Diet

You can help your brain, especially as it ages, by eating and drinking right

Exercise & healthy diet associated with better cognition

  • A very large study found higher levels of physical activity, eating more fruits and vegetables, and not being obese, were all linked to better cognition in younger & older adults.

A Canadian study involving 45,522 adults (30+) found that higher levels of physical activity, eating more fruits and vegetables, and having a BMI in the normal weight or overweight range were each associated with better cognitive function in both younger and older adults.

Specifically, for those who were normal weight or overweight (but not obese), eating more than 10 servings of fruit and vegetable daily was linked to better cognitive functioning. When moderate exercise was added, those eating less than five servings, reported better cognitive functioning.

Analysis also suggested that higher levels of physical activity may be in part responsible for the relationship between higher daily fruit and vegetable consumption and better cognitive performance.

Reference: 

Alina Cohen, Chris I Ardern, Joseph Baker, Physical activity mediates the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and cognitive functioning: a cross-sectional analysis, Journal of Public Health, Volume 39, Issue 4, December 2017, Pages e161–e169, https://doi.org/10.1093/pubmed/fdw113

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Cocoa & chocolate good for your cognition

A 2017 review of research has concluded that, although the number of studies into the cognitive effects of the cocoa bean is limited and has produced mixed results, on balance the evidence points to positive cognitive effects from regular intake of “cocoa flavanols”, as well as immediate benefits from consumption.

General cognition, attention, processing speed, and memory, have all shown benefits from regular consumption, particularly in those who are operating under some difficulty, such as older adults (and even more so for older adults with mild cognitive impairment). Immediate benefits occur particularly in demanding conditions, such as when you are fatigued or sleep deprived.

Cocoa flavanols have beneficial effects for cardiovascular health and can increase cerebral blood volume in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, an area particularly affected by aging.

Reference: 

Socci, V., Tempesta, D., Desideri, G., De Gennaro, L., & Ferrara, M. (2017). Enhancing Human Cognition with Cocoa Flavonoids. Frontiers in Nutrition, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2017.00019

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One meal high in saturated fat impairs our concentration

A study looking at how 51 women performed on a test of their attention after they ate either a meal high in saturated fat or the same meal made with sunflower oil (high in unsaturated fat), found their performance was worse after eating the high-saturated-fat meal than after they ate the meal containing a healthier fat.

This is particularly remarkable when you consider that both meals with high in fat, being designed to resemble fast-food meals that you might get at McDonald’s or Burger King. So this is showing that even this slight improvement can have a noticeable effect.

Additionally, those who had signs of leaky gut performed worse no matter which meal they had eaten.

Reference: 

Madison, A.A. et al. 2020. Afternoon distraction: a high-saturated-fat meal and endotoxemia impact postmeal attention in a randomized crossover trial, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 111 (6), 1150–1158, https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/nqaa085

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Diet may help preserve cognitive function

Analysis of data from the Age-Related Eye Disease Study (AREDS) and AREDS2, involving a total of around 8,000 older adults, has found that those with the greatest adherence to the Mediterranean diet had the lowest risk of cognitive impairment. High fish and vegetable consumption appeared to have the greatest protective effect. At 10 years, AREDS2 participants with the highest fish consumption had the slowest rate of cognitive decline.

Those with the Alzheimer's gene ApoE4 on average had lower cognitive function scores and greater decline than those without the gene, but close adherence to a Mediterranean diet had similar benefits for people with and without the ApoE4 gene.

Reference: 

Keenan TD, Agron E, Mares J, Clemons TE, van Asten F, Swaroop A, and Chew E, for the AREDS and AREDS2 research groups. Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and cognitive function in the Age-Related Eye Disease Studies 1 & 2. April 14, 2020. Alzheimer's and Dementia.

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Western-style diet impairs brain function and increases desirability of sugary foods

A study involving 110 lean and healthy students (aged 20-23) found that those randomly assigned to a high energy western-style diet for a week performed worse on a memory test compared to those who ate their normal healthy diet. Moreover, those on the unhealthy diet then showed a greater tendency to eat more sugary foods.

The students at the beginning and end of the study were given breakfast in the lab. Before and after the meal, they completed word memory tests and scored a range of high-sugar breakfast foods according to how much they wanted and then liked the foods on eating them.

The more desirable people found the sugary food when full, following the western-style diet, the more impaired they were on the cognitive test. It’s suggested that both reflect impairment in hippocampal function.

