New hybrid 'MIND diet' can cut Alzheimer's risk by 53%

Washington: A new hybrid diet, called MIND, can help cut Alzheimer's risk by 53 percent in people who can follow it rigorously, it has been reported.

Rush nutritional epidemiologist Martha Clare Morris, PhD, and colleagues developed the "Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay" (MIND) diet.

The study showed that the MIND diet lowered the risk of AD by as much as 53 percent in participants who adhered to the diet rigorously, and by about 35 percent in those who followed it moderately well.

The MIND diet was a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets, both of which have been found to reduce the risk of cardiovascular conditions, like hypertension, heart attack and stroke. Some researchers have found that the two older diets provide protection against dementia as well.

In the latest study, the MIND diet was compared with the two other diets. People with high adherence to the DASH and Mediterranean diets also had reductions in AD, 39 percent with the DASH diet and 54 percent with the Mediterranean diet, but got negligible benefits from moderate adherence to either of the two other diets.

The MIND diet has 15 dietary components, including 10 "brain-healthy food groups," green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, nuts, berries, beans, whole grains, fish, poultry, olive oil and wine, and five unhealthy groups that comprise red meats, butter and stick margarine, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried or fast food.

With the MIND diet, a person who eats at least three servings of whole grains, a salad and one other vegetable every day, along with a glass of wine; snacks most days on nuts, has beans every other day or so, eats poultry and berries at least twice a week and fish at least once a week and benefit.

However, he or she must limits intake of the designated unhealthy foods, especially butter (less than 1 tablespoon a day), cheese, and fried or fast food (less than a serving a week for any of the three), to have a real shot at avoiding the devastating effects of AD, berries are the only fruit specifically to make the MIND diet, according to the study.

The MIND diet was also easier to follow than, say, the Mediterranean diet, which calls for daily consumption of fish and 3-4 daily servings of each of fruits and vegetables.

The study is published in the journal Alzheimer's and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association.