Post: Eating fish or meat could protect your brain as you age

Fatty fish like salmon are great for brain health. Plant-based diets are popular for longevity, and there’s good science backing the strategy.

But a new study suggests being 100% vegetarian may not be best for aging brains.

A doctor suggests consuming some fatty fish like salmon or sardines roughly twice a week.

In Loma Linda, California, there’s a group of Seventh-Day Adventists who tend to live and thrive for up to 10 extra years beyond their fellow Americans. Not all of them make it to 100 , but they do tend to enjoy relatively good health for longer than most people in the US. That’s why it’s known as a " Blue Zone ."

A big part of the winning Adventist strategy seems to be the food. Adventists prioritize plants in their diet like beans, vegetables, and whole grains , and generally don’t eat a ton of meat or junk food.

But a new study of more than 88,000 of Adventists across North America adds a caveat. The new research suggests that while vegetarian diets are generally good for a person’s overall health, they may not be the best deal for an aging brain.

"Even though the vegetarian diet is doing a lot of good things, once it delivers people up into their 80s, it looks like some improvement is possible," Gary Fraser, an Adventist cardiologist and public health researcher who lives in Loma Linda, told Business Insider. "It may not be the meat of course, but it just could be."

Fraser’s new study showed that vegetarian Adventists living into their 80s and beyond suffered slightly higher rates of strokes, dementia, and Parkinson’s disease than other Adventists who ate some meat.

He has developed a two-part weekly plan for his own brain health based on his own research. It includes one daily supplement and one repeat menu item. Being vegetarian is good for you in your early years lacaosa/Getty Images Vegetarian and vegan diets — especially bean- and whole grain-forward ones — are great at lowering the risks of life-threatening illnesses."We are kind of used to the vegetarians doing well […]

Eating fish or meat could protect your brain as you age