Healthy diet found by Canadian researchers to reduce dementia risk

William Atkins
Tuesday, 13 November 2007 02:53

Science - Health

Carol E. Greenwood and Matthew D. Parrott conducted a study whose November 2007 conclusion finds a substantial relationship between a healthy diet of fruit, vegetables, cereals, and fish, and a reduced risk from dementia.           

Specifically, they state in the abstract to their paper, “Human epidemiologic studies provide convincing evidence that dietary patterns practiced during adulthood are important contributors to age-related cognitive decline and dementia risk. Diets high in fat, especially trans and saturated fats, adversely affect cognition, while those high in fruits, vegetables, cereals, and fish are associated with better cognitive function and lower risk of dementia.”

Greenwood and Parrott, both professors in the Department of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Toronto (Canada) and researchers at the Canada Kunin-Lunenfeld Applied Research Unit, Baycrest (Toronto), found that controlling one’s weight reduces obesity-related disorders, which directly results in maintaining and improving one’s cognitive health.

Although they do not know the specific reasons involved in the relationship between such healthy foods and better cognitive health, Greenwood and Parrott recognize that the healthy foods recognized in their study to improve cognitive health are also the healthy foods that are linked with fewer heart attacks and strokes and other such problems associated with the aging process.

In fact, the abstract further states, “While the precise physiologic mechanisms underlying these dietary influences are not completely understood, modulation of brain insulin activity and neuroinflammation likely contribute.”

The researchers published their result in the November 2007article “Diet Linked To Cognitive Decline And Dementia,” in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (volume 1114), which is part of the Healthy Aging and Longevity, Third International Conference.