Reference
Corley, J., Cox, S. R., Taylor, A. M., Hernandez, M. V., Maniega, S. M., Ballerini, L., Wiseman, S., Meijboom, R., Backhouse, E. V., Bastin, M. E., Wardlaw, J. M., & Deary, I. J. (2020). Dietary patterns, cognitive function, and structural neuroimaging measures of brain aging. Experimental Gerontology, 142, 111117. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.exger.2020.111117
Review
This article by Corley et al. (2020) investigates the cross-sectional associations between dietary patterns, cognitive function, and neuroimaging measures of brain health in healthy older adults. The study used data from 511 participants in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936, with a mean age of 79.3 years. The researchers used principal component analysis of food frequency questionnaire items to identify two dietary patterns: a Mediterranean-style dietary pattern and a processed dietary pattern.
The Mediterranean-style dietary pattern was found to be associated with better verbal ability, while associations with global cognitive function, visuospatial ability, and memory did not survive correction for multiple comparisons. The processed dietary pattern was associated with lower cognitive scores, but these associations were attenuated after adjusting for prior childhood cognitive ability. The only remaining association was with verbal ability. Neither dietary pattern was found to be associated with brain volumes or white matter microstructure.
The authors concluded that adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet is associated with better cognitive functioning but not better brain structural integrity in older adults. Specific features of the Mediterranean diet, such as green leafy vegetables and a low intake of red meat, were found to be associated with better cognitive functioning.
This study provides valuable insights into the potential benefits of adhering to a Mediterranean-style diet for maintaining cognitive health in older adults. However, further research is needed to explore the potential mechanisms underlying these associations and to determine if these findings can be generalized to different populations.
