A study carried out by researchers from McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario (Canada) and the National University of Ireland in Galway (Ireland) and which has had about 28,000 participants has concluded that those people who follow a healthy diet have a healthy stronger than those who do not watch their diet.
The researchers carried out a 5-year follow-up of the diet and cognitive performance of 27,680 volunteers over 55 years of age with high cardiovascular risk , discovering that a diet based on the intake of many fruits and vegetables, fish, nuts, a moderate level of Alcohol and little red meat influenced better cognitive performance after tests of thinking and memory ability that were carried out both at the beginning, in the middle and at the end of the study, after a period of five years.
The test results revealed that lower cognitive decline was directly associated with the healthier diets of the participants. Thus, comparing the scores of the volunteers who had followed an unhealthy diet with those who had a healthy diet, the difference was a 24% lower risk of memory loss and of cognitive function in general for those who followed a diet healthy, even taking into account factors such as high blood pressure or physical activity.
“Dietary intake can modify the risk of cognitive decline through multiple mechanisms, including an increased risk of stroke and through deficiency of the nutrients necessary for neuronal regeneration (for example, with vitamins of group B and vitamin C) . In conclusion, a higher quality of diet is associated with a lower risk of cognitive decline . Improving the quality of the diet represents an important potential goal to reduce the global burden of cognitive decline, ”Andrew Smyth, study leader.
The results have been published in the journal Neurology .
