Is the MIND Diet Right for You?

Alzheimer’s disease and dementia are leading causes of death in the United States, claiming the lives of 1 out of 3 seniors — more than breast and prostate cancer combined. Right now 6.7 million Americans are suffering from this degenerative neurological condition. Moreover, the treatment of Alzheimer’s and related dementias has put a strain on the U.S. healthcare system and will cost $345 billion in 2023.  

Although many people think Alzheimer’s is hereditary, fewer than 1% of diagnosed cases have a genetic component. According to the World Health Organization, risk factors for developing Alzheimer’s are:

• Being 65 years of age or older
• Having high blood pressure
• Having high blood sugar
• Being physically inactive
• Being overweight or obese
• Smoking
• Drinking to excess
• Being socially isolated and/or depressed

Poor sleep and certain medications have also been linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease.

If poor lifestyle choices increase one’s risk of getting Alzheimer’s or dementia, it stands to reason that healthy choices can be preventative. In fact, regular exercise improves cognitive function in people with the disease. 

In 2015, Dr. Martha Clay Morris, an epidemiologist at Rush University, decided to explore whether diet could have similar effects after noticing the patients who followed the DASH and Mediterranean Diets had better cognitive function overall. Morris and her team combined elements of both diets to form the guidelines for the MIND diet.

MIND is the acronym for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, a catchy way to associate the diet with its potential benefits. More research is needed before the scientific community can say with certainty that the MIND diet lowers your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, but, those who want to improve their health through proper nutrition should know that the MIND diet, with its emphasis on plant-based and minimally-processed foods, can lower blood pressure and blood sugar levels — both risk factors for the disease. Eating whole foods and limiting animal fats is also a good way to lose weight naturally, without counting calories.

MIND Diet Basics

The MIND diet identifies 10 food groups that are optimal for brain health and issues guidelines for recommended servings. They are:

• Whole grains, such as oatmeal, brown rice, and quinoa (three or more servings per day)
• Vegetables, such as broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and squash (two or more servings per day)
• Leafy green vegetables — a separate vegetable category — such as kale, romaine lettuce, collard greens, and arugula (one or more servings per day)
• Olive oil (daily as an added fat to foods)
• Nuts, such as almonds, cashews, and walnuts (five or more servings per week)
• Beans, such as garbanzo beans, tofu, lentils, and black beans (four or more servings per week)
• Poultry, such as chicken or turkey (two or more servings per week)
• Berries, such as raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, and kiwis (two or more servings per week)
• Fatty fish, such as salmon, mackerel, and sardines (one or more servings per week)
• Wine (one glass a day, and this is optional)

The diet also has a short list of foods to avoid or eat sparingly. They are:

• Butter or margarine (less than one tablespoon per day)
• Pastries and sweets (less than five servings per week)
• Red meat (less than four servings a week)
• Cheese and fried foods (less than one serving a week each)

Although the diet doesn’t eliminate animal protein, it does recommend limiting the amount of meat you consume overall and substituting beans and legumes to meet your daily protein requirements. 

The MIND diet urges people to eat food that is minimally processed — for example, apples rather than applesauce or homemade soup over soup from a can. Processed food tends to be calorie-dense, and the process by which a whole food becomes ready-to-eat can strip it of vitamins and micronutrients. Moreover, processed food is often high in both sugar and added salt.

Other than the recommended portion guidelines, the MIND diet doesn’t tell you how much to eat or what specific foods to eat. Because individual foods contain different nutritional properties, it stands to reason that eating a variety of foods within each of the food groups is key. 

Evidence That the MIND Diet Prevents Alzheimer’s Disease

Frankly, there isn’t a whole lot of conclusive evidence. The original study led by Dr. Martha Morris in 2015 showed that people with high MIND scores — that is, people who ate a large number of the recommended foods — had a 53% lower rate of Alzheimer’s even when adjusting for other risk factors of dementia. Several other cohort studies have since shown a correlation between high MIND scores and better cognitive function, higher memory scores, and a lower risk of dementia.  

