Healthy eating slows biological ageing and reduces dementia risk

The Annals of Neurology published a new study suggesting that maintaining a healthy diet can help prevent dementia and extend your life.

Researchers followed over 1600 people aged 60 and older who did not have dementia at the start of the study. They tracked their diets, how fast their bodies were ageing on the inside, and whether they developed dementia or passed away.

People who stuck to a healthier diet, like the Mediterranean-Dash Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet, tended to age more slowly internally. The researchers linked this slower ageing to a lower risk of dementia and a lower risk of dying early.

About a quarter of the benefit of a healthy diet in reducing dementia risk was because of this slower ageing process. And when it came to living longer, more than half of the benefit of a healthy diet was due to slower ageing.

These results held up even when they looked at different ways of measuring healthy eating and different types of dementia.

So, in simple terms, eating well, like following the MIND diet, could slow down how fast we age on the inside, which might help prevent dementia and increase lifespan.