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In this era more and more people choose to live a healthy lifestyle since it’s easier than, let’s say, 10 years ago and we are more aware of the risks we face if we continue eating bad foods. Recent studies show that healthy diets prevent dementia, the killer brain disease that affects 1 in 3 American senior citizens. The study also shows that eating plenty of fruits, vegetables and fish from the age of forty decreases the risks of developing this disease by 90%.
A different study reveals that a high consumption of saturated fats like fast food, butter and sugar leads to poorer cognitive functions and increases the chances of developing dementia. The same study shows that people who follow healthy diets between the age of 40 to 50 decrease their risks of having the brain condition by the time they’re 60.
This study was the first to investigate the links between healthy diets introduced as early as in midlife and the risks of developing brain dementia later on in life. This was done by using a healthy diet index based on the consumption of different foods: healthy and unhealthy.
Healthy Diets Prevent Dementia, researchers discovered
The study showing healthy diets prevent dementia was done using 2000 participants. Out of the 2000, 1449 participated in the follow-up. They were between 39 and 64 years old in the beginning and then 65 to 75 in the follow-up. Studies proved that the quality of the fats we eat play a great role and we should reduce the saturated fats from our diet and concentrate more on the unsaturated ones. Also, it was revealed that drinking three to five cups of coffee a day decrease the risks of dementia later on, although the experts do not advice those who do not drink coffee to start doing so, meaning that healthy diets prevent dementia but drinking coffee is not yet too researched in this domain.
One of the doctors who was involved in the study, Marjo Eskelinen says: “These findings are important because the dementia process is a long process, and the first changes in the brain may have already started by the age of 40-50 years – about 20 years before the clinical diagnosis.”
