The power foods that reduce your dementia risk

Eating seven ‘power foods’ every day dramatically reduces your risk of dementia.

Scientists have identified 12 food groups that reduce dementia and Alzheimer’s risk by as much as 90 percent—and including seven of them in your diet will keep you mentally sharp throughout your life, and especially after you reach the age of 65.

The ‘dynamic dozen’ are: fruits, vegetables, fish, meat, dairy, salt, oil, eggs, cereals, legumes, nuts and tea, and a healthy diet that includes seven of these is by far the best way to ward off mental decline.

Other lifestyle habits, such as engaging your brain by reading or solving puzzles and regular daily exercise, also help, say researchers from the National Centre for Neurological Disorders in Beijing, who assessed the effectiveness of six lifestyle factors on mental decline.

They monitored nearly 30,000 participants, with an average age of 72, for 10 years.  Around 20 percent were carriers of the APOE e4 gene, which increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers identified six lifestyle factors that could impact cognitive health.  They included a healthy diet—eating seven of the 12 food groups—regular moderate exercise of 20 minutes a day, meeting up with friends and family twice a week, reading or solving puzzles at least twice a week, not smoking and not drinking.

Those who followed all the factors or at least four of them were 90 percent less likely to suffer dementia or Alzheimer’s than those who adopted one or none of them—and those with the APOE gene had the same protection as the non-carriers.

Of course, age is the single biggest risk factor for dementia, but the over-65s who adopt at least four of the lifestyle factors—and especially eating a healthy diet—can dramatically reduce that risk, the researchers say.

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