Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Jul;17(7):1157-1165.
doi: 10.1002/alz.12277. Epub 2021 Jan 7.

Unhealthy foods may attenuate the beneficial relation of a Mediterranean diet to cognitive decline

Affiliations

Unhealthy foods may attenuate the beneficial relation of a Mediterranean diet to cognitive decline

Puja Agarwal et al. Alzheimers Dement. 2021 Jul.

Abstract

Introduction: It is unclear whether eating Western diet food components offsets the Mediterranean diet's (MedDiet) potential benefits on cognitive decline.

Methods: The study includes 5001 Chicago Health and Aging Project participants (63% African American, 36% males, 74 ± 6.0 years old), with food frequency questionnaires and ≥ two cognitive assessments over 6.3 ± 2.8 years of follow-up. Mixed-effects models were adjusted for age, sex, education, race, cognitive activities, physical activity, and total calories.

Results: Stratified analysis showed a significant effect of higher MedDiet on cognitive decline only with a low Western diet score (highest vs lowest MedDiet tertile: β = 0.020, P = .002; p trend = 0.002) and not with a high Western diet score (highest vs lowest MedDiet tertile: β = 0.010, P = .11; p trend = 0.09).

Conclusion: This prospective study found that high consumption of Western diet components attenuates benefits of the MedDiet on cognition.

Keywords: Mediterranean diet; Western diet; biracial; high-fat diet; longitudinal.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1:
Figure 1:
Rate of change in global cognitive score overtime among Chicago Health and Aging Project participants as per MedDiet score tertiles among participants with low and high Western diet score Linear mixed models adjusted for age, sex, race, education, physical activity, cognitive activities, and total calories.

References

    1. Prince M, Bryce R, Albanese E, Wimo A, Ribeiro W, Ferri CP. The global prevalence of dementia: a systematic review and metaanalysis. Alzheimers Dement 2013;9:63–75.e62. - PubMed
    1. van den Brink AC, Brouwer-Brolsma EM, Berendsen AAM, van de Rest O. The Mediterranean, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), and Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) Diets Are Associated with Less Cognitive Decline and a Lower Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease-A Review. Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md) 2019;10:1040–1065. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Aridi YS, Walker JL, Wright ORL. The Association between the Mediterranean Dietary Pattern and Cognitive Health: A Systematic Review. Nutrients 2017;9. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Koyama A, Houston DK, Simonsick EM, et al. Association between the Mediterranean diet and cognitive decline in a biracial population. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2015;70:354–359. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Scarmeas N, Stern Y, Mayeux R, Manly JJ, Schupf N, Luchsinger JA. Mediterranean diet and mild cognitive impairment. Archives of neurology 2009;66:216–225. - PMC - PubMed

Publication types