Doctors have long known that a healthy diet helps sustain the heart and other critical functions. But a recent study puts healthy eating at the center of a strategy to maintain brain power into old age. In other words a diet a cardiologist would recommend–leafy vegetables, whole grains, etc. instead of fried foods, empty calories and high fat–is just what a neurologist thinks you should eat. You should eat, they agree, as if you’re near the Mediterranean Sea.
The study, published in the Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, champions the MIND diet, which stands for “Mediterranean–DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.” The study showed the MIND diet lowered the risk Alzheimer’s and dementia in “53 percent in participants who adhered to the diet rigorously.” The “most healthful eaters were 24 percent less likely to have experienced cognitive decline-problems of memory, attention and reasoning ability-over a roughly five-year period,” according to the study. The DASH in the title stands for Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension.