Med diet protects against dementia and memory loss
Eating a Mediterranean diet—and cutting back on red meat and processed food—could protect you from dementia and general cognitive decline as you get older.
The diet is high in polyphenols, plant-based molecules that researchers believe can protect against dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers from Ben-Gurion University in Israel have tested various diets—including two types of Mediterranean diet—on a group of 284 people, whose brains were measured 18 months later by MRI scans.
The researchers were shocked by the extent of shrinkage in the brains of those over 50 who were eating a standard ‘healthy’ diet. But there was hardly any shrinkage in either of the groups eating a Mediterranean diet: one was eating walnuts with the diet, and the other was also drinking five cups of green tea a day and replacing the evening meal with a green shake drink.
Polyphenols are antioxidants and anti-inflammatory, and they can reduce neuroinflammation and encourage new cell growth in the brain, especially in the hippocampus, the area of the brain associated with memory.
Am J Clin Nutr, 2022; doi: 10.1093/ajcn/nqac001
Goji berries protect our eyesight as we get older
Eating goji berries could help keep our eyesight sharp as we get older.
Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is a common problem of failing eyesight as we age—affecting around 170 million people around the world—but it can be
