Diet That Will Cut Your Alzheimer’s Risk in Half

More than 5 million Americans are currently living with Alzheimer’s disease — the most common form of dementia that affects memory, cognitive processes, and behavior. If you could prevent yourself from becoming a part of that statistic simply by eating certain foods most days, would you?

According to new research published in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia, a new diet, appropriately called the MIND diet, may lower a person’s risk of developing the disease by up to 53 percent.

And you don’t even have to follow the diet meticulously to reap the benefits: Participants who followed it moderately well still lowered their risk by 35 percent.

So what does the diet entail exactly? It’s actually a fusion of two diets — the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet — which have been getting a lot of attention lately for their heart-healthy benefits. The MIND diet has 15 dietary components made up of 10 brain-healthy foods and five unhealthy groups to avoid.

On the menu: Leafy greens, vegetables, nuts, berries, beans, whole grains, fish, poultry, olive oil, and wine

Off the regular menu: Red meat, cheese, sweets, and fried foods are limited to less than one serving per week and butter and margarine to less than 1 tablespoon per day

The study, which looked at almost 1,000 participants over a 9-year period, suggests that the longer an individual followed this diet, the less likely they were to develop Alzheimer’s. While researchers say more studies needs to be conducted to confirm a cause-and-effect relationship between the MIND diet and reduction of Alzheimer’s risk, the results are promising. Plus, eating this way will help lower your risk of a host of other conditions, including diabetes and heart disease.

We want to know: Will you adopt this healthy diet to lower your risk of Alzheimer’s?

Reposted from Everyday Health.