Could food be the key to preventing Alzheimer’s disease? Researcher Dr. Martha Claire Morris and her colleagues at RUSH University Medical Center introduced a collection of foods in 2015 with the potential to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease when consumed in the diet. Long-term consumers of this overall diet pattern, aptly named the MIND diet (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay), had an estimated 53% reduction in Alzheimer’s Disease risk compared to those who did not eat these foods. The MIND diet is tailored for brain health and is comprised of 15 individual foods (nuts, berries, leafy greens, legumes, olive oil, etc.) that have been individually linked to cognitive preservation and/or collectively taken from the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets. My research extends this work as we investigate the neural underpinnings of this diet for cognitive health using electroencephalography (EEG) as a direct measure of the electrical activity of the brain.
