"Health from eating" series | What can you eat to delay brain aging? MIND dietary pattern can help you

As people age, their brain power declines to some extent, but the rate of cognitive decline may vary greatly from person to person. Some nutritional intervention studies that have been conducted have found that simply providing middle-aged and elderly people with some nutrients known to be beneficial to the brain's nervous system, such as vitamin E and DHA, does not seem to have a significant effect on preventing brain aging.

However, observational studies have found that changing the overall dietary pattern is helpful. Healthy dietary patterns such as the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet are beneficial for delaying cognitive decline. Some researchers combined these two dietary patterns, incorporating various food factors known to be beneficial to the health of the brain's nervous system, and summarized them into the MIND dietary pattern, and found that it can protect the cognitive ability of the elderly and help prevent Alzheimer's disease and other dementias.

So, what exactly does one need to eat for this MIND dietary pattern that combines the best of both worlds?

1. Eat enough of the three core foods: green leafy vegetables, fish and whole grains. In addition, eat nuts and oilseeds regularly, eat fruits appropriately, replace red meat with poultry, replace butter with olive oil, and strictly limit fried foods, fast food, high-salt foods, sweets and drinks, etc.

2. Proper intake of fish can help provide omega-3 fatty acids such as DHA and EPA. Eating fish two or three times a week is a good dietary habit. The cholesterol content in brain tissue is particularly high, so there is no need to worry about the cholesterol in moderate amounts of fish, shrimp and one egg yolk.

3. Replacing some refined staple foods with whole grains is not only beneficial for controlling blood sugar, but also provides more B vitamins, vitamin E, potassium and dietary fiber, which are beneficial to intestinal health, blood pressure health and brain health.

4. Nuts and oil seeds are beneficial to improving blood lipids, and can provide a large amount of vitamin E, as well as B vitamins, potassium, magnesium and dietary fiber.

5. Fruits can provide a variety of antioxidants and potassium. Berries, in particular, are considered to be particularly beneficial for improving cognitive function.

6. Epidemiological studies have found that dark green leafy vegetables such as Chinese cabbage, rapeseed, and kale may have a good effect on delaying cognitive decline in the elderly.

(The author is Professor Fan Zhihong, a registered nutritionist in China and the School of Food Science and Engineering at China Agricultural University)