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Certain foods may feed the brain better than others.
New research presented this week at NUTRITION 2025, the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Orlando, Florida, found that the MIND diet is particularly beneficial for cognitive health.
People who followed the MIND eating plan — which stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay — were “significantly less likely” to develop Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia, according to a press release from the American Society for Nutrition.
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What is the MIND diet?
MIND is a hybrid of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), the latter of which is designed to reduce blood pressure.
The diet focuses on “brain-healthy foods” like leafy green vegetables, berries, nuts and olive oil.
“The MIND diet is unique as the first eating plan focused on foods to specifically improve and support cognitive health,” Lauren Harris-Pincus, registered dietitian nutritionist and founder of NutritionStarringYOU.com and author of “The Everything Easy Pre-Diabetes Cookbook,” told Fox News Digital.
The plant-focused MIND diet highlights 10 types of food, including berries, leafy greens, veggies, whole grains, nuts and seeds, beans, legumes, seafood, poultry and olive oil, according to Harris-Pincus, who was not involved in the research.
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“These focus foods contain nutrients that play a critical role in supporting brain health, including flavonoids, carotenoids, B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids (especially DHA), choline, and minerals like magnesium, potassium and calcium,” she said.
“The diet also suggests limiting foods such as pastries, refined sugar, red meat, cheese, fried foods, fast food, and butter or margarine.”
MIND’s impact on brain health
Researchers from the University of Hawaii analyzed data from nearly 93,000 U.S. adults who reported their dietary habits during the 1990s as part of the Multiethnic Cohort Study.
At the start of the study, participants ranged in age from 45 to 75.
“The MIND diet is unique as the first eating plan focused on foods to specifically improve and support cognitive health.”
In analyzing which participants developed Alzheimer’s or other dementias in later years, the MIND eating plan performed better than other healthy diets in terms of reducing dementia risk, with benefits seen among both younger and older groups.
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Those who followed the diet were shown to have an overall 9% reduced risk of dementia, and some groups — African American, Latino and White participants — showed a 13% lower risk.
Asian-Americans and native Hawaiians did not show as pronounced of a risk reduction.
The longer people adhered to the diet, the greater the reduction of risk. Those who followed the plan over a 10-year period had a 25% lower risk compared to those who didn’t stick with it.
“Our study findings confirm that healthy dietary patterns in mid to late life and their improvement over time may prevent Alzheimer’s and related dementias,” said Song-Yi Park, PhD, associate professor at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, in the release.
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“This suggests that it is never too late to adopt a healthy diet to prevent dementia.”
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