Sunday Nov 10, 2103 (foodconsumer.org) -- Eating Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension or DASH diet or Mediterranean diet or if you don't know either, then eating whole grains, nuts and legumes may help prevent or at least slow age-related cognitive decline, suggests a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

Heidi  Wengreen from Utah State University in Logan, UT and colleagues conducted the study and found people who adhered most closely to either Nash diet or Mediterranean diet maintained higher scores on the Modified Mini Mental State Examination (3MS) than those who did not adhere to the diets least closely.

For the study, 3,831 men and women aged 65 years or older residing in Cache County, UT were surveyed for their cognitive function four times or less during a 11-year follow-up by using the 3MS.

Specifically, the study found participants in quintile 5 of adherence to DASH or Mediterranean diet earned 0.97 points or 0.94 points higher than those in quintile 1, respectively.  The difference was consistent over the entire follow-up.

Also, those in quintile 5 of intake of whole grains, nuts and legumes earned 1.19 and 1.22 higher points than those in quintile 1, respectively.

The study concluded "Higher levels of accordance with both the DASH and Mediterranean dietary patterns were associated with consistently higher levels of cognitive function in elderly men and women over an 11-y period."

"Whole grains and nuts and legumes were positively associated with higher cognitive functions and may be core neuroprotective foods common to various healthy plant-centered diets around the globe." (David Liu, PHD) 

Photo credit: Lifestyle Bakery PTY LTD/wikipedia