A Study Links the MIND Diet to Slower Brain Aging

A way of eating that mixes the Mediterranean diet with a plan to lower blood pressure may help slow some changes that happen as the brain ages. That is the finding of a study published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. The plan is called the MIND diet, which stands for Mediterranean-Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.

This eating plan highlights fish, poultry, beans, nuts, whole grains, olive oil, berries, and green leafy vegetables along with other vegetables. It suggests limiting butter and margarine, cheese, red meat, pastries and sweets, and fried fast food.

Earlier studies linked the MIND diet with better thinking and memory. This one asked about changes in the structure of the brain. The researchers followed 1,647 middle-aged and older adults from the Framingham Heart Study. Their average age was 60 at the start. They had health checks every four to eight years and brain scans, called MRIs, every two to six years from 1999. People filled in food questionnaires, and none had a stroke or dementia at their first scan. A person's MIND diet score could go up to 15, and the average was just under 7.

Over an average of 12 years, scans showed the expected changes with age across the group, such as a smaller overall brain, less grey matter, less white matter and a smaller hippocampus. Grey matter is important for memory, learning, decision-making and processing information. Fluid-filled spaces in the brain, called ventricles, grew, which happens as brain tissue shrinks.

But people with higher MIND diet scores lost grey matter more slowly, and their ventricles grew less. The strongest differences were equal to about 2.5 years of delayed brain aging. Berries and poultry were linked to healthier brain changes, while sweets and fried fast foods were linked to greater tissue loss.

People who followed the diet most closely were more likely to be women and to have been to college. They were also less likely to smoke or to have obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or heart disease.