A Common Diet Pattern Was Linked To Faster Attention Decline In Some Older Adults
A burger and fries for dinner isn't going to determine how your brain ages. But researchers are increasingly interested in whether someone's usual diet, combined with their genetics, could influence how their cognitive function changes over time.
In a recent study1, researchers followed older adults for more than seven years, tracking their eating habits and several measures of cognitive function.
They also looked at whether carrying a genetic variant associated with Alzheimer's risk changed the relationship between diet and brain health.
About the study
Researchers followed 185 older adults without dementia for up to 90 months (about 7.5 years) as part of the Western Australia Memory Study.
At the beginning, participants completed a detailed food questionnaire.
Researchers identified two broad eating patterns. The Western pattern included more processed, energy-dense foods and fewer plant foods. The Prudent pattern included more vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and other plant-based foods.
Participants also completed tests of memory, attention, language, and other cognitive skills throughout the study. Researchers compared these results based on whether participants carried the APOE ε4 gene variant, which is associated with a higher risk of Alzheimer's disease.
One cognitive skill stood out
Among people carrying APOE ε4, greater adherence to the Western eating pattern was associated with a faster decline in attention.
The association didn't appear for memory, language, or the other cognitive skills tested. It also wasn't seen among people who didn't carry APOE ε4.
There's an important catch. When researchers excluded 19 participants who already showed signs of possible cognitive impairment at the start of the study, the association became weaker and was no longer statistically significant.
That means subtle cognitive changes may have influenced some of the original results. The study can't show that a Western diet caused attention to decline.
What this means for your diet
This study doesn't prove that changing your diet will prevent cognitive decline, but there are still some practical ways to improve overall diet quality.
- Build balanced meals: Include a mix of protein, whole or minimally processed carbohydrates, healthy fats, and produce.
- Choose nutrient-dense foods more often: Foods such as vegetables, fruit, whole grains, beans, nuts, seeds, fish, eggs, and other minimally processed options can all fit into a healthy diet.
- Keep highly processed foods in perspective: You don't have to eliminate them. Aim for an overall pattern that isn't dominated by highly processed, energy-dense foods.
The takeaway
Eating more veggies never hurts, and we're increasingly seeing that a wide variety of plant foods is linked to better health, including the how well the brain functions as we age.