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MIND your diet to reduce aging and risk for dementia

It’s been 4 months since I lost my mother to cancer. But to be honest, I felt like I lost her much sooner than that. While my mother’s diagnosis of cancer was made just 5 months before she passed, she dealt with dementia for at least 15 years. And when a family member has any chronic illness, the family is dealing with it, too.

But there’s good news! A new study out of Columba University finds that a healthy diet is linked with reduced risk of dementia as well as a slower pace of aging. The biological process of how diet protects against aging and the risk of dementia was not well understood until now. The research was published recently in the Annals of Neurology.

According to Daniel Belsky, PhD, associate professor of Epidemiology at Columbia School of Public Health and the Columbia Aging Center, and a senior author of the study, "Much attention to nutrition in dementia research focuses on the way specific nutrients affect the brain".

Heart Study Data Used

Data from the Framington Heart Study, Second Generation, The Offspring Cohort was used in the study. They tested the theory that a nutritious diet may help to prevent dementia by reducing the body’s total pace of aging.

Starting in 1971, subjects in the second-generation group were 60 years or older and without dementia. They also had information on diet, epigenetics, and follow-up data. Nine exams were done as follow-ups in the Offspring Cohort roughly every 4 to 7 years.

Information collected at each follow-up visit included a physical exam, questionnaires on lifestyle, blood samples, and beginning in 1991, neurocognitive testing.  Of the 1,644 subjects who were part of the analysis, 140 developed dementia.

An epigenetic clock called DunedinPACE created by Belsky and colleagues at Duke University and the University of Otago was used to monitor the pace of aging. Belsky describes the clock as a “speedometer for the biological aging process” as it measures how quickly a person’s body is falling apart as they get older.

The MIND Diet and Dementia Connection

"We have some strong evidence that a healthy diet can protect against dementia," said Yian Gu, PhD, associate professor of Neurological Sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center and the other senior author of the study, "But the mechanism of this protection is not well understood." Past research linked both diet and dementia risk to an accelerated pace of biological aging.

Belsky suggests that testing the theory that multi-system biological aging was due to hidden diet-dementia connections was the best next step.

His research discovered that more closely following the MIND diet (Mediterranean-Dash Intervention and Neurogenerative Delay diet, reduced the pace of aging as measured by DunedinPACE and cut the risks for dementia and death.

In addition, slower DunedinPACE was linked to 27% of the diet-dementia link and 57% of the diet-mortality link.

"Our findings suggest that slower pace of aging mediates part of the relationship of healthy diet with reduced dementia risk, and therefore, monitoring pace of aging may inform dementia prevention," said first author Aline Thomas, PhD, a Postdoc at the Columbia Department of Neurology and Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain.”

Dr. Thomas advises that some of the diet-dementia link is not fully explained and more research on brain-specific mechanisms in future studies is needed.

"We suggest that additional observational studies be conducted to investigate direct associations of nutrients with brain aging, and if our observations are also confirmed in more diverse populations, monitoring biological aging, may indeed, inform dementia prevention," noted Belsky.

Here are 10 foods to include in the MIND diet:

1.    Green leafy vegetables. Broccoli, Brussels sprouts, collard and mustard greens, kale, salad, or spinach. Aim for 6 servings per week. Make it once per day to keep it simple! A serving is 1 cup cooked or 2 cups raw.

2.    Lower-carb veggies- eat carrots, onions, peppers, mushrooms and other non-starchy vegetables daily. Add these to salad, soup, or side dishes at least once per day.

3.    Berries of all kinds- include blackberries, blueberries, raspberries, or strawberries at least twice per week. Add them to cereal, yogurt, or eat fruit salad.

4.    Whole grains- go for brown rice, bulgur, farro, quinoa, whole wheat pasta, to name a few. These are higher in fiber and aid with blood sugar management and weight control. Go for 3 servings per day.

5.    Fish- include fish in your diet at least once/week but twice per week is advised by the American Heart Association. Air fry, bake, broil, or grill fish to keep calories and fat in control.

6.    Beans and lentils- include these in your diet 4 times per week. All that fiber is great for your gut microbiome, which plays a part in reducing risk of diseases, including dementia.

7.    Poultry- include chicken or turkey in your diet at least once per week for lean protein. Skip the fried chicken or chicken floating in cream sauce.

8.    Nuts- these make great snacks in place of chips or pretzels. Include a 1 ounce serving of nuts most (5) days per week. These include almonds, pistachios, walnuts or any other kind of nuts you enjoy. Best to eat unsalted or lightly salted.

9.    Olive oil- this is the healthiest oil to cook with. Use it for salad dressing with your favorite vinegar or citrus juice.

10. Wine in moderation (if you drink). I’m not encouraging alcohol for people that don’t already consume it. If you do, one drink/day for women or two drinks/day for men is considered moderate.

Journal Reference:

1.    Aline Thomas, Calen P. Ryan, Avshalom Caspi, Zhonghua Liu, Terrie E. Moffitt, Karen Sugden, Jiayi Zhou, Daniel W. Belsky, Yian Gu. Diet, Pace of Biological Aging, and Risk of Dementia in the Framingham Heart StudyAnnals of Neurology, 2024; DOI: 10.1002/ana.26900

MIND Diet trial:

The MIND Diet Intervention to Prevent Alzheimer's Disease – A Collaboration Between Rush University, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Brigham & Women's Hospital (mind-diet-trial.org)

MIND diet resources:

About - The Official MIND Diet Book Authors — The Official Mind Diet

What is the MIND diet? – Food Insight