Food for thought: Diets that improve cognitive health and lower dementia risk

The DASH and Mediterranean diets have come out on top for improving cognitive health and lowering your risk of developing dementia. Here's the lowdown.

The Dash and Mind diets are now being linked with cognitive health following high-quality studies, including research that followed 160,000 adults over the course of 30 years. Picture: iStock

The findings of two recent scientific studies may have you dashing to the supermarket to stock up on fruit, vegetables, and wholegrains. These studies compared different healthy eating regimens and concluded that the Dash diet, designed to prevent or treat high blood pressure, was most effective at protecting cognitive health and reducing dementia risk.

The first was published in February  and analysed US data from studies conducted between 1986 and 2017. It examined six healthy eating patterns and found that people who closely followed the Dash diet had a 41% lower risk of cognitive decline than those who didn’t. . It used data from 1,647 middle-aged and older individuals and found that the Mind diet — a combination of the Dash and Mediterranean diets — was associated with a slower deterioration in total grey matter volume in the brain. The study’s authors argued this showed the diet had the potential to delay brain ageing.