There are countless diets out there these days, most of them designed towards weight loss or fitness regimes. But there are a few that have appeared that target other areas, such as longevity and disease prevention. One diet that I have been implementing for the past couple years is the MIND diet. Although it is not a diet aimed specifically at longevity, it does target one area that can deteriorate in later years – brain health, specifically Alzheimer’s disease.

One reason Alzheimer’s disease gets so much attention is due to its prevalence with increasing age. The following are the percentages of the population in different age groups that have Alzheimer’s disease.

Age 65-74: 3%

Age 75-84: 17%

Age 85+: 32%

As you can see AD is definitely an age associated disease, with a third of the population that is over 85 having it. Given that there really isn’t much in the way of effective treatments for this disease – at least nothing that can effectively reverse or cure it – we should do all we can to prevent it based on currently available knowledge. Luckily a lot of research has been done into some of the ways we can prevent AD, one of which is diet.

The MIND diet aims to provide protection against dementia and enhance neuro-protection, and based on published studies achieves a 53% reduction in risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. One advantage that this diet has over some others is that even moderate adherence to it can confer benefits of up to 35% reduced chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

This lends itself to being a great way to transition into a healthy eating lifestyle without being overly concerned with super strict adherence, and is one of the reasons I follow the MIND diet. As we all know making change is hard, especially if it a huge overhaul to our diet, but small changes such as adding nuts or berries to our diets is something that is a lot more manageable, and turns out can be hugely beneficial!

Here’s a quick summary of the diet. Basically there is a simple point system, you get a point for each healthy food you eat, and a point for each unhealthy food you avoid, up to a maximum of 15 points. There are a list of 10 foods that are beneficial, and 5 foods to avoid. If you manage to eat all the beneficial foods and avoid all the bad ones you get 15 points! (You can assign half points for partial compliance)

Foods to eat for brain health:

• • green leafy vegetables

• • other vegetables

• • nuts

• • berries

• • beans

• • whole grains

• • fish

• • poultry

• • olive oil

• wine

Foods to AVOID:

• • red meats

• • butter and margarine

• • cheese

• • pastries and sweets

• fried or fast foods

Now as for how many points you need to receive the benefits. The study participants were clustered into 3 groups based on how well they adhered to the diet, and these groups were compared for AD risk.

8.5 – 12.5 => 53% reduction in AD risk

6.5 – 8.5 => 35% reduction in AD risk

2.5 – 6.5 => Baseline risk for AD

What this means is those who get 8.5 points or more have more than half the risk of getting AD compared to those who get less than 6.5 points.

Refinements to the diet will surely take place as more research is done, but one major point to take home is that improving ones diet and eating healthy based on some fairly straight forward recommendations CAN make a significant difference to your health.

Currently I’m consistently getting over 10 points on this diet, which took a little while to get to. Some changes were easy such as adding a glass of wine and a handful of nuts to my diet, others I am still working on (cheese and sweets are often my downfall!). Although changing ones dietary habits can be hard, if you gradually change a bit at a time you can get there. I recommend printing out a page of the list of good and bad foods and keeping it in your mind when you make decisions on what to eat. And remember that you don’t need to reach all 15 points to receive benefits, even getting a modest 7 points can lead to significant risk reduction.