Technology Slice

Mediterranean Diet

Eating a Mediterranean-style diet — one rich in olive oil, whole grains, fish and fruit — may protect aging brains from damage linked to cognitive problems, a new study finds

Other studies have already found that such diets also lower risks for depression, cancer, heart disease and premature death.

The researchers also looked at how well the participants had followed a Mediterranean-style diet for the six years before the MRI.

“What we found was, those people who were following a healthier diet, more Mediterranean-like, had fewer brain infarcts, strokes, on the MRI,” Scarmeas said. Their risk for having such damage was lowered by up to 36 percent, he said.

The reduced risk was linked to the type of diet eaten, the study found. “We broke the diet adherence into three groups: those who adhered very, very little [to the Mediterranean plan], those who adhered to a moderate degree and those adhering to a high degree,” he said.

People in the middle — those who followed the diet moderately well — were 21 percent less likely to have brain damage than people in the lowest adherence group. Those who followed it most closely had a 36 percent reduced risk compared with those who followed it the least.

The effect of the diet on brain health that they found was about the same as the effect that not having high blood pressure has on the brain, Scarmeas said.

Tags: Adherence, brain damage, Brain Health, Brain Infarcts, Brains, Cognitive Problems, Depression, Diet Health, Diets, Heart Disease, High Blood Pressure, Mediterranean Diet, Mediterranean Style, Moderate Degree, Olive Oil, Premature Death, Six Years, Strokes, Style Diet, Whole Grains
Posted in Health