Researchers have found one more advantage of including Mediterranean foods in your diet, and it is a low risk of memory deterioration with age.


What Is Mediterranean Diet?

The Mediterranean diet is composed of fresh fruits, green leafy vegetables, nuts, olive oil, beans, and fish; the diet eliminates the consumption of dairy foods, saturated foods, and red meat. Numerous research done to find out the effectiveness of Mediterranean diet has concluded that people who consume this diet are at a reduced risk of getting cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, and in turn live a longer happier life The Mediterranean diet contains of unsaturated fatty acids like omega-3 and antioxidants, which helps to maintain the health of the brain and heart.

How The Study Was Conducted?

The study’s lead author, Dr. Georgios Tsivgoulis of the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Athens, Greece, says that as there are no accurate cures for many brain diseases, but that it is imperative to make life style changes to help slow down the process.

The study, which was published in the Neurology, a scientific journal, was conducted on people who live in the South-eastern region of the Unite States. This region is also known as the “Stroke Belt” since there are higher frequencies of strokes among people. Researchers found that people in this region who were following the Mediterranean diet were at a lower risk of developing memory decline as compared to people who were not eating the Mediterranean diet.

The researchers gathered details of the eating habits from more than seventeen thousand Caucasians and African-Americans who were more than sixty years of age. Participants of the study were also tested for mental and intellectual skills for more than four years.

It was found that more than 7% of the members established decline in their memory and thinking abilities during the period of study. Besides, people who were following the Mediterranean diet experienced a nineteen percent decline for the risk of developing memory loss. However, diabetics who were following this eating habit were not shown to have reduced mental decline. According to researchers, this may have occurred because people with diabetes have higher amounts of insulin or hypoglycaemia that damages the brain; this damage cannot be corrected by changing to healthy diet only.

Conclusion

Researchers concluded that there is no confirmation to prove that people dealing with thinking debility will notice a reversal in their symptoms after following a Mediterranean diet. However, studies indicate that people can protect their memory from declining further by eating healthy.

Tsivgoulis says that shifting to healthy dietary habits is an integral change that one can make to help retain the proper memory functioning in later years. But, it is not only the diet modification that can bring about drastic improvement. There are other lifestyle adjustments that are important to follow in order to preserve your memory functioning, and these are quitting smoking, limiting alcohol, shedding excessive weight, exercising, and taking medicines for diseases like hypertension and diabetes.