Want a Better Memory? Make It Legumes
It sounds a little too simple. Want a better memory? Eat a Mediterranean diet.
According to newswise.com, eating beans, leafy greens, seeds, nuts, cereals, legumes and fresh fruit and vegetables can all help to slow cognitive decline. Yes, you can have meat, but stay away from a lot of red meat. And olive oil is good, too. In fact, it's the main source of fat in this kind of diet.
"The most surprising result," says the study authors, "is that the positive effects were found around the world. Regardless of being in a so-called 'Mediterranean' region, the positive cognitive effects were similar."
Attention, memory and even language improved, researchers found. Memory in particular was affected by the Mediterranean Diet, including improvements in delayed recognition, long-term and working memory, executive function and visual constraints. (Does this mean I can stop wearing glasses? Probably not.)
The Med Diet is so effective because it modifies risk factors, the web site reports. These include reducing inflammatory responses (which increases cancer risk), increasing micro-nutrients, improving vitamin and mineral imbalances, changing lipid oils by substituting olive oil as the main source of fat, maintaining weight and potetionally reducing obesity, and increasing metabolism (which, for someone like me with one that moves about as fast as rush-hour traffic on I-95 -- when it's raining -- would be, well, should I say, miraculous?).
And this diet works not just for the elders in the crowd but also the young ones, too.
According to newswise.com, eating beans, leafy greens, seeds, nuts, cereals, legumes and fresh fruit and vegetables can all help to slow cognitive decline. Yes, you can have meat, but stay away from a lot of red meat. And olive oil is good, too. In fact, it's the main source of fat in this kind of diet.
"The most surprising result," says the study authors, "is that the positive effects were found around the world. Regardless of being in a so-called 'Mediterranean' region, the positive cognitive effects were similar."
Attention, memory and even language improved, researchers found. Memory in particular was affected by the Mediterranean Diet, including improvements in delayed recognition, long-term and working memory, executive function and visual constraints. (Does this mean I can stop wearing glasses? Probably not.)
The Med Diet is so effective because it modifies risk factors, the web site reports. These include reducing inflammatory responses (which increases cancer risk), increasing micro-nutrients, improving vitamin and mineral imbalances, changing lipid oils by substituting olive oil as the main source of fat, maintaining weight and potetionally reducing obesity, and increasing metabolism (which, for someone like me with one that moves about as fast as rush-hour traffic on I-95 -- when it's raining -- would be, well, should I say, miraculous?).
And this diet works not just for the elders in the crowd but also the young ones, too.
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