We’ve all seen the nutritional chaos that throws different diets all over the place.  Some of the newer diets that people have started reaching for are diets like “gluten free”, “paleo”, “keto.”  And no worries…. I’ll certainly be back around to share my research & thoughts on all of those!  But for today, I want to share the results from a study that came out of Chicago & was published in 2015 on the MIND diet.

What exactly is this new diet?  Could it be…. is it for… (the mind?!)

Amazingly enough, as the name suggests; YES, it is for the mind.  MIND diet stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.  In less of a mouthful: it’s meant to help reduce the risk of developing or in slowing the progression of Alzheimer’s Disease. Alzheimer’s Disease is the leading cause of dementia.  If you’re not familiar with dementia, it’s the process of losing your ability to think, remember, and reason. In 2015, the statistics for dementia were pretty scary!  47 million people around the world had dementia, the cost was around $818 BILLION, and the number of people affected was projected to triple by 2050!

Like any disease, there are certain factors that can increase or decrease your risk of being affected.  With dementia, there are both uncontrollable & controllable risk factors.  Things we cannot control would be risk factors such as advancing age, or genetics.  However, the factors that we do have some control over are lifestyle and diet related.  Some of these factors that increase your risk for dementia are

• leaving school prior to age 16
• smoking
• high blood pressure
• diabetes
• high total cholesterol
• obesity
• depression
• physical activity
• excessive alcohol intake
• social isolation
• unhealthy diet

Diets and nutrition have been studied for a long time to try and find links between what we’re eating and better overall brain function.  There are two diets that are still very popular:

1. The Mediterranean Diet, which has shown to help reduce the risk of cancer and heart disease. This diet tend to be high in healthy fats, lots of fish, & whole grains. 2. The DASH diet, which has been shown to reduce the risk of heart attacks, high blood pressure & stroke.  This diet is high in fruits & veggies & low fat dairy products.

 

People noticed that these diets seemed to really help slow down mental decline, but didn’t really do much for prevention.  So a team of scientists at Rush University Medical Center started a project.  It was the Rush Memory & Aging Project and the purpose was to study the aging process and evaluate nutrition in seniors following the MIND, Mediterranean, and DASH diets.  Parts of the Mediterranean & DASH diets were picked through to find the foods best known for having protective properties for the brain.

Here’s what the diet consisted of:

10 brain healthy foods to increase:

1. Green leafy veggies – at least 6 servings per week
2. Other veggies besides green leafy – at least 1 per day
3. Increased intake of nuts – at least 5 servings per week
4. Berries – at least 2 servings per week
5. Olive oil – make this the primary oil used
6.  Whole grains – at least 3 servings per day
7.  Beans – at least 3 servings per week
8. Poultry – at least 2 meals per week
9. Fish – at least 1 serving per week
10. Wine – 1 glass per day (So I’ll go ahead and point out here that a serving of wine is generally about 5oz.)

The other part of the MIND diet is to decrease/limit other foods.

1. Red meat – less than 4 meals per week
2. Butter & stick margarine – less than 1 tablespoon per day
3. Cheese – less than 1 serving per week
4. Fast food/Fried food – less than 1 time per week
5. Sweets – less than 5 per week

This study started out with 1,545 people enrolled.  These participants were all senior citizens in Chicago and were evaluated from February 2004-2013.  Over time, some people were no longer eligible to complete the study for various reasons.  In the end, the results were calculated from 960 people.  Scientists took this time to study the relationship of their diet and how it related to Alzheimer’s. The results were really promising!  It showed that people following the MIND diet did in fact have a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer’s by as much as 53%!  And for the people who only followed the diet a little, it STILL showed a reduced risk of 35%.  This was great data because until that point, the studies on the Mediterranean & the DASH diet showed benefits only if people stuck to the diet closely.

So we have this new study & this new diet…. what exactly are we supposed to do with it now?

I want you to use it to look at your own diet and lifestyle factors.  Keep in mind, this was one study.  People get frustrated with nutrition when recommendations change, but as new information and new research is available… it WILL change!  It takes a very long time to get solid, consistent, reliable data.  However, we can look at some of the recommendations that have been consistent and start to see patterns.  Recommendations to increase your vegetables & eat whole grains & less fried foods have been around for a long time!  Even this study pointed out the benefits, only this time it was specific to brain function.  There definitely will be more to come on this topic!  But this study was a pretty great introduction & the results were amazing.  I think it shows that we have a lot more control over our future and just how important nutrition can be in making choices that will affect us down the road.

 

If any of you guys want to see the study, I’ll link it below along with some other sites on the topic:

• The study
• Article from Rush University
• Article from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics