The MIND diet is a new diet associated with reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease. It was developed by researchers at Rush University who style it after the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet, while tailoring the diet more to protection of the brain. They based the modifications on human and animal studies of the effect of nutrition on cognitive decline.

The MIND acronym comes from “Mediterranean-DASH diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.

The researchers studied relationship of the MIND diet as well as the DASH and Mediterranean Diets to cognitive status of nearly a thousand retirees in the Memory and Aging Project in Chicago over several years. They found that those who followed the MIND diet closely had a 53% in the rate of developing Alzheimer’s Disease and even those who followed it moderately well had a 35% reduction.

The researchers used a questionnaire to ascertain how closely the participants followed the MIND diet. This questionnaire resulted in a maximum score of 15.

This is what you have to eat (and not eat) to get the full 15 points:

This is what you should eat:

1. Green, Leafy vegetables,  6 or more servings per week
2. Other vegetables, at least 1 serving per day
3. Berries, especially strawberries, 2 or more servings/week
4. Nuts, 5 or more servings/week
5. Olive Oil, use as primary oil
6. Whole grains, 3 or more servings/day
7. Fish, 1 or more servings/week
8. Beans, more than 3 times/week
9. Poultry, 2 or more servings/week
10. Wine, 1 glass/day

This is what you should AVOID (or limit as shown):

1. Red Meat, not more than 3 meals per week
2. Butter and Margarine, less than 1 Tablespoon/day
3. Fast foods & Fried foods, less than once a week
4. Pastries & sweets, not more than 4 servings/weeks
5. Cheese, less than once a week

The good news for me is that this is just about what I have been eating anyway.  The biggest problem for me is the cheese limit. Really? Less than once a week?

But, there is always room for improvement.  I will be exploring more details about each of these requirements. That is the main focus of my blog.

References:

Morris, M. C., Tangney, C. C., Wang, Y., Sacks, F. M., Barnes, L. L., Bennett, D. A., & Aggarwal, N. T. (2015). Mediterranean-dietary approach to systolic hypertension diet intervention for neurodegenerative delay diet slows cognitive decline with aging. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2015.04.011

Morris, M. C., Tangney, C. C., Wang, Y., Sacks, F. M., Bennett, D. A., & Aggarwal, N. T. (2015). MIND diet associated with reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s Disease. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2014.11.009