The Harvard School of Public Health published a wonderful online article titled, “MIND diet targets brain health,” especially for the aging brain.
The MIND diet combines two health-promoting diets, the Mediterranean and the DASH diets. Both of them had already been shown to benefit brain health.
The MIND diet “highlights plant-based foods and limits the intake of animal and high saturated fat foods.” The article gives specific guidelines on what foods to eat and which ones to limit.
The foods recommended by the MIND diet are “foods rich in certain vitamins, carotenoids, and flavonoids that are believed to protect the brain by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation.”
Research on the MIND diet in older people, who adhered to the diet to the greatest extent, showed a 53% lower rate of Alzheimer’s disease compared with people who followed the diet to a minimal degree. Even moderate adherence to the diet led to a 35% reduction compared to those who followed the diet to the least extent.
The MIND diet added to the benefits from other helpful factors such as “leading a healthy lifestyle, limiting cardiovascular risk factors (e.g., high blood pressure, diabetes, depression, and obesity”).
The article also notes that the MIND diet “may also benefit heart health, diabetes, and certain cancers …”. The authors point out that people who want to adopt this diet will “need to create their own meal plans and recipes based on foods recommended on the MIND diet.”
This blog is based on the review article by the Harvard T.H. chan School of Public Health. It would be worth your while to look it up online.
Peter M. Hartmann, MD
Family Medicine & Psychiatry
