Those who follow the Mediterranean and MIND diets could be at a lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a recent study found.
Researchers from the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, Illinois, conducted the study, which was published in the journal Neurology.
The researchers analyzed the autopsy results of 581 participants of the Rush Memory and Aging Project, who had provided their complete dietary information at the start of the study. Those who followed a Mediterranean diet — particularly green, leafy vegetables — showed fewer signs of Alzheimer’s in their brain tissue.
In an email to Fox News Digital, the study’s lead author called the findings “encouraging.”
The Mediterranean diet is a plant-based nutrition plan that mimics the regional cuisines of the countries along the Mediterranean Sea, such as Italy and Greece.
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Its mainstay foods include whole vegetables, whole grains, fruits, nuts, seeds, and herbs and spices, according to the Mayo Clinic’s website. Olive oil is the primary source of added fat.
Other foods — including fish, poultry and dairy — can be incorporated in moderation. The diet limits red meat, sweets, butter and sugary drinks.
The MIND diet — a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH diets — is designed to promote brain health in older adults. Dr. Martha Clare Morris and colleagues at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health and Rush University Medical Center first introduced it in 2015.
Meanwhile, the DASH diet was introduced by the American Heart Association in 1996 as a dietary approach to lowering blood pressure. Its core foods are fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, poultry, beans, nuts and low-fat milk.
Alzheimer’s disease occurs when substances called “plaques” and “tangles” form in the brain.
Plaques are “deposits of a protein fragment called beta-amyloid that build up in the spaces between nerve cells,” according to the Alzheimer’s Association website.
Tangles are “twisted fibers of another protein called tau that build up inside cells.”
H/T Fox News (read more at FoxNews.com)
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