A new study has found that the healthier we eat over the years, the better shape our brains will be in as we age. Researchers from McMaster University found that people from all over the world who kept a Mediterranean style diet in middle age had a reduced risk of cognitive decline as they got older.
The team of researchers tracked the health and habits of almost 28,000 people age 55 and older, who taking part in two international studies that spanned 40 countries. The team rated how healthy each person's diet was overall with the healthy diets often consisting of higher quantities of vegetables, fruits, fish, nuts, soy products, and moderate alcohol consumption. Unhealthy foods included things such as red meat, deep-fried foots and sweets.
By the end of the five year study, 4,700 people had begun to experience cognitive decline. Of the 5,700 people with the healthiest diets, 14 percent had developed symptoms of cognitive decline while of the 5,460 people with the least healthy diets, 18 percent developed cognitive decline.
Although that may not sound like a big difference, it is actually a 24 percent reduction in risk for those that ate healthy. If one then begins to consider that about 5 million Americans experience cognitive decline, that number actually represents a large amount of people.
Study author Andrew Smyth said, "the consumption of 'healthy' choices may be beneficial, but the effect may be lost/reduced with the consumption of 'unhealthy' choices. For example, the beneficial effect of fruit may be lost if prepared with high amounts of fats or sugars. Our data suggest that an overall healthy diet is more important than the consumption of any one particular food."
This isn't the first study to link diet to cognitive decline. Others have found that certain diets such as the Mediterranean diet are linked to reduced risk of cognitive decline and can even reduce the chance of developing dementia. This research continues to grow and is just the latest that shows more generally that the decisions we make about our health over the course of our lives can have a profound impact on how well our brains age.
Other factors such as regular exercise have also been linked to reduced rates of cognitive decline, dementia and even Alzheimer's disease. Recently, meditation has been found to impact the brain's structure and functionality over time, and has also been linked in improving the aging of the brain.
