As if anyone needs another reason to eat a Mediterranean diet, (tastes great, good for the heart) the New York Times reports that people who stuck closely to a Mediterranean diet had a 28 percent
lower risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, compared to those
whose eating habits were the least like a Mediterranean diet. The research, conducted at Columbia’s Taub Institute for Research in Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, also found that moderate
followers of a Mediterranean diet showed a trend toward a 17 percent
lower risk than those who ate a distinctly un-Mediterranean diet.
Wait, there’s more: The Times’
Tara Parker-Pope tells us that a Mediterranean diet also appeared to slow decline in those already
diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment. Parker-Pope writes that among the 482 men and women
with mild cognitive impairment at the beginning of the study, 106
developed Alzheimer’s disease about four years later. But among those
who strictly adhered to the Mediterranean diet, risk of Alzheimer’s was
48 percent lower, while risk was 45 percent lower among those who ate a
moderate version of the diet.
Read more from Tara Parker-Pope here.
Read an abstract of the new study in the Archives of Neurology.
What is a Mediterranean diet, exactly?