MIND Diet

Published in

MyWayDNA

5 min readNov 8, 2018

At first, you forget which ice cream you ate yesterday in the park, then where you put the keys and whether you turned off the gas when leaving the house. Next, the disease takes away all the most valuable and important pieces of life: the birthdays of grandchildren, the names and faces of the beloved people.

Alzheimer’s Disease is a degenerative brain disease and the most common cause of dementia. Deterioration of memory, speech, mental abilities, and other cognitive skills affects a person’s ability to live fully. This happens because nerve cells in the cognitive areas of the brain are malfunctioning as they are damaged. Alzheimer’s disease is lethal.

The study of the impact of nutrition on the development of neurodegenerative disease, including dementia, is becoming popular. In the past scientists were concentrated on certain food components, but today more attention is paid to eating patterns and habits in general.

Two diets that are recognized as the most beneficial for health — DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) and the Mediterranean — have given rise to the so-called MIND-Diet.

M — Mediterranean-DASH

I — Intervention for

N — Neurodegenerative

D — Delay

As one study showed, people who strictly follow the MIND diet reduce the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s disease by 53%. Those who follow the recommendations partly still reduce the risk by one third (35%) if their diet mostly consists of recommended products.

The basis of the diet should contain mostly whole, minimally processed products (such as whole grains and legumes), vegetables, fruit, nuts, fish, small amounts of poultry and fat-free dairy products, as well as regular consumption of small amounts of alcohol.

Products that we recommend for mental health:

Vegetables. No less than six servings of leafy greens per week. In addition, one vegetable daily. It is desirable that these are non-starchy vegetables because they have a higher concentration of nutrients at low caloric density.

Nuts. Five servings of nuts per week. Try to consume a variety of nuts, because each sort contains a unique set of nutrients. But remember that nuts are very calorie-dense, so try not to overuse them. One ounce per day gives benefits without overloading the diet with excess calories.

Berries. Consume berries at least twice a week. Give preference to ripe and thermally unprocessed products. The technology of flash freezing and dehydration allows you to preserve most of the nutrients and is a great option when the access to fresh berries is limited.

Beans. Include them in your diet four times a week. Lentil, beans, soybeans, peas, chickpeas, mung beans. Enrich your diet with additional fiber, folate, and protein.

Whole grains. Three times a day. Avoid refined flour and glazed cereal. Give preference to quinoa, unpolished rice, whole grain bread, bulgur, etc.

Fish. Once a week. Choose oily fish — it is a great source of omega-3 fatty acids.

Olive oil. Dress the salads with extra virgin olive oil. If you want to fry something (we do not recommend it, but you might need it sometimes), choose refined olive oil.

Poultry. Twice a week, eat turkey or chicken. Choose lean parts only.

Wine. Usually, most researchers focus on exploring red wine, because it contains resveratrol. But most research suggests that there is no big difference between what kind of wine (or other alcoholic beverage) you choose. So, a glass of red or white wine is recommended for consumption every day.

Products to avoid:

Red meat. Try to completely abandon lamb, pork, beef, and products from them. If you want to keep these foods in your diet, use them no more than once a week.

Full-fat cheese. Limit your consumption to up to once a week.

Butter and margarine. Take no more than 1 tablespoon (14 g) of butter per day and completely exclude margarine from your diets which is a source of trans fats. Butter can be replaced with olive oil and avocado. Season a whole-grain bread sandwich with a piece of ripe avocado instead of butter.

Fried food and fast food. If possible, discard these products completely or consume no more than once a week.

Sweets. Not more than four times a week. Sweets include all that you could think about: candy, cakes, carbonated drinks and yogurt with added sugar. It is very difficult to abandon them. So limit your intake to four times a week and remember that often cakes are not only sources of sugar, but also trans fats.

Mechanisms of action of the diet

One of the key mechanisms of this diet’s effect on brain function is the reduction of oxidative stress and the inflammatory process. Antioxidants (contained in berries) and vitamin E (a component of oils, nuts, seeds, and greens) protect the brain from the effects of free radicals. When these molecules accumulate in our bodies in large quantities, they can cause irreversible harm. Brain cells are especially vulnerable to the action of free radicals, so it’s important to fight the latter to prevent dementia.

Fish, which is the source of valuable omega-3 fatty acids, has anti-inflammatory properties. By reducing the inflammatory processes in the brain, we also help preserve cognitive function and eliminate the development of dementia.

One of the potential mechanisms is also the reduction in the formation of beta-amyloid, which, according to some researcher, is the main cause of Alzheimer’s disease. After all, beta-amyloids, accumulating in the brain, form amyloid plaques, which lead to the death of brain cells. Prevention of the formation of plaques is achieved, on the one hand, due to the presence of a large number of antioxidants and nutrients in the diet. On the other hand — due to the restriction of saturated fatty acids.

Remember that nutrition is just one of the components of Alzheimer’s disease. Move every day. Walk, use ladders instead of elevators and engage in structured physical activity at least twice a week. And also control the level of stress: get enough sleep, communicate more often with your loved ones, use techniques of meditation and relaxation and bring mindfulness into each aspect of your life.