The Key Components of the MIND Diet for Brain Health
To devise a diet tailored to protect the brain, researchers at Rush University Medical Center picked and chose components from the Mediterranean diet and the DASH Diet—which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, meant to protect from cardiovascular disease—to create the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (or MIND) diet. From the DASH diet they took its emphasis on reducing saturated fat, sweets, and meats. From the Mediterranean diet they took dairy restriction and the emphasis on beans and nuts, but instead of potatoes, the MIND diet took as its centerpiece the consumption of green leafy vegetables (at least 6 times a week). And instead of fruit in general, it specifically emphasizes berry consumption. The MIND diet also gives people points for reducing their intake of fast food or fried foods to less than once a week. “Combining the two diets,” the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics summarized, “the MIND diet emphasizes natural, plant-based foods, specifically promoting an increase in the consumption of berries and green leafy vegetables, with limited intakes of animal-based and high saturated fat foods.” Let’s see what it can do.
The diets of nearly a thousand people between the ages of 58 and 98 were scored for their adherence to MIND diet principles and followed for years. Those who scored higher experienced less age-related cognitive decline, both globally and in each of the five cognitive domains tested: episodic memory (recollection of personal experiences), sematic memory (recall of general knowledge), perceptual organization (ability to group visual elements together), perceptual speed (rapid identification of matching items), and working (short-term) memory. The researchers concluded: “The study findings suggest that the MIND diet substantially slows cognitive decline with age.” Compared to those in the lowest third of MIND diet scores, the performance of the top third was equivalent to being 7.5 years younger in age.
What about the risk of getting Alzheimer’s? Those in the middle third of the MIND diet scores had a 35 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, and those in the highest third had 53 percent lower Alzheimer’s rates. As recapped by the review “Plant-Based Diets for Healthy Aging” in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, “a diet rich in fruits, grains, legumes, vegetables, nuts, and seeds may cut the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by more than a half.”
So far, there have been about a dozen studies on the MIND diet. They all found MIND diet adherence associated with at least some aspect of cognition, with seven of the nine studies measuring global cognitive function finding benefits across the board. And the side effects may include a longer life. Compared to the bottom third of MIND diet scores, those of an average age 70 achieving the upper third had a 37 percent lower risk of dying over the subsequent 12 years. However, as of yet, there has only been one randomized controlled trial to properly test the diet. So far so good, with the three-month trial finding those randomized to advice to follow the MIND diet had significant improvements in six out of eight cognitive measures. A large multicenter three-year randomized controlled trial was recently completed, with results expected soon.
The Harvard Nurses’ Health Study was large enough to try to tease out the MIND diet components to see what was predominantly driving the apparent benefit; it was mostly the reduction in butter, margarine, pastries, and sweets, so perhaps the reduction in saturated and trans fat. If the key factor in the Mediterranean diet is meat reduction, and the crux of the MIND diet seems to be cutting down on saturated fat and trans fats in butter and junk, then what about trying a whole food, plant-based diet?
The key takeaways for preventing Alzheimer’s with diet are: reduce added sugars, added salt, saturated fat, animal products, and processed foods in general, and eat more plants (especially greens and beans) and more fruits (especially berries).
To devise a diet tailored to protect the brain, researchers at Rush University Medical Center picked and chose components from the Mediterranean diet and the DASH Diet—which stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, meant to protect from cardiovascular disease—to create the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (or MIND) diet. From the DASH diet they took its emphasis on reducing saturated fat, sweets, and meats. From the Mediterranean diet they took dairy restriction and the emphasis on beans and nuts, but instead of potatoes, the MIND diet took as its centerpiece the consumption of green leafy vegetables (at least 6 times a week). And instead of fruit in general, it specifically emphasizes berry consumption. The MIND diet also gives people points for reducing their intake of fast food or fried foods to less than once a week. “Combining the two diets,” the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics summarized, “the MIND diet emphasizes natural, plant-based foods, specifically promoting an increase in the consumption of berries and green leafy vegetables, with limited intakes of animal-based and high saturated fat foods.” Let’s see what it can do.
The diets of nearly a thousand people between the ages of 58 and 98 were scored for their adherence to MIND diet principles and followed for years. Those who scored higher experienced less age-related cognitive decline, both globally and in each of the five cognitive domains tested: episodic memory (recollection of personal experiences), sematic memory (recall of general knowledge), perceptual organization (ability to group visual elements together), perceptual speed (rapid identification of matching items), and working (short-term) memory. The researchers concluded: “The study findings suggest that the MIND diet substantially slows cognitive decline with age.” Compared to those in the lowest third of MIND diet scores, the performance of the top third was equivalent to being 7.5 years younger in age.
What about the risk of getting Alzheimer’s? Those in the middle third of the MIND diet scores had a 35 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, and those in the highest third had 53 percent lower Alzheimer’s rates. As recapped by the review “Plant-Based Diets for Healthy Aging” in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, “a diet rich in fruits, grains, legumes, vegetables, nuts, and seeds may cut the risk of Alzheimer’s disease by more than a half.”
So far, there have been about a dozen studies on the MIND diet. They all found MIND diet adherence associated with at least some aspect of cognition, with seven of the nine studies measuring global cognitive function finding benefits across the board. And the side effects may include a longer life. Compared to the bottom third of MIND diet scores, those of an average age 70 achieving the upper third had a 37 percent lower risk of dying over the subsequent 12 years. However, as of yet, there has only been one randomized controlled trial to properly test the diet. So far so good, with the three-month trial finding those randomized to advice to follow the MIND diet had significant improvements in six out of eight cognitive measures. A large multicenter three-year randomized controlled trial was recently completed, with results expected soon.
The Harvard Nurses’ Health Study was large enough to try to tease out the MIND diet components to see what was predominantly driving the apparent benefit; it was mostly the reduction in butter, margarine, pastries, and sweets, so perhaps the reduction in saturated and trans fat. If the key factor in the Mediterranean diet is meat reduction, and the crux of the MIND diet seems to be cutting down on saturated fat and trans fats in butter and junk, then what about trying a whole food, plant-based diet?
The key takeaways for preventing Alzheimer’s with diet are: reduce added sugars, added salt, saturated fat, animal products, and processed foods in general, and eat more plants (especially greens and beans) and more fruits (especially berries).
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