Compared with a control diet with mild caloric restriction, the Mediterranean–DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet with mild caloric restriction resulted in similar changes in cognition and brain MRI outcomes at year 3 in a group of older adults without cognitive impairment but with a family history of dementia, researchers report. The MIND diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diet.
Participants in the 2-site, randomized, controlled trial were older adults with BMIs higher than 25 and a suboptimal diet. They were assigned to one of the diets for 3 years, along with counseling regarding adherence to their assigned diet plus support to promote weight loss. Based on a primary endpoint of the change from baseline in a global cognition score and 4 cognitive domain scores, the study showed the following: “A total of 1,929 persons underwent screening, and 604 were enrolled; 301 were assigned to the MIND-diet group and 303 to the control-diet group. The trial was completed by 93.4% of the participants. From baseline to year 3, improvements in global cognition scores were observed in both groups, with increases of 0.205 standardized units in the MIND-diet group and 0.170 standardized units in the control-diet group (mean difference, 0.035 standardized units; 95% confidence interval, −0.022 to 0.092; P = 0.23). Changes in white-matter hyperintensities, hippocampal volumes, and total gray- and white-matter volumes on MRI were similar in the two groups.”