A Better Brain Diet

With 5.4 million Americans already living with Alzheimer’s disease, one in five suffering with mild cognitive impairment and the 2012 failure of targeted pharmaceutical drug trials, many brain health experts are now focusing on food as a critical defense against dementia. ”Over the past several years, there have been many well designed scientific studies that show you are what you eat when it comes to preserving and improving memory,” says Dr. Richard Isaacson at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. The American Medical Association and Archives of Neurology have shown that people on a Mediterranean type diet, high in antioxidant rich fruits & vegetables, whole grains and fatty fish and low in refined carbohydrates and saturated fats tend to fend off cognitive decline longer and be less prone to developing full blown Alzheimer’s disease. Choose fats wisely: There are numerous studies suggesting a link between saturated fat in butter, cooking oil, cheese and processed meats and increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. In contrast those that eat more fatty fish such as herring, halibut and wild catch salmon that are rich in the anti-inflammatory omega-3 fatty acid DHA, are at lower risk. DHA, when it’s a steady part of the diet, plays a critical role in forming the protective “skin of the brain” known as the bilipid membrane, and may possibly offset production of plaque in the brain, thus slowing down it’s progression during the earliest stages of dementia. Eat more berries : In general, antioxidant rich fruits (especially berries) and vegetables are major preventers of oxidative stress, the cell damaging process that occurs naturally as we age. Rich in antioxidant flavonoids, blueberries may even have “specific anti Alzheimer’s and cell saving properties.”