20 Jul 2023 • Results are in from the highly anticipated clinical trial on the Mediterranean-DASH Diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay or MIND diet — a diet designed specifically to boost the brain — and they are less stellar than anticipated.

What is the MIND diet?

• Developed in 2015 by researchers at Rush University in Chicago, the MIND diet incorporates much of the plant-based Mediterranean diet, which focuses on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, beans, seeds, nuts and a lot of extra-virgin olive oil. Red meat and sweets are eaten rarely, but fish, which are packed with good-for-you omega-3 fatty acids, are a staple.
• The MIND diet also assimilates elements of the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (or DASH) diet.
• The standard DASH diet limits salt to 2,300 milligrams a day, less than a teaspoon of table salt.
• The MIND diet takes the Mediterranean and DASH diets to the next level by focusing on foods known to boost brain health.
• Berries are stressed over other fruits on the MIND diet. In addition, three servings of whole grain should be eaten daily. Beans should be eaten in four meals a week, nuts five times a week, poultry in two meals a week and fish at least once a week.
• A 2017 study of nearly 6,000 healthy older Americans with an average age of 68 found those who followed the Mediterranean or MIND diet lowered their risk of dementia by one-third.

The recent study findings, published Tuesday in the journal New England Journal of Medicine, followed 604 overweight people over 65 for three years. The results, however, concluded that among cognitively unimpaired participants with a family history of dementia, changes in cognition and brain MRI outcomes from baseline to year 3 did not differ significantly between those who followed the MIND diet and those who followed the control diet with mild caloric restriction.

Source: NEJM | Read full story