Daily HealthBeat Tip

Alzheimer's and eating

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I�m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Eating the way people do around the Mediterranean seems to be good for you. One study suggests it could reduce the risk of Alzheimer�s disease.

The Mediterranean diet has lots of fruits, vegetables, beans, grains and fish � and olive oil, of course � some alcohol, and not much meat and dairy. And the researchers found people who ate like that were less like to have Alzheimer�s.

Nicolaos Scarmeas is with Columbia University Medical Center in New York:

"Those who were following the Mediterranean diet at the highest degree had their risk reduction of approximately 40 to 60 percent." (seven seconds)

A moderate amount still had some benefit.

Scarmeas says a Mediterranean diet might be good for Alzheimer�s, and tastes good. So he likes it.

The study in Archives of Neurology was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: December 29, 2006

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