Reference: 

Stevenson, R. J., Francis, H. M., Attuquayefio, T., Gupta, D., Yeomans, M. R., Oaten, M. J., & Davidson, T. (n.d.). Hippocampal-dependent appetitive control is impaired by experimental exposure to a Western-style diet. Royal Society Open Science, 7(2), 191338. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.191338

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Low carb diet may prevent, reverse age-related effects in the brain

A study has found evidence that brain changes associated with aging can be seen at a much younger age than would be expected, in the late 40s. However, this process may be prevented or reversed based on dietary changes that involve minimizing the consumption of simple carbohydrates.

It’s suggested that, as people get older, their brains start to lose the ability to metabolize glucose efficiently, causing neurons to slowly starve, and brain networks to destabilize.

The evidence came from two large-scale brain neuroimaging datasets involving nearly 1,000 individuals (age 18-88). This data revealed that functional communication between brain regions destabilizes with age, typically in the late 40's, and that destabilization correlates with poorer cognition and accelerates with Type 2 diabetes.

The researchers then selected an additional 42 adults under the age of 50, to test whether giving the brain a more efficient fuel source, in the form of ketones, either by following a low-carb diet or drinking ketone supplements, could provide the brain with greater energy. It was found that even in younger individuals, this added energy further stabilized brain networks.

Brain network stability was tested after participants had spent one week on a standard (unrestricted) vs. low carb diet (e.g., meat or fish with salad, but no sugar, grains, rice, starchy vegetables).

To pinpoint whether glucose vs. ketones was the crucial difference, another group was scanned before and after drinking a small dose of glucose on one day, and ketones on the other. The same result was found, confirming that the crucial difference between the diets was the type of fuel they provide to the brain.

A mouse study also found that a ketogenic diet significantly improved memory in aging mice.

Different groups of mice were given carefully designed diets that were matched in every way except fat and carbohydrate content: a normal high-carbohydrate diet, a zero-carbohydrate ketogenic diet, and a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that was not ketogenic. Mice were fed the ketogenic diet intermittently to prevent them from becoming obese, starting at one year old - middle age for mice.

Mice that had been eating a ketogenic diet performed at least as well on memory tests at old age as they did at middle age, while mice eating the normal diet showed an expected age-associated decline. Mice who ate the ketogenic diet also explored more, and their improved memory was confirmed with another test a few months later.

All the mice ate a normal diet during the actual memory testing, suggesting the effects of the ketogenic diet were lasting.

People shouldn’t get carried away with these findings. Ketogenic diets are used clinically for life-threatening conditions, and many experts say such a diet is dangerous. People should consult a health care professional before trying it on their own. A better way of getting the effects may be through exercise, which also creates ketone bodies.

Reference: 

Mujica-Parodi, L.R. et al. Diet modulates brain network stability, a biomarker for brain aging, in young adults. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Mar 2020, 117 (11) 6170-6177. https://www.pnas.org/content/117/11/6170

Newman, J. C., Covarrubias, A. J., Zhao, M., Yu, X., Gut, P., Ng, C.-P., Huang, Y., Haldar, S., & Verdin, E. (2017). Ketogenic Diet Reduces Midlife Mortality and Improves Memory in Aging Mice. Cell Metabolism, 26(3), 547-557.e8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cmet.2017.08.004

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Healthy lifestyle associated with lower dementia risk regardless of genes

  • A very large study found that an unhealthy lifestyle and high genetic risk were independently associated with higher dementia risk, and a healthy lifestyle reduced the risk for those at high genetic risk.

Data from 196,383 older adults (60+; mean age 64) in the UK Biobank found that a healthy lifestyle was associated with lower dementia risk regardless of genes.

Both an unhealthy lifestyle and high genetic risk were associated with higher dementia risk.

Lifestyle factors included smoking, physical activity, diet, and alcohol consumption. Bearing in mind that lifestyle factors were self-reported, 68.1% followed a healthy lifestyle, 23.6% were intermediate, and 8.2% followed an unhealthy lifestyle. Regarding genes, 20% were at high risk, 60% were intermediate, and 20% were at low risk.

Of those at high genetic risk, 1.23% developed dementia in the 8-year period (remember that these are people who are still relatively — the average age at study end would still only be 72), compared with 0.63% of those at low genetic risk. Of those at high genetic risk plus an unhealthy lifestyle, 1.78% developed dementia compared to 0.56% of those at low risk with a healthy lifestyle. Among those who had a high genetic risk but a healthy lifestyle, 1.13% developed dementia in the period.

I trust that these people will continue to be followed — it will be very interesting to see the statistics in another 10 years.

There were 1,769 new cases of dementia during the 8-year study period.

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2019-07/jn-ihl071219.php

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/jul/14/healthy-lifestyle-may-cut-risk-of-dementia-regardless-of-genes

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