Sign up for CNN’s Eat, But Better: Mediterranean Style. Our eight-part guide shows you a delicious expert-backed eating lifestyle that will boost your health for life .
Eating an anti-inflammatory diet of whole grains, fruits and vegetables instead of an inflammatory diet focused on red and processed meats and ultraprocessed foods, such as sugary cereals, sodas, fries and ice cream, lowered the risk of dementia by 31%, a new study found.
That benefit held true even for people with existing diagnoses of cardiometabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease or stroke, said Abigail Dove, lead author of the study published Monday in the journal JAMA Network Open .
“Following an anti-inflammatory diet was related to lower risk of dementia, even among people with cardiometabolic diseases who are already at elevated risk of dementia,” said Dove, a doctoral student at the Aging Research Center at Karolinska Institutet in Solna, Sweden, in an email.
In fact, people living with type 2 diabetes, stroke or heart disease who ate the most anti-inflammatory foods “developed dementia 2 years later than those with cardiometabolic diseases and a pro-inflammatory diet,” she added.
Brain scans of those who followed an anti-inflammatory diet also showed significantly lower levels of brain biomarkers of neurodegeneration and vascular injury, Dove said.
Even though the study is observational and cannot show cause and effect, the findings reflect existing research that shows a link between dietary inflammation and brain health, said Dr. David Katz, a specialist in preventive and lifestyle medicine who was not involved in the study, via email.
“It is highly likely that a higher quality, less inflammatory diet directly impacts multiple pathways related to brain and neurocognitive health over time,” said Katz, the founder of the nonprofit True Health Initiative , a global coalition of experts dedicated to evidence-based lifestyle medicine. Anti-inflammatory diets boost nutrients that stave off dementia and chronic disease, studies say. – carlosgaw/E+/Getty Images/File What is an anti-inflammatory diet?
The exact biological ways foods impact inflammatory pathways is not yet fully understood. However, researchers believe the reliance on sugary, ultraprocessed foods and the abundance of saturated fats from red and […]
Eating these foods lowers dementia risk, even with type 2 diabetes and heart disease, study says
