Rush University Medical Center researchers who developed the MIND diet — short for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay — say it can lower the risk of Alzheimer’s by as much as 53 percent those who follow it rigorously, and by about 35 percent in those who adhered to it moderately well, Medical Xpress reports. 
 

In a study published in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia,  Rush nutritional epidemiologist Martha Clare Morris, noted the MIND diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets — both of which have been found to reduce the risk of cardiovascular conditions, like hypertension, heart attack and stroke, as well as dementia.
 

For the latest study, the MIND diet was compared with the two other diets. The results showed people with high adherence to the DASH and Mediterranean diets also had reductions in Alzheimer’s — 39 percent with the DASH diet and 54 percent with the Mediterranean diet — but got negligible benefits from moderate adherence to either of the two other diets.
 

The MIND diet has 15 dietary components, including 10 "brain-healthy food groups" — green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, nuts, berries, beans, whole grains, fish, poultry, olive oil, and wine — and five unhealthy groups that comprise red meats, butter and stick margarine, cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried or fast food.
 

"One of the more exciting things about this is that people who adhered even moderately to the MIND diet had a reduction in their risk for AD," said Morris, a Rush professor, assistant provost for Community Research, and director of Nutrition and Nutritional Epidemiology. "I think that will motivate people.
 

"I was so very pleased to see the outcome we got from the new diet," she said.