The MIND diet is designed to improve cognitive health and to help prevent neurodegenerative disease as you age. The combined diets contributing to the MIND diet are well known to help improve heart health, diabetic risk, and vulnerability to chronic disease in a combination that is geared towards antioxidants to protect neural pathways and prevent plaque deposition.
MIND diets are known to treat Alzheimer’s disease and reduce risk of developing the disease, along with helping to lose weight, and eliminate risk factors that contribute to cognitive disease in the diet that pulls the best brain boosting foods from the contributing diets with a few other strict guidelines. MIND diets contain foods rich in healthy fats and antioxidants which make up the bulk of the diet that can lower inflammation and neutralize free radical activity that can cause neurodegenerative and chronic disease.
MIND diets require increasing intake of 10 key food groups which include leafy green vegetables, berries, whole grains, nuts, fish, poultry, olive oil, and beans, among others. Foods to avoid include processed food, cheese, red meat, fried foods, butter, stick margarine, junk foods, pastries, and sweets.
It is recommended to eat at least one salad a day, snack on nuts every day, and eat fish, chicken and berries at least once a week; while avoiding butter as a cooking tool, limit fish intake, not to cut calories rather change dietary structure, and avoid drinking alcohol as it is counterproductive to the diet’s goal.
MIND diets carry many impressive benefits such as preventing cognitive decline, reducing risk of neurodegenerative disease, weight loss, lowering inflammation, preventing oxidative stress, preventing development of diabetes, reducing symptoms of gout and arthritis, and treating headaches.
Most foods in this diet are great sources of antioxidants which are notably low in calories and are composed of complex carbohydrates, which can help with weight loss and diabetes. MIND diets are anti-inflammatory helping to reduce many chronic conditions and cognitive decline. The main goal of this diet is to reduce risk factors leading to cognitive decline, including sedentary lifestyles and unhealthy accumulation of toxins in the body.
