Nutritionists and other researchers have been trying for years to correlate the Mediterranean diet with its influence on the rate of cognitive decline. Does adhering to the diet slow cognitive decline, either from normal aging or from disease?
We discussed this in Beating the Dementia Monster. Research to date has actually been a bit confused. Some research finds the diet is great for the brain, while other studies found no help.
What's going on here? Well, the big challenge is knowing whether people are accurately reporting what they eat. The studies are all based on surveys, and the study participants must accurately report how they eat. My observation is that this information is highly subjective and subject to wishful thinking. Aren't we all good boys and girls that always eat our Brussels sprouts?
And what about pizza? Isn't that Mediterranean? To dieticians like the late Dr. Martha Clare Morris, it's the worst possible food for brain health. But I'd bet that gets reported as Mediterranean in some surveys.
Studies to date have been qualified and held at arms length by many researchers. So what to do?
Recently, researchers in France published 12 years worth of research that took a novel approach to verifying what people actually consumed. Basically, they sampled the blood of the participants and analyzed for the metabolites that should be there if someone is adhering to the diet. They did this in two geographically distinct study populations.
So what's a metabolite? A metabolites is a molecule from the chemicals that result when food is metabolized, and they can be found in the blood stream. Spinach will produce one set of metabolites, while a chocolate eclair will produce another set. Ingenious.
The research was published in October in the journal Molecular Nutrition and Food Research. The researchers concluded, "A greater adherence to the [Mediterranean diet], here assessed by a serum [Mediterranean diet metabolic score], is associated with lower odds of [cognitive decline] in older adults." Here's an article about the study.
How much did the diet help with cognitive decline? Good question. And they aren't clear about that. So I'm guessing not as much as you might hope.
You probably know that I try to follow the MIND diet. MIND stands for “Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.” It tries to derive the best from both the Mediterranean and DASH diets. The DASH diet was designed to help with heart health. And you know what the neurologists all say: "What's good for the heart is good for the brain!" I'd just say most simply that the MIND diet is the Mediterranean diet without cheese, butter, and stick margarine. And maybe an extra helping of blueberries. The MIND diet seems to produce better results than the Mediterranean and DASH diets for brain health,
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