Superfoods to prevent dementia

There is no single "superfood" that can prevent dementia on its own, but long-term integration of multiple types of high-nutrient-dense "superfoods" into an overall healthy dietary pattern can reduce the risk of cognitive decline by about 30% and delay the onset of dementia types such as Alzheimer's disease. This is the current consensus conclusion in the fields of neuromedicine and nutrition worldwide.

Last week, I spent an afternoon in the outpatient clinic with an old classmate from the Department of Neurology at the Provincial People's Hospital. I met three aunts who had just been diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment. The first questions they asked when they came in were the same: "I eat blueberries every day/drink olive oil/stock up a bunch of chia seeds. Do I not need to take medicine and will I not become stupid?" ”

I can quite understand this feeling. After all, compared to taking medicine and doing boring cognitive training, it sounds very worry-free to just eat something to keep dementia at bay. Interestingly, the research on "super foods to prevent dementia" has actually been quite controversial in the past two years.

The core basis for the supporters is the results of a 10-year cohort study released by Rush University in 2023: 923 elderly people over 65 years old without cognitive impairment were tracked and strictly followed the MIND diet (a dietary pattern specially designed for brain health). The core is to consume more dark green leafy vegetables, berries, nuts, and whole grains. People who eat foods rich in Omega 3 (commonly known as "superfoods" such as fish) have a 34% lower risk of Alzheimer's disease than people who don't follow them at all, and their rate of cognitive decline is a full 7.5 years slower. This data is considered a very eye-catching result in the field of prevention of neurodegenerative diseases.

But the objections are not without reason. A 2022 study published by the University of Oxford in the "British Medical Journal" slapped a lot of "superfood supplements" in the face: They found 1,200 middle-aged and elderly people with mild cognitive impairment, divided them into three groups to supplement high-dose blueberry extract, Omega3 fish oil capsules, and placebo. After two years of tracking, they found that there was no significant difference in the rate of decline in cognitive scores of the three groups. To put it bluntly, if you expect to prevent dementia by simply taking a purified supplement of a certain "superfood", you are basically spending money in vain. I also followed the trend and bought two cans of imported freeze-dried blueberry powder. After two rinses, it became sour and expired. Later, I read a test by the China Institute of Disease Control and Nutrition and found that the retention rate of flavonoids in that purified supplement was not as good as 60% of that of fresh blueberries. I simply paid an IQ tax.

Another group of scholars has a more pragmatic view: the impact of diet on cognitive health is actually only about 20%. If you eat blueberries and salmon every day, drink high-sugar milk tea every now and then, stay up until 3 a.m., and don’t go out with friends even once for half a year, then it’s useless no matter how much you eat superfoods. Aunt Wang, who lives downstairs in my house, was a typical example. She spent thousands to stock up on a bunch of imported superfood supplements. Her three meals a day were heavy in oil and salt, and she was too lazy to go to square dances. She was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment last year and panicked. Later, she changed her habits: cook noodles with a handful of spinach every morning, add about 10 local blueberries in the afternoon, and eat two meals a week. I steamed grass carp for the first time (I think salmon is expensive, but in fact, the Omega3 content of freshwater fish can fully meet daily needs). After dancing in the square every day, I also play idiom solitaire with my old sisters for 20 minutes. This year’s physical examination cognitive score is 2 points higher than last year. I always say to everyone that expensive ones are good, and only those that suit me are useful.

To be honest, the "super foods" that many businesses now tout are, to put it bluntly, higher in nutrient density than ordinary ingredients. If you really want to eat to reduce the risk of dementia, you don't have to buy expensive imported ingredients. You can buy lettuce and spinach at the wet market for a few yuan a pound, walnuts, ordinary blueberries, and even grass carp for more than ten yuan a piece. As long as you eat them regularly for a long time, the effect will not be much different.

Last time I chatted with an old classmate of Kannai, he said that after working for Kannachi for more than ten years, he had seen too many people who treat superfoods as magic medicine, and he had also seen 80-90-year-olds who lived a simple life but had very bright minds. There is no magic formula to prevent dementia. Those so-called super foods are, to put it bluntly, small tiles that contribute to a healthy life. They can never hold up the load-bearing wall of the entire cognitive health. Eat more diverse foods, move more, chat with people more and use your brain more, which is much more useful than stocking a cabinet of super food supplements.