Because the MIND diet is a combination of 2 diets, the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet, the respective benefits of which are widely documented. It includes green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale and collards as well as other vegetables, whole grains, olive oil, poultry, fish, beans and nuts. He favors berries over other fruits and recommends one or more servings of fish per week.
The lead author, Dr. Russell P. Sawyer, a neurologist at the University of Cincinnati, recalls that “as the prevalence of dementia increases with aging populations, it is essential to promote simple lifestyle measures to delay or slow down the development of cognitive disorders. Diet is one of their simple choices and can affect the risk of cognitive impairment later in life.”
The study followed for 10 years, 14,145 participants with an average age of 64 years. The participants reported their food intake via questionnaire and the researchers examined how close their diet was to the MIND diet. Among the items considered in this assessment of adherence to the MIND diet were 3 or more daily servings of whole grains, 6 or more weekly servings of green leafy vegetables, 1 or more daily servings of other vegetables, 2 servings per week of or more weekly servings of berries, 1 or more weekly servings of fish, 2 or more weekly servings of poultry, 3 weekly servings of beans (legumes), 2 daily servings of nuts, 4 or less weekly servings of meat red, 1 weekly serving or less of fast or fried foods, 1 weekly serving or more of olive oil, 1 tablespoon or less of butter or margarine per day, 5 weekly servings or less of pastries and sweets and 1 glass of wine per day.
Participants’ cognitive abilities were assessed at the beginning and end of the study.
- During follow-up, 532 or 12% of participants with low adherence to the MIND diet developed cognitive disorders;
- 617 or 11% of the 5,602 participants in the intermediate membership group developed cognitive disorders;
- 402, or 10% of the 4,086 participants in the high adherence group to the MIND diet, developed cognitive disorders;
- After accounting for possible confounding factors such as age, high blood pressure, and diabetes, participants in the high MIND diet adherence group had a 4% lower risk of cognitive impairment compared to the low MIND diet adherence group. .
- After taking gender into account, this reduction in the risk of cognitive impairment is mainly observed in women who strongly adhere to the MIND diet (the reduction in risk then reaches 6%);
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Finally, cognitive decline is significantly slowed by adherence to the MIND diet.
This suggests that the MIND diet is therefore aptly named and that simple dietary changes can reduce or delay the risk of cognitive disorders. A reduction in risk which may seem modest, but which combined with other reductions linked to other lifestyle changes – such as regular exercise or the practice of mental exercises such as chess and crosswords – should not be neglected.
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