Ep. 128: The MIND Diet for Improving Brain Health, Part 2
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The latest research has shown that the MIND diet—a cross between the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet— could slow down the onset of Alzheimer’s. There’s more research in the works, and it could make for even more progress in our understanding of the ways our diet can affect, repair and improve our brains. In the final episode of our three-part series on Alzheimer’s, Leslie Beck continues her conversation with two of the researchers who helped develop the MIND diet: cognitive neurologist Dr. Neelum Aggarwal, and nutritionist Dr. Christy Tangney, both of Chicago’s Rush University Medical Center. Make sure to check out the first part of their conversation to learn about how the MIND diet was developed and which brain-healthy food groups it includes.
LINKS
This pair of observational studies were co-authored by Dr. Aggarwal and Dr. Tangney and published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia back in 2015. These studies first put the MIND diet on the map.
Learn more about the MIND diet randomized controlled trial, designed to establish causality, and meet the researchers.
Learn more about the MIND diet and cognition with these helpful articles:
Can Certain Foods Really Stave Off Dementia? In the New York Times, April 2022.
Talking food and brain health with Dr. Martha Clare Morris, lead researcher of the MIND diet study in Dr. Annie Fenn’s blog, Brain Health Kitchen.
Leslie Beck has written about the MIND diet in her column in the Globe and Mail:
How (and why) to ‘green’ your Mediterranean diet (January 2022)
To protect your brain, add these brightly coloured fruits and vegetables to your diet (August 2021)
Anti-inflammatory diet may be best to slow cognitive aging (November 2021)
Follow the MIND diet to stave off Alzheimer’s (April 2015)
Since this article was published, the recommended servings of certain brain-healthy foods have changed. Listen to Part 1 to learn about why researchers have adjusted recommended servings.
Learn more about the MIND diet randomized controlled trial, designed to establish causality, and meet the researchers.
Dr. Martha Clare Morris & her daughter, Laura Morris, wrote a book on the MIND diet, and how to incorporate it into your lifestyle. That’s called Diet For The Mind. Check it out at Chapters/Indigo and Amazon.
Read up on more relevant scientific research:
Dr. Christy Tangney is a principal investigator of the US Pointer trial: The Alzheimer's Association U.S. Study to Protect Brain Health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk.
Dr. Tangney also mentions the PREDIMED trial, which was published in the April 2013 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, and found that a “Mediterranean diet supplemented with extra-virgin olive oil or nuts reduced the incidence of major cardiovascular events.”
The Health and Retirement Study was published in the August 2017 issue of the Journal of American Geriatrics Society, and found that the study participants who most closely adhered to either the Mediterranean diet or the MIND diet had a 30 to 35% lower risk of cognitive impairment.
Dr. Aggarwal is a co-author of this study, published in the June 2019 issue of the Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, which found that “high adherence to the MIND diet was associated with a slower rate of cognitive decline after stroke.”
INSIGHTS
Dr. Tangney and Dr. Aggarwal break down the brain unhealthy food groups, and suggest how to limit or avoid them. [1:57]
How did researchers develop a MIND diet score, and how can it help empower clinicians? [6:07]
The Mediterranean diet can be difficult to follow, because it requires almost daily consumption of expensive foods like fish and olive oil. How is the MIND diet more attainable for people living in North America? [7:50]
“Many of the components that we talk about being cognitively healthy are the same components that are heart healthy,” says Dr. Tangney. How are heart health and brain health connected? [9:39]
How might a consumption of brain-healthy foods affect our brain size, and the preservation of white and grey matter? [12:30]
Many of the nutrients in the MIND diet’s brain-healthy foods can also be found in supplements. Why is it better for our health to get our nutrients from food rather than from supplements? [15:37]
When people with Alzheimer’s start to experience symptoms, it often means that the changes in their brains started up to 20 years prior. The MIND diet can help slow those brain changes and slow the onset of symptoms. [16:22]
Dr. Tangney and Dr. Aggarwal are lead researchers of an ongoing study investigating the ways the MIND diet can repair the brain after it has been damaged by a stroke. [18:47]
Dr. Tangney is a principal investigator of The U.S. Pointer Trial, where she is studying the ways that lifestyle habits can possibly improve brain health. [20:45]
Dr. Tangney’s three tips for listeners:
Grow or buy lots of leafy greens.
Swap a handful of candy for a handful of nuts
When eating out, ask for extra-virgin olive oil instead of butter.
Dr. Aggarwal’s three tips for listeners:
Be intentional about what you eat by having some quiet time or meditation before or after meal times.
Get out there and start exercising! Start thinking about how exercise allows for not only a healthier lifestyle, but a healthy brain.
When you sleep better, you make healthier choices. Do anything you can to get a good night’s sleep.
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