Eating a diet rich in fruits and vegetables is effortless for a longer and healthier life, but a recent study found that it may also help prevent dementia in the future.
in a Learn Researchers at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece found that a diet rich in foods with less inflammation reduces the risk of dementia compared with a diet with a higher intake of high-inflammatory foods.
Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas, associate professor of neurology at the university, said that although the impact of diet on brain health is not fully understood, the results of the study show that healthier foods can deter cognitive problems in later life.
“Diet may affect brain health through a variety of mechanisms, and according to our research results, inflammation may be one of them,” Skamias told United News International (UPI).
The study used a questionnaire that was answered by 1,000 people in Greece, and the average age of the participants was 73 years. No one had dementia at the beginning of the study, but after more than three years of follow-up, 6% of people had dementia. The researchers used the diet inflammation scoring system, and the results ranged from -8.87 to 7.98. The higher the score, the more severe the diet inflammation.
Those with lower scores are less likely to be affected by dementia at the end of the study. For those in this range, it was found that their diet included 20 servings of fruit, 19 servings of vegetables, 4 servings of beans or other legumes, and 11 servings of coffee or tea per week.
Scarmeas explained that the nutrients contained in these foods have a stronger anti-inflammatory effect. However, he insisted that the results do not directly prove that these diets can prevent dementia, and that longer follow-up periods are needed to draw stronger conclusions.
according to Alzheimer’s Disease Website, More than 6 million Americans suffer from this disease, which is the most common form of dementia. It added that more than one-third of the elderly die of dementia each year, and the death rate is higher than that of breast and prostate cancer combined.
