Alzheimer's & Dementia, Health, Safety and Wellness

Fighting Dementia With Diet

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Brookdale Senior Living offers multiple care levels for seniors in more than 600 communities nationwide. Brookdale helps you find the right care plan for yourself or your loved one. With amenities such as transportation services, salons and private dining rooms and activities such as gardening, fitness classes and trivia nights Brookdale caters to a wide range of interests and needs.

There has been a lot written in recent years about the benefits of eating a Mediterranean diet for weight loss, heart health and a longer life expectancy. But increasingly researchers are finding that these diets may be an effective way of actually lowering the risk or slowing the development of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. In a 2018 study, researchers with the National Institutes of Health found as much as a three-and-a-half-year delay in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease in people who have eaten a Mediterranean diet for many years.

While there is no single definition of the ‘Mediterranean diet,’ it is a way of eating based on the traditional cuisine of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. Mediterranean diets are based around vegetables, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts and seeds, and olive oil and are much lower than Western diets in the intake of red meats, sweets and processed foods. Americans typically consume beef five of six times a week, while the Mediterranean diets put a much higher emphasis on fish as a source of protein and recommends only one or two servings of beef per week.

The MIND diet takes two proven diets—DASH and Mediterranean—and zeroes in on the foods in each that specifically affect brain health. The DASH Diet, or "Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension," advocates for a diet low in saturated fat and sodium.

The MIND diet, which stands for "Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay," was developed by Martha Clare Morris, a nutritional epidemiologist at Rush University Medical Center. The diet focuses on adhering to the healthy eating principals of the Mediterranean diet, but also focuses on consuming 10 brain healthy foods:

whole grains
veggies
leafy greens
nuts
beans
berries
poultry
fish
olive oil
wine

It also suggests avoiding 5 "brain-harming" foods:

butter and stick margarine
whole fat cheese
fried fast foods
red meat
pastries and sweets

Although there is no certain way to prevent Alzheimer’s disease, initial research suggests eating healthful mainstays such as leafy greens, nuts and berries and avoiding the brain-harming foods maylower a person’s risk of developing Alzheimer’s by as much as 53%!

Sara Casey, Brookdale’s Director of Nutrition, is a certified specialist in gerontological nutrition with a strong background in nutrition care management for older adults. She suggests four simple steps to gradually adopt these healthier diets:

Start slow and make small positive changes. If you try to make drastic changes to your diet it almost invariable leads to failure. Crash diets just don’t work. But by gradually adopting healthy habits, it becomes a lifestyle change you can sustain over the long haul.
Cook and eat at home more often. We all know the portions sizes in restaurants are typically HUGE. By eating at home you can control the portion size on the plate and ensure you’re using healthy oils and fresh ingredients so your food is prepared in accordance with Mediterranean cooking methods.
Replace sugary beverages with flavored waters. This is a big one. Sugary soda drinks or processed juices contain empty calories and unhealthy amounts of carbohydrates that lead to weight gain. By replacing these drinks with water you’ll start feeling better and find it easier to control your weight, not to mention the benefits for brain health.
Build your diet around healthy vegetables (not meat). Have a vegetarian meal 1-2 times per week. You can also make sure to include two healthy servings of fresh vegetables in every meal. Build on this momentum of eating more fresh vegetables by adopting one new healthy habit per week and before you know it you will be eating a brain-healthy diet.

The MIND and Mediterranean diets help to boost antioxidants, increase healthy fats and lower inflammation, all of which are crucial to brain health as we age.

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