A MIND Diet can reduce risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

Subtract 7.5 years from your current age.

By doing the math (pencils allowed), you have your current brain age if you followed the MIND diet. Not only will you slow cognitive decline, but you could also reduce your chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

The MIND diet borrows from the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet, which lowers blood pressure and increases heart health. The MIND diet emphasizes foods specifically shown to improve cognitive health, like leafy green vegetables and berries.

The diet provides 15 guidelines to follow. Researchers found that those who followed an average of 9.6 of the guidelines over four and a half years showed a 53 percent drop in Alzheimer’s risk. Your brain will be 7.5 years younger than those who didn’t follow the diet. Even those who scored in the middle of the guidelines reduced their risk by a third.

Look here to see how your diet stacks up and to find ways to add brain-healthy foods into your meal planning. You may be smarter if you do!