According to the Alzheimer’s Association, there is a correlation between a healthy diet and cognitive decline as you age.
They said, “In our study population, we saw evidence that those who mostly consumed an unhealthy diet had approximately twice as much cognitive decline than those who consumed healthy and unhealthy diets together over time.”
The Swedish study looked at more than 2,000 Swedish seniors 60 years old and older to see if they had cognitive decline over a period of six years. All participants were dementia-free at the beginning of the study.
The study illustrated the differences between the “Western Diet” and the “Prudent Diet”.
Western Diet: More frequent consumption of red/processed meat, saturated/trans-fat, refined grains, sugar, beer and spirits.
Prudent Diet: More frequent consumption of vegetables, fruit, cooking/dressing oil, cereals and legumes, whole grains, rice/pasta, fish, low-fat dairy, poultry and water.
According to the study, the group that most adhered to the latter diet and stayed more away from the former diet were labeled as the “high-protection, low-risk” group, who finished the study with the least amount of cognitive decline. The opposite was true of the “low-protection, high-risk” group.
Even when also adhering to both diets the cognitive decline was in-between, meaning that adhering to the prudent diet could balance out the intake of the western diet.
More studies would have to be conducted to be able to give specific recommendations.
http://alz.org/documents_custom/prudent_die_study_ad_journal_101215.pdf
Razi Berry, Founder and Publisher of Naturopathic Doctor News & Review (ndnr.com) and NaturalPath (thenatpath.com), has spent the last decade as a natural medicine advocate and marketing whiz. She has galvanized and supported the naturopathic community, bringing a higher quality of healthcare to millions of North Americans through her publications. A self-proclaimed health-food junkie and mother of two; she loves all things nature, is obsessed with organic gardening, growing fruit trees (not easy in Phoenix), laughing until she snorts, and homeschooling. She is a little bit crunchy and yes, that is her real name.