Along with getting regular exercise and keeping vices like drinking and smoking in check, the best way to prepare your body for the future is to maintain a decent diet.
Lots of whole foods, vegetables, protein sources, healthy fats, grains, seed and nuts, along with plenty of water, are all par for the course as far as healthy, balanced diets go, but you can take a more granular approach if there are certain things you want to shore up against.
When it comes to awful illnesses looming in later life, dementia is one of the most frightening. In the UK, 7.1% of people over 65 are living with dementia, or around 1 in 11.
Dementia isn’t a diagnosis in and of itself, instead referring to damage caused to the brain by conditions like Alzheimer’s disease. It’s categorised by early symptoms including memory loss, difficulty concentrating, increased difficulty or confusion in carrying out daily tasks, difficulty in following conversations or finding words, losing track of time and place, and abrupt mood changes.
As it progresses, these symptoms get increasingly worse. Memory can be almost entirely deleted by its progression, and people can lose mobility, become emotionally volatile, lose all sense of reason and a grip on reality, lose their appetite, and become incontinent.
Over time, Alzheimer’s, Lewy bodies, vascular and frontotemporal dementia rob people of their independence, identity and function.
The causes for each form of dementia are multifarious, with many triggers for those causes being poorly understood. In terms of prevention, there are no guaranteed ways to prevent its development. However, you can reduce your risk through your lifestyle.
According to NHS, those mitigating lifestyle factors include: eating a balanced diet
maintaining a healthy weight, exercising regularly, sticking within recommended alcohol limits, quitting smoking, and maintaining a healthy blood pressure.
In terms of diet, one eating plan in particular shows promise as a dementia-preventer, with it being associated with a reduced risk of up to 25%.
According to research shown at NUTRITION 2025, which is the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Orlando, Florida, the ‘MIND’ diet can be particularly effective at keeping your brain healthy.
MIND stands for ‘Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay’, with a press release from the American Society of Nutrition saying people who follow it are ‘significantly less likely’ to develop Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
MIND is essentially a blend of the Mediterranean diet, typically viewed as one of the healthiest you can adopt, and the DASH diet.
DASH is itself a modification of the Mediterranean diet, and stands for ‘Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension’. It’s a recommended diet for reducing blood pressure, with high blood pressure being a risk factor in developing dementia.
MIND thus focuses on foods known for promoting brain health, including nuts, berries, olive oil and dark, leafy vegetables. It’s a mostly plant-focused diet which also focuses on whole grains, seeds, beans, legumes, and vegetables, with seafood and poultry recommended too.
"The MIND diet is unique as the first eating plan focused on foods to specifically improve and support cognitive health," said Lauren Harris-Pincus, a registered dietitian nutritionist, according to FOX News.
“These focus foods contain nutrients that play a critical role in supporting brain health, including flavonoids, carotenoids, B vitamins, omega-3 fatty acids (especially DHA), choline, and minerals like magnesium, potassium and calcium.
"The diet also suggests limiting foods such as pastries, refined sugar, red meat, cheese, fried foods, fast food, and butter or margarine.”
MIND is supported by research from the University of Hawaii which analysed data from almost 93,000 adults in the US. Participants logged their dietary habits through the 1990s via the Multiethnic Cohort Study, and their ages ranged from 45 to 75.
Of those participants, those who followed a MIND-like diet were less likely to reduce dementia in their later years when compared with other healthy diets.
Those following MIND had an overall drop in dementia risk of 9%, with the African American, Latino and White participants showing a 13% reduction.
Curiously, Asian-Americans and Hawaiian natives didn’t have a significant risk reduction from the diet.
The reduction in risk was also linked with the diet’s longevity, with more time equating to a great risk reduction. Researchers found that following the MIND diet over 10 years showed a 25% reduced risk compared with those who didn’t follow it.
"Our study findings confirm that healthy dietary patterns in mid to late life and their improvement over time may prevent Alzheimer’s and related dementias," said Song-Yi Park, PhD, associate professor at the University of Hawaii.
"This suggests that it is never too late to adopt a healthy diet to prevent dementia."
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Rachael Davis