NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Eating a Mediterranean-style diet high in vegetables, fruits and nuts, legumes, fish and cereals, and low in dairy products, meat, and fat, with moderate alcohol consumption, is not only good for the heart, it's also good for the brain, new research hints.

In a study, "following Mediterranean diet-type habits was associated with reduced risk for getting mild cognitive impairment -- a transitional stage between normal cognition and dementia/Alzheimer's disease," Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas told Reuters Health.

"Additionally, subjects who already had mild cognitive impairment and had a higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet had lower risk for converting to Alzheimer's disease," he noted.

Scarmeas and colleagues from Columbia University Medical Center, New York, used food frequency questionnaires to calculate Mediterranean diet "adherence scores" for 1,393 individuals with no cognitive difficulties at the outset and 482 individuals with mild cognitive impairment at the start of the study.

According to a report in the Archives of Neurology, 275 of the subjects who had normal brain function at the outset developed mild cognitive impairment over an average of 4.5 years of follow-up.

Compared with the subjects with the lowest Mediterranean diet adherence scores, those with the highest scores had a 28 percent lower risk of developing mild cognitive impairment. Furthermore, the subjects with intermediate Mediterranean diet adherence scores had a 17 percent lower risk, the researchers found.

Among the group of people with mild cognitive impairment at the beginning of the study, 106 progressed to Alzheimer's disease during follow-up and good adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with a lower risk for this transition.

Specifically, the of subjects with the highest scores for Mediterranean diet adherence had 48 percent less risk and those with intermediate Mediterranean diet adherence had 45 percent less risk than the subjects with the lowest scores.

Additional studies are needed to confirm the role of this or other dietary factors in the development of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease, the researchers emphasize.

"This is not a clinical trial, it is only an observational study," Scarmeas pointe out. "We cannot, therefore, say that the Mediterranean diet is definitely useful for neurological conditions such as mild cognitive impairment. Having said that, since we already know that Mediterranean diet is helpful for other conditions (coronary heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, etc.), it makes sense."

The Mediterranean diet, the researchers explain, may improve cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels and blood vessel health, or reduce inflammation, all of which have been associated with mild cognitive impairment.

Individual food components of the diet also may impact brain function. "For example, potentially beneficial effects for mild cognitive impairment or mild cognitive impairment conversion to Alzheimer's disease have been reported for alcohol, fish, polyunsaturated fatty acids (also for age-related cognitive decline) and lower levels of saturated fatty acids," they write.

SOURCE: Archives of Neurology, February 2009.

• More News on Diets
• More News on Memory
• More News on Nutrition for Seniors

Related MedlinePlus Pages:

• Diets
• Memory
• Nutrition for Seniors