Erwachsene ab 60 Jahren und älter, die sich an eine gesunde Ernährung haften, hatten 40% niedrigere Wahrscheinlichkeit, kognitive Dysfunktionen zu erkennen. Diäten wie Mittelmeer und Geist betonen Obst, Gemüse, Vollkornprodukte, Hülsenfrüchte, Nüsse, Olivenöl, gemäßigte Fische und Geflügel und begrenzen rotes Fleisch, Süßigkeiten, Gebäck und gebratene Lebensmittel.
Healthy diet is associated with better cognitive functioning in the elderly
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I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0197457225001491
From the linked article:
A meta-analysis of studies exploring the links between diet quality and cognitive functioning in **individuals aged 60 years and older revealed that those adhering to a healthy dietary pattern have 40% lower odds of suffering from cognitive dysfunction**. The paper was published in Geriatric Nursing.
The search resulted in 15 independent studies with a combined sample of more than 62,500 participants. Taken together, these studies indicated that **older adults adhering to a healthy dietary pattern had 40% lower odds of experiencing cognitive dysfunction** compared to their peers with less healthy diets. Although the results were highly heterogeneous across studies, the researchers found that no single study disproportionately influenced the overall findings.
A healthy dietary pattern in this study refers to diets shown in previous research to support overall health, such as the **Mediterranean diet and the MIND diet. These patterns emphasize fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, olive oil, moderate fish and poultry, and limited consumption of red meat, sweets, pastries, and fried foods**.
This is really interesting, a 40% reduction in odds is pretty substantial for something as accessible as dietary changes.
What caught my attention is how they managed the heterogeneity across studies. Meta-analyses in nutrition research are notoriously tricky because of all the confounding variables, socioeconomic status, education levels, overall health behaviors, etc. The fact that no single study skewed the results is reassuring.
I’m curious about the mechanism here though. Is it the anti-inflammatory properties of these diets? Better vascular health leading to improved cerebral blood flow? Or maybe its more about what these diets exclude rather than include.
The Mediterranean and MIND diets have been studied pretty extensively, but I wonder if there’s newer research looking at the specific biomarkers that might mediate this relationship. Would be interesting to see if there are any longitudinal studies tracking cognitive decline over time rather than just cross-sectional snapshots.
Thanks for sharing the actual paper link – always appreciate when people go beyond just the press release!
Could there be confounders in that those who eat healthily probably do other things to boost their health, including their mental health. If this was not allowed for in the studies it may not be the diet that is having this effect.
Study after study, over and over again – eat healthy, sleep healthy and exercise and the odds are massively in your favour unless your genes have sabotaged you.
People just don’t bother because being old is so far away that eating rubbish now can’t possibly have an effect. Unfortunately, a lot of people start when it’s too late.
So don’t eat any type of food that actually tastes good (okay, some fruits taste nice, I’ll give you that)?
Yeah, I’ve NEVER heard this one before…
Yes rich people are healthier