Most individuals experience some level of cognitive decline as they age. Who hasn’t walked into a room and then promptly forgot what you came into the room for? Or in mid-conversation, your story comes to a screeching halt as you search for a name or a word that is “just at the tip of your tongue.”
But true dementia—a clinical diagnosis and the sixth leading cause of death in our country—is far more frightening. To live an entire life of joys and triumphs, sorrows and setbacks, and then to forget all of that and then to slowly but surely have one’s identity and personality slip away seems to be an extraordinarily painful end of life.
Can we avoid or at least delay something that may be inevitable? The medical establishment thinks yes, or, at least, maybe. With some basic healthy habits, we can potentially stave off some levels of cognitive decline. Some key steps to include:
- Regular exercise is healthy for your body and helps blood flow
to your brain. - Good sleep supports all systems, including memory and focus.
- Limiting alcohol improves brain health.
- Quitting smoking lowers dementia risk.
- Mental activities like reading, puzzles, and games help keep your brain active.
- Staying connected socially with friends and family is positive in every way.
But what about feeding our bodies and our brains? Can we eat our way to brain health? Again, the medical establishment says perhaps.
The MIND diet is not new, but it is continually being studied as a potential means to improve brain health and reduce the risk of dementia. MIND is an acronym for Mediterranean/Dash Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.
The MIND diet combines two existing eating plans:
DASH, which is a dietary approach to reduce hypertension, and the Mediterranean diet, which focuses on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts and legumes. Both diets focus on brainpower boosting food-groups and protection from age-related problems like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Both eating plans also focus on plant-based foods that are minimally processed and limit any foods that are high in saturated fats and foods with added sugars. Neither diet focuses on weight loss, but both recommend portion control.
By combining these two nutrition plans—DASH, focusing on lowering blood pressure and cholesterol and Mediterranean, targeting cardiovascular disease and boosting brain health—the hope is that the risk of dementia is reduced.
How Is Risk Reduced?
Research suggests that following the MIND diet may reduce oxidative inflammation and stress, which could, in turn, slow any inevitable decline in brain function. Theoretically, by eating foods that are rich in antioxidants, one can reduce oxidative stress, which is an imbalance between the production of free radicals and antioxidant defenses. Prolonged exposure causes cell damage—particularly to the brain. In addition, inflammation is our body’s natural response to injury and infection, but if it’s not regulated this natural inflammation can be a contributor to chronic disease.
A Little Chemistry
How does this actually work?
Antioxidants stabilize harmful molecules called free radicals, preventing them from causing damage to cells, proteins and DNA. The antioxidants donate electrons to the unstable molecules and neutralize them, reducing oxidative stress, a known bad actor when it comes to the risks of cancer, h
eart disease, and cognitive decline.
Free radicals are constantly being formed in your body and aren’t always bad; your immune cells use them to fight infections, for example. But your body needs a certain balance; we don’t want the free radicals to outnumber the antioxidants—this leads to “oxidative stress.”
The Good News
Regardless of one’s genetic predisposition, a healthy lifestyle can lower your dementia risk. So, the MIND diet (along with exercise, social connection, cognitive stimulation and avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol consumption) can help reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s and general cognitive decline.
Tell Me What to Eat!
To create the MIND diet, researchers basically took the very best elements from the DASH and the Mediterranean diet.
We know what not to eat, but what exactly should we be eating? In general, the MIND diet is mostly plant- and fish-based and limits dairy. It’s smart, practical and healthy and it’s not extreme. It’s not a juice cleanse. It’s real food that tastes good.
MIND Diet – Healthy Choices:
- 3-plus servings per day of
whole grains - 1-plus servings per day of vegetables (other than green leafy)
- 6-plus servings per week of green leafy vegetables
- 5-plus servings per week of nuts
- 4-plus meals per week of beans
- 2-plus servings per week
of berries - 2-plus meals per week of poultry
- 1-plus meals per week of fish
- Mainly olive oil if added fat is used
MIND Diet – Focus on:
(be mindful of saturated/trans-fats)
- Fewer than five servings per week of pastries and sweets
- Fewer than four servings per week of red meat (including beef, pork, lamb, and products made from these meats)
- Fewer than one serving per week of cheese and fried foods
- Less than one tablespoon per day of butter/stick margarine
What About Alcohol?
We’ve all heard that one glass of red wine with dinner can be good for you, but because the effects of alcohol on different individuals are complex, specific recommendations are not possible. Alcohol is omitted from the MIND diet because personal and family health histories vary so widely.
A Sample Diet
- Breakfast: Oatmeal topped with blueberries and chopped walnuts
- Lunch: Salad with leafy greens, chickpeas, cherry tomatoes and olive oil dressing
- Snack: A handful of almonds
or strawberries - Dinner: Grilled salmon with quinoa and roasted broccoli
- Quick treat: Dark chocolate
Notice that the MIND diet doesn’t specify exact amounts because the focus should be on eating real food—feeding and fueling your body and not starving yourself. This isn’t about weight loss—though that’s often a perk of this diet—it’s about giving your brain and your body what it needs to function best.
So far, observational and short-term studies exist that do show a correlational and potential causal connection between this style of eating and a lowered risk of
cognitive decline.
Parichita Choudhury, MD, a cognitive neurologist with Banner Sun Health Research Institute, emphasizes again that the MIND diet is part of a comprehensive way of living which, again, includes the following:
- Regular exercise increasing blood flow to the brain
- Good sleep supporting memory
and focus - Limiting alcohol to protect long-term brain health
- Quitting smoking to lower dementia risk
- Engaging in mental activities like reading, puzzles and socializing to keep your brain active
“All of these things work together,” Dr. Choudhury said in an article for Banner Health. “The more healthy habits you combine, the more likely you are to protect your brain.” g
WHAT THE RESEARCH SHOWS:
In 2015, Dr. Martha Clare Morris and colleagues at Rush University Medical Center and the Harvard Chan School of Public Health published findings from their research following a group of older adults recruited from more than 40 retirement communities and senior public housing units in the Chicago area for up to 10 years. Dietary assessments were filled out every year for nine years by 1,000 participants who then also underwent cognitive testing. The researchers developed a MIND diet score which identified foods and nutrients protecting against dementia and cognitive decline. Fifteen dietary components were classified as either “brain healthy” or unhealthy. Those individuals with the highest MIND diet scores had a significantly slower rate of cognitive decline compared with the participants who had low MIND diet scores. The MIND diet had more effect on cognition than either the Mediterranean or DASH diet alone.