Unfortunately, the results of the first large clinical trial are inconclusive. The study focused on adults over the age of 65 with suboptimal diets and divided them into an intervention group, which followed the MIND diet, and a control group. Both groups were instructed to reduce their calorie intake by 250 calories a day.

The result? Both the intervention and control groups showed signs of improved cognitive function after the three-year study was over. But that doesn’t disprove the possible cognitive benefits of the MIND diet; there could be flaws in the way the study was designed. Three years may not have been long enough to yield conclusive benefits, for example, or the control group improved their eating habits when asked to lower their calorie intake. 

It will take more clinical trials, with varying parameters, to establish a clearer link between the MIND diet and the prevention of Alzheimer’s and related dementias.

Proven Health Benefits of Foods Recommended on the MIND Diet

As a business owner and entrepreneur, you are probably skeptical of the latest trends in food science. Especially without conclusive scientific evidence, the MIND diet’s fundamental claim — that it can protect you from Alzheimer’s and dementia — is unproven, so what’s to say this isn’t just another fad?

For one thing, both the DASH and Mediterranean diets — remember, MIND combines the guidelines of these two eating plans — do have proven health benefits. Along with a regular exercise plan, this diet can reduce or eliminate many of the known risk factors for Alzheimer’s, and that will be to some degree protective, as long as you aren’t part of the 1% for whom there is a genetic link. 

Another element to note about the efficacy of this diet plan? The individual food groups have scientifically proven health benefits. Here are just a few of the 10 food groups included in the MIND diet and their individual benefits.

Nuts

Despite the fact that they are high in fat, nuts are one of the healthiest foods you can eat. They are rich in nutrients like magnesium and vitamin E, an antioxidant shown to  slow down mild cognitive impairment. A large 2013 study found an association between people who consume nuts on a daily basis and a decreased risk of mortality, meaning that eating nuts may improve longevity.

If you’re aiming to improve cognition, a recent study suggests that walnuts are the most beneficial nut to eat. 

Berries

First off, did you know that avocados and kiwis were…berries? That was news to me! 

Berries are the one fruit group specifically mentioned by the MIND researchers, and for good reason. Berries contain concentrated nourishment for the seeds they protect and are therefore nutrient-rich. They contain vitamins, minerals, antiinflammatories, antioxidants, and micronutrients. 

For instance, the once-faddish goji berry contains vitamins A, B2, and C, iron, and antioxidants. Traditional Chinese medicine has used this berry in remedies for thousands of years.

Beans

Beans are packed with protein, and when combined with whole grains they contain all the essential amino acids humans cannot make themselves. Thus, vegans do not need to consume animal protein in order to get complete protein. Like animal protein, beans are also rich in iron and zinc, making them one of the best meat substitutes out there.

Beans have a number of beneficial health properties. When obese men had beans as their primary protein source, they lost more weight, concluding that beans may help with weight loss. Beans also play a role in preventing cardiovascular disease, and they can control diabetes by slowing the release of blood sugar. 

Some Final Observations

Researchers have not conclusively proven that the MIND diet protects you from cognitive decline, including Alzheimer’s disease. Nevertheless, many of the foods on this diet are scientifically proven to improve cognitive function and prevent diseases associated with metabolic syndrome including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and kidney disease. These same diseases are known risk factors for Alzheimer’s, so it stands to reason that, if you eat the foods recommended by the MIND guidelines, you will have fewer risk factors for Alzheimer’s and dementia.

In the studies conducted thus far, the more MIND foods you consume, the greater the benefits. In particular, substituting animal proteins for plant-based proteins has benefits, especially in improving cardiovascular health.

By placing its emphasis on whole foods and plant-based nutrition, the MIND diet is also better for the sustainability of our planet. Eating this diet will lower your carbon footprint and help conserve groundwater, a scarce commodity in communities around the globe. If you’re going to stick around longer, you might as well make the world a better place to live in.