Keep Your Mind Sharp by Following the DASH Diet

A brain which works at its best helps promote optimal quality of life. Your brain and its health are influenced by a number of factors including your diet. When considering the best way to eat for your brains health a whole diet approach is recommended. Each food can provide several nutrients which support your brain’s health but no one food can give your brain everything it needs for optimal functioning.

You may have heard of the DASH diet. The DASH diet stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet (DASH diet). This diet was originally developed to help reduce your risk of high blood pressure and heart disease.

The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet includes eating nine to ten servings of fruit and vegetables each day. Also, plenty of wholegrains like wholegrain pasta, rice, & wholegrain containing foods like wholegrain bread, crackers, Corn Thins slices, or couscous or quinoa. Also, there are plenty of legumes and beans, nuts, and seeds. As well as dairy and moderate amounts of seafood and white meat like chicken and turkey. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension diet limits red and processed meats as well as sweetened beverages and sodium.

New research suggests that the DASH diet may help promote the functioning of another major organ, your brain. The researchers investigated the effects of dietary changes during middle age and the effects on your brains function later in life. Researchers found that the DASH diet was linked to a lower likelihood of memory loss and other signs of mental decline in later years of life.

The researchers chose women as their subjects. This sex was chosen as women are at greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s, a form of dementia.  The study followed thousands of women for thirty years. The average age at the beginning of the study was forty-nine and at the end the average age of women was seventy-nine.

At the end of the study the women reported any cognitive complaints. In addition, the researchers asked questions if the women had difficulties understanding group conversations, spoken instructions, remembering recent events or shopping lists, and if they had any difficulties navigating in familiar locations. Thirty three percent of women reported having at least one of these difficulties at the end of the thirty years follow up.

The impact of diet choices appeared to make a difference in brain function. Researchers found that those women who more closely followed the DASH diet had a seventeen percent lower chance of reporting cognitive impairments.

Take home message: Your diet choices influence the health and functioning of your brain. The DASH diet can be one diet which helps promote your grey matter to stay sharp as you age. Keeping your quality of life optimal and helping you to live your best life.

References:

Yixiao Song, Fen Wu, Sneha Sharma, Tess V. Clendenen, Sandra India‐Aldana, Yelena Afanasyeva, Yian Gu, Karen L. Koenig, Anne Zeleniuch‐Jacquotte, Yu Chen. Mid‐life adherence