In an effort to shed more light on the potential links between diet and cognition, the researchers randomly assigned nearly 4. A Mediterranean diet supplemented with 1 liter of extra virgin olive oil per week. A Mediterranean diet supplemented with 3. A low fat diet Brain function tests were conducted before and after the study. Those following a Mediterranean diet with supplemental nuts showed significant improvement in memory, while those who got supplemental olive oil experienced significantly improved cognition. The low fat group, on the other hand, experienced a significant decrease in both memory and cognitive function. Older Adults Suffer Less Brain Shrinkage on Mediterranean Diet. More recently, scientists found that a Mediterranean style diet also helps reduce age related brain shrinkage in older adults. As reported by the LA Times 1. In a group of 5. 62 Scots in their 7. Mediterranean diet experienced, on average, half the brain shrinkage that was normal for the group as a whole over a three year period The researchers used the food frequency surveys to divide the group into two those who at least approximated a Mediterranean style diet and those who came nowhere close. Even though many in the Med diet group were far from perfect in their adherence, the average brain volume loss differed significantly between the two groups. Your Brain Needs Healthy Fats for Optimal Function. Results such as these certainly make sense when you consider how important healthy fats are for your brain function. After all, your brain is composed of at least 6. DHA, found in seafood such as clean fish and krill oil. That said, its important to choose your seafood wisely. What youre looking for are fish high in healthy fats, such as omega 3, while also being low in mercury and other environmental pollutants. Good choices include smaller fatty fish like sardines, anchovies and herring. As a general rule, the lower on the food chain the fish is, the less likely it is to contain harmful levels of contaminants. Many of these smaller fish also contain higher amounts of omega 3, so its a win win. Wild caught Alaskan salmon is another healthy choice. If you avoid fish, its important to take a high quality omega 3 supplement such as krill oil. Besides fish, other examples of beneficial fats that your body and your brain in particular needs for optimal function include avocado, organic grass fed raw butter, clarified butter called ghee, olives, organic virgin olive oil and coconut oil, nuts like pecans and macadamia and free range eggs. Its also important to avoid sugars and processed grains. Research from the Mayo Clinic shows diets rich in carbohydrates are associated with an 8. Omega 3 Is Important for Other Psychiatric Conditions as Well. Animal based omega 3 in combination with vitamin D has also been shown to improve cognitive function and behavior associated with certain psychiatric conditions, including ADHD, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia in part by regulating your brains serotonin levels. The omega 3 fat EPA reduces inflammatory signaling molecules in your brain that inhibit serotonin release from presynaptic neurons, thereby boosting your serotonin levels. DHA which is an important structural component of your brain cells also has a beneficial influence on serotonin receptors by increasing their access to serotonin. Other diets shown to be particularly beneficial for brain health include the DASH and the MIND diets,2. What these three diets have in common is an emphasis on whole foods, particularly fresh fruits and vegetables, and at least SOME healthy fats. Considering the importance of eating real food, its not so surprising that the DASH diet, Mediterranean diet and MIND diet rank No. Benefits of the DASH Diet. The DASH diet in particular has been shown to be quite effective for lowering your risk of hypertension. However, I believe the real reason for this effect is not due to the reduction in salt but rather the reduction in processed foods, which is high in fructose. As your insulin and leptin levels rise in response to net carbs, it causes your blood pressure to increase. Excess fructose promotes hypertension to a far greater degree than excess salt. One 2. 01. 0 study. Hg stage 2 hypertension. Consuming 7. 4 grams or more of fructose per day also increased the risk of a 1. Elevated uric acid levels are also significantly associated with hypertension by inhibiting nitric oxide in your blood vessels, and fructose elevates uric acid. In fact, uric acid is a byproduct of fructose metabolism. So, by eliminating excess sugar and fructose from your diet, you effectively address root issues that contribute to high blood pressure. I recommend keeping your total fructose consumption below 2. If youre insulin resistant about 8. Americans are, have high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease or other chronic disease, youd be wise to limit your fructose to 1. As for the issue of salt which the DASH diet restricts, its important to realize that salt is actually essential for maintaining and regulating blood pressure. The key is to use the right kind of salt. Adherence to Mediterranean diet and health status meta analysis. Abstract. Objective To systematically review all the prospective cohort studies that have analysed the relation between adherence to a Mediterranean diet, mortality, and incidence of chronic diseases in a primary prevention setting. Design Meta analysis of prospective cohort studies. Data sources English and non English publications in Pub. Med, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials from 1. June 2. 00. 