new research.
Experts said the diet, known by the acronym MIND, could reduce the risk of the illness even if it not meticulously followed.
The ‘Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay’ (MIND) diet includes at least three daily servings of wholegrains and salad – along with an extra vegetable and a glass of wine.
These ‘brain-healthy foods’ lowered the risk of Alzheimer’s by 53 per cent in those who stuck to the diet rigidly.
For those that followed it moderately well, it lowered the risk by about 35 per cent.
Professor Martha Morris, a nutritional epidemiologist of the Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago, said: ‘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 Alzheimer’s disease.
‘I think that will motivate people.’
Professor Morris and her colleagues developed the MIND diet based on years of past research about what foods and nutrients have good and bad effects on the functioning of the brain.
This is the first study to relate the MIND diet to Alzheimer’s disease.
‘I was so very pleased to see the outcome we got from the new diet,’ she said.
The MIND diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets, both of which have been found to reduce the risk of cardiovascular conditions, like high blood pressure, heart attack and stroke.
Some researchers have found that the two older diets provide protection against dementia as well.
In the latest study, the MIND diet was compared with the two other diets.
People with high adherence to the DASH and Mediterranean diets also had reductions in Alzheimer’s disease— 39 per cent with the DASH diet and 54 per cent with the Mediterranean diet.
However, the diets had negligible benefits when people only adhered to it moderately.
Professor Morris added that the MIND diet is also easier to follow than the Mediterranean diet, which calls for daily consumption of fish and three to four daily servings of fruits and vegetables.
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