Feed Your Brain!

A healthy diet can help reduce the risk of heart disease and improve brain health. In addition to exercise a healthy diet may support brain health by providing essential nutrients, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory compounds. Likewise, avoiding type two diabetes where possible helps as recent research shows this to be a risk factor for developing dementia.

Some dietary patterns that have been associated with cognitive benefits are the Mediterranean diet, the The MIND Diet, and the DASH diet. These diets emphasise fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, fish, nuts, olive oil, and low amounts of red meat, eggs, sweets, and processed foods.

Whatever diet you follow, try to focus on eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein.

Check out these interesting resources about the link between diet and dementia:

Mediterranean diet adherence is associated with lower dementia risk, independent of genetic predisposition: findings from the UK Biobank prospective cohort study | BMC Medicine | Full Text

Diet and dementia | Alzheimer’s Society