8. Studies reviewed Studies that analysed prospectively the association between adherence to a Mediterranean diet, mortality, and incidence of diseases 1. Results The cumulative analysis among eight cohorts 5. Mediterranean diet showed that a two point increase in the adherence score was significantly associated with a reduced risk of mortality pooled relative risk 0. Likewise, the analyses showed a beneficial role for greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet on cardiovascular mortality pooled relative risk 0. Parkinsons disease and Alzheimers disease 0. Conclusions Greater adherence to a Mediterranean diet is associated with a significant improvement in health status, as seen by a significant reduction in overall mortality 9, mortality from cardiovascular diseases 9, incidence of or mortality from cancer 6, and incidence of Parkinsons disease and Alzheimers disease 1. These results seem to be clinically relevant for public health, in particular for encouraging a Mediterranean like dietary pattern for primary prevention of major chronic diseases. Introduction. The Mediterranean diet, representing the dietary pattern usually consumed among the populations bordering the Mediterranean sea, has been widely reported to be a model of healthy eating for its contribution to a favourable health status and a better quality of life. Since the first data from the seven countries study,3 several studies in different populations have established a beneficial role for the main components of the Mediterranean diet on the occurrence of cardiovascular diseases and chronic degenerative diseases. However, research interest in this field over the past years has been focused on estimating adherence to the whole Mediterranean diet rather than analysing the individual components of the dietary pattern in relation to the health status of the population. This because the analyses of single nutrients ignore important interactions between components of a diet and, more importantly, because people do not eat isolated nutrients. Hence, dietary scores estimating adherence to a Mediterranean diet, devised a priori on the basis of the characteristic components of the traditional diet of the Mediterranean area, have been found to be associated with a reduction of overall mortality and mortality from cardiovascular diseases and cancer. The aim of this study was to do a systematic review with meta analysis of all the available prospective cohort studies that have assessed the association between adherence to a Mediterranean diet and adverse outcomes, in order to establish the role of adherence to a Mediterranean diet in primary prevention. Methods. Data sources. We focused on prospective studies investigating the association between adherence to a Mediterranean diet and health outcomes. We searched Pub. Med, Embase, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases up to 3. June 2. 00. 8, using a search strategy that included both truncated free text and exploded Me. SH terms. Me. SH headings included Mediterranean, diet, dietary pattern, disease, health, cardiovascular disease, cerebrovascular disease, coronary heart disease, degenerative diseases, cancer, neoplasm, prospective, follow up, or cohort, and their variants. The search strategy had no language restrictions. We also consulted references from the extracted articles and reviews to complete the data bank. When multiple articles for a single study were present, we used the latest publication and supplemented it, if necessary, with data from the most complete or updated publication. We assessed the relevance of studies by using a hierarchical approach based on title, abstract, and the full manuscript. Study selection. We identified studies that prospectively evaluated the association of an a priori score used for assessing adherence to a Mediterranean diet and adverse clinical outcomes. We excluded the studies if they had a cross sectional or case control design, if they analysed adherence to a non specific dietary pattern or to a recommended dietary guideline and not to a Mediterranean diet, if they evaluated a cohort of patients with a previous clinical event that is, secondary prevention, if they did not adjust for potential confounders, and if they did not report an adequate statistical analysis. Figure 1 shows the process of study selection. Our initial search yielded 6. Of the remaining 4. Mediterranean diet, was evaluated n3 cross sectional or case control design was used n1. We excluded four additional articles because they represented duplicate studies, so we included only the latest or the more complete paper in the final analysis. Finally, 1. 2 articles fulfilled our inclusion criteria. Fig 1 Process of study selection. Data extraction. We extracted the following baseline characteristics from the original reports by using a standardised data extraction form and included them in the meta analysis lead author, year of publication, cohort name, country of origin of the cohort, sample size of the cohort and number of outcomes, duration of follow up, age at entry, sex, outcome, components of the score for adherence to a Mediterranean diet, and variables that entered into the multivariable model as potential confounders table 1. Two investigators FS and FC collected the data, and disagreements were solved by consensus and by the opinion of a third author AC, if necessary. Outcomes of interest were overall mortality, mortality from cardiovascular diseases, incidence of or mortality from cancer, as well as occurrence of Parkinsons disease and Alzheimers disease. Table 1 Study characteristics. We assessed the quality of the studies according to the number of participants, the duration of follow up, and adjustment for potential confounders. We considered studies with a high number of participants long duration of follow up and adjustment for confounders including demographic, anthropometric, and traditional risk factors to be of high quality. Definition of adherence to Mediterranean diet. Adherence to a Mediterranean diet was defined through scores that estimated the conformity of the dietary pattern of the studied population with the traditional Mediterranean dietary pattern. Values of zero or one were assigned to each dietary component by using as cut offs the overall sex specific medians among the study participants. Specifically, people whose consumption of components considered to be part of a Mediterranean diet vegetables, fruits, legumes, cereals, fish, and a moderate intake of red wine during meals was above the median consumption of the population were assigned a value of one, whereas a value of zero was given to those with consumptions below the median. By contrast, people whose consumption of components presumed not to form part of a Mediterranean diet red and processed meats, dairy products was above the median consumption of the population had a value of zero assigned, and the others had a value of one. However, some differences among the studies existed, especially in relation to the food category of vegetables grouped with potatoes in one studyw. Thus, the total adherence scores estimated as the sum of the above indicated scores of zero and one varied from a minimum of 0 points indicating low adherence to a maximum of 7 9 points reflecting high adherence to a Mediterranean diet. Statistical analysis. We used Rev. Man, version 4.