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 Mediterranean diets have long been linked to better heart and brain
health as well as a lower risk of developing diabetes. But research
to date hasn't offered a clear picture of whether any cognitive
benefits of eating this way might differ for people with and without
diabetes, said lead study author Josiemer Mattei of the Harvard T.H.
Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
"A healthy Mediterranean diet includes foods that are rich in fruit
and vegetables, which has antioxidants, and in fish and oils, which
include healthy fats," Mattei said by email. "These nutrients help
sustain cognitive function by reducing inflammation and oxidation in
the brain."
These benefits may help people whether or not they have diabetes.
When people do have diabetes, however, the abundance of whole grains
and legumes in a typical Mediterranean diet may help keep blood
sugar well controlled and improve cognitive function, Mattei added.
As reported in Diabetes Care, researchers followed 913 participants
in the Boston Puerto Rican Health Study over two years, assessing
their eating habits, testing for type 2 diabetes, and administering
a series of tests for cognitive function, memory, and executive
function.
For diet evaluations, researchers scored participants' eating habits
based on how much they consumed of the main foods that make up a
Mediterranean diet, plus how much they ate of foods typically
included in two other types of heart-healthy diets, including the
DASH diet recommended by the American Heart Association.
Among people without diabetes, more closely following a
Mediterranean diet was associated with memory improvements during
the study period, but not with changes in other types of cognitive
function. For these participants, the other two heart-healthy diets
were both tied to better cognitive function.
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For diabetics, however, the Mediterranean diet was associated with a
wide range of improvements in brain health. People with diabetes who
more closely followed a Mediterranean diet had bigger gains in
cognitive function, word recognition, and clock drawing skills than
their counterparts who didn't eat this way.
When people had diabetes, the brain health benefits of the
Mediterranean diet were limited to individuals who had
well-controlled blood sugar at the start of the study or experienced
improvements in blood sugar control during the study. There wasn't a
clear benefit for people who started out with poorly controlled
blood sugar or individuals who got worse during the study.
The study wasn't a controlled experiment designed to prove whether
or how a Mediterranean diet might directly improve brain health.
One limitation of the study is that its focus only on Puerto Rican
people means the results might not apply to individuals from other
racial or ethnic groups or with different dietary traditions.
Researchers also relied on study participants to accurately recall
and report what they ate and drank, which isn't always accurate.
Still, following a Mediterranean diet may make sense for many people
with and without diabetes, said Allen Taylor of the Tufts University
USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging in Boston.
"There are many salutary effects of consuming a Mediterranean diet
that is rich in fruits and vegetables, lower in simple sugars, lower
in red and processed meats, with a few servings per week of fish,"
Taylor, who wasn't involved in the study, said by email.
SOURCE: http://bit.ly/2EMDzth Diabetes Care, online May 23, 2019.
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