Valentine for your body and brain

Eating a Mediterranean diet appears to be associated with less risk of mild cognitive impairment—a stage between normal aging and dementia—or of transitioning from mild cognitive impairment into Alzheimer’s disease, according to a report in the February issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

“Among behavioral traits, diet may play an important role in the cause and prevention of Alzheimer’s disease,” explained Nikolaos Scarmeas, M.D., and Columbia University Medical Center research team in the article. Previous studies have shown a lower risk for Alzheimer’s disease among those who eat a Mediterranean diet, characterized by high intakes of vegetables, legumes, fruits, cereals and unsaturated fatty acids, low intakes of dairy products, meat and saturated fats and moderate alcohol consumption. While fish is also allowed on the Mediterranean diet, registered dietition Gail Nelson writes in VRG.org that you can get its healthy benefits (primarily omega-3 fatty acids) from fish-free foods such as flaxseed oil, ground flaxseed (good on salads), canola oil, soybean oil, soybeans, walnuts, walnut oil, and purslane.

The Mediterranean diet may improve cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels and blood vessel health overall, or reduce inflammation, all of which have been associated with mild cognitive impairment. Individual food components of the diet also may have an influence on cognitive risk. “For example, potentially beneficial effects for mild cognitive impairment or mild cognitive impairment conversion to Alzheimer’s disease have been reported for alcohol, fish, polyunsaturated fatty acids (also for age-related cognitive decline) and lower levels of saturated fatty acids,” noted the New York-based research.