Scientists from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and elsewhere found the Mediterranean Diet, keto diet, and MIND diet can slow down or prevent cognitive decline.
Cognitive decline can range from mild cognitive impairment to dementia, a form of decline in abilities severe enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia.
Compelling evidence shows that healthy diets can slow down cognitive decline, suggesting diet is a promising way to protect against dementia.
In the current study, researchers aimed to review and summarize the evidence of three diets, the Mediterranean diet, the ketogenic diet (keto diet), and the MIND diet, for the prevention of cognitive decline.
The Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, or MIND diet, targets the health of the aging brain.
The MIND diet highlights plant-based foods and limits the intake of animal and high-saturated fat foods. It recommends specific “brain healthy” foods to include, and unhealthy food items to limit.
The team did a systematic search in major electronic databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science) up until 31 January 2022.
There were eleven studies with 2609 participants about the Mediterranean diet, seven studies with 313 participants about the ketogenic diet, and one study with 37 participants about the MIND diet.
The team found the participants’ cognitive statuses were normal in seven studies, ten studies included patients with mild cognitive impairments and two studies included Alzheimer’s disease patients.
All three diets have been shown to slow the rate of cognitive decline in the participants.
The Mediterranean diet was shown to be beneficial for general cognition after 10 weeks of adherence.
The keto diet had a beneficial effect on people with diabetes and improved verbal recognition.
The MIND diet showed benefits in obese patients, improving working memory, verbal recognition, memory, and attention.
The research was published in Life (Basel) and conducted by Paschalis Devranis et al.
If you care about brain health, please read studies about how the Mediterranean diet could protect your brain health, and blueberry supplements may prevent cognitive decline.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about antioxidants that could help reduce dementia risk and flavonoid-rich foods that could improve survival in Parkinson’s disease.
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