The Mind Diet: Can This Diet Plan Help Prevent or Reverse Alzheimer’s Disease?

Should You Try the Mind Diet to Preserve Your Brain's .

Although there are similarities among all three diets, the Mind diet is the only one that encourages the consumption of foods that have been found to promote cognitive health.

Foods like leafy greens, berries, and salmon have been linked to improved cognition. Therefore, these healthy foods are staples in the MIND diet.

But not everyone on a diet is looking to lose weight. Different diets can achieve different results. And if you’re hoping to improve your brain health and prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease, you may consider trying the MIND diet, which has been linked with slower cognitive decline.

Alzheimer’s disease — a progressive and devastating neurodegenerative disease causing memory loss and confusion — affects 5.8 million Americans and is the most common form of dementia, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. It’s the sixth-leading cause of death in the United States, with 1 in every 3 seniors dying with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia.

Although there is no research linking the MIND diet with reversing Alzheimer’s, there’s plenty of evidence supporting the connection between this dietary approach and preventing the disease.

Mind (an acronym that stands for the Mediterranean-DASH intervention for neurodegenerative delay) is a “hybrid of the Mediterranean diet and DASH diet, and research suggests it may reduce the risk of developing dementia or slow the decline in brain health

A Mind Diet Food List With the Best and Worst Foods

To help improve your cognition, you’ll need to reach for and avoid the following foods:

Here are the 10 foods the Mind diet encourages:

Green, leafy vegetables: Aim for six or more servings per week. This includes kale, spinach, cooked greens and salads.

All other vegetables: Try to eat another vegetable in addition to the green leafy vegetables at least once a day. It is best to choose non-starchy vegetables because they have a lot of nutrients with a low number of calories.

Berries:

Eat berries at leasttwice a week. Although the published research only includes strawberries, you should also consume other berries like blueberries,

raspberries and blackberries for their antioxidant benefits (5Trusted Source, 6Trusted Source).

Nuts:

Try to get five servings of nuts or more each week. The creators of the MIND diet

don’t specify what kind of nuts to consume, but it is probably best to vary the type of nuts you eat to obtain a variety of nutrients.

Olive oil:

Use olive oil as your main cooking oil. Check out this article for information about the safety of cooking with olive oil.

Whole grains: Aim for at least three servings daily. Choose whole grains like oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice, whole-wheat pasta and 100% whole-wheat bread.

Fish:

Eat fish at least once a week. It is best to choose fatty fish like salmon, sardines, trout, tuna and mackerel for their high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids.

Beans:

Include beans in at least four meals every week. This includes all beans, lentils and soybeans.

Poultry: Try to eat chicken or turkey at least twice a week. Note that fried chicken is not encouraged on the MIND diet.

Wine: Aim for no more than one glass daily. Both red and white wine may benefit the brain. However, much research has focused on the red wine compound resveratrol, which may help protect against Alzheimer’s disease (7 Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source)