The happy fact is that Americans are living longer, and a long life is made better by a healthy and active mind. The MIND diet is a healthy, research-backed way to eat that is designed to help prevent Alzheimer\u2019s disease and delay cognitive decline.<\/p>\n
Two key MIND diet studies from 2015 show how the diet keeps the aging brain seven and a half years younger and reduces the risk of developing Alzheimer\u2019s disease by 53 percent. Read on to learn more about the MIND diet, including a couple healthy, delicious recipes to try.<\/p>\n
The MIND diet is simple. There are no calories to count or long lists of foods to avoid. The eating pattern is based on food, not specific nutrients or overly prescriptive diet rules. This is about everyday eating.<\/p>\n
Simply follow the basic guidelines of the MIND diet\u2014eat from the 10 basic food groups, avoid the five unhealthy ones\u2014and rest assured that there\u2019s a body of current science that supports its role in brain health and overall nourishment.<\/p>\n
The 10 best food groups for your brain include vegetables in general, green leafy vegetables in particular, tree nuts, beans, berries, poultry, fish, whole grains, olive oil, and wine. Avoid red meat, butter and stick margarine, whole-fat cheese, pastries and sweets, and fried fast food.<\/p>\n
MIND is an acronym for Mediterranean-Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. It was ranked second only to the DASH diet as the best overall diet by U.S. News & World Report<\/em>\u2019s 2016 Best Diets Rankings.<\/p>\n Top-ranked diets have to be easy to follow, nutritious, safe, effective for weight loss, and protective against diabetes and heart disease. The MIND diet does all that and hones in on the foods that specifically benefit brain health.<\/p>\n The MIND diet is less demanding than either the Mediterranean or DASH diets, with fewer required servings of fish, grains, fruits, and vegetables, and no emphasis on dairy or limits on total fat. The MIND diet is also different because it specifically recommends green, leafy vegetables as well as other vegetables, but doesn\u2019t have a fruit recommendation other than a specific recommendation for berries, such as blueberries, pomegranates, raspberries, blackberries, and strawberries.<\/p>\n Researchers from Rush University Medical Center (RUMC) and Harvard University developed the MIND diet. The research team, led by Dr. Martha Clare Morris, director of nutritional epidemiology in the department of internal medicine at RUMC in Chicago, designed the new diet on the foundation of the Mediterranean and DASH diets, modifying it based on the results from studies that specifically examined brain health. (Both the Mediterranean and DASH diets have shown promise in the area of brain health, though neither was designed for it.)<\/p>\n The MIND diet\u2019s benefits to cognitive health make sense when considering the evidence-based approach to selecting its antioxidant-rich and anti-inflammatory foods, which protect the brain and make it harder for damaging plaques to form. Removing the brain-harming foods may be just as, if not more important, since eating too much of them damages the blood-brain barrier and promotes the formation of damaging beta-amyloid or amyloid-beta plaques.<\/p>\n Keep in mind that we are still learning about nutrition and the brain. In the meantime, you can feel good about eating the MIND diet way, as the foods in the MIND diet match expert recommendations for general good health, and heart-health in particular.<\/p>\n Vegetable Frittata from The Mind Diet<\/p><\/div>\n But good year-round. Summer smells like basil and tastes like sweet corn, which means this frittata is going to be a seasonal favorite.<\/p>\n Makes 6 servings<\/p>\n Time: 10 minutes to prep; 30 minutes to cook\nDifficulty: Easy\nMIND foods: Vegetables, poultry, olive oil<\/p>\n 6 eggs\n2 teaspoons olive oil\n\u00bd small onion, thinly sliced\n\u00bd cup zucchini, shredded\n\u00bd cup of sweet corn, from fresh, frozen or canned\n1 medium red bell pepper, cored, seeds removed, and diced\n2 teaspoons olive oil\n1 cup cooked chicken breast, shredded\n2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped\nSalt and pepper\n6 small basil leaves (optional, for garnish)<\/p>\n Preheat the oven to 350 F. In a medium bowl, lightly whisk eggs until uniform, then add pepper and salt to taste. Set aside.<\/p>\n Heat 2 teaspoons olive oil in a 12\u201d oven-safe skillet over medium heat then saut\u00e9 onion, zucchini, sweet corn, and bell pepper until fragrant and wilted, 3 to 5 minutes.<\/p>\n Remove from heat and transfer to a colander where excess liquid may drain; gently press on vegetables with a wooden spoon to assist draining. Meanwhile, bring the now empty skillet back to the stove, and heat 2 teaspoons of olive oil over medium heat.<\/p>\n Add the chicken and half the chopped basil and saut\u00e9 until just combined, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the drained mixed vegetables back into the dish and stir to combine for another minute.<\/p>\n Pour egg mixture and remaining chopped basil into pan and stir gently. Cook for 4 to 5 minutes to allow the egg to start setting; the edges will start to pull away from the pan. Place pan into oven and bake for 15 minutes or until set. Let rest 2 minutes before serving. If desired, garnish with basil leaves.<\/p>\n Nutrition: 180 calories, 9 g total fat, 2 g saturated fat, 15 g protein, 8 g carbohydrates, 1 g fiber<\/p>\n Berry Smoothie from The Mind Diet<\/p><\/div>\n This superfood smoothie features the berries most-researched for brain health: blueberries and strawberries. A protein bonus comes from the almond butter and soft tofu, a mild-tasting and very blendable kind of tofu that incorporates seamlessly into soups and smoothies, where it adds a high-protein, vegetarian and dairy-free creaminess.<\/p>\n Makes 2 servings<\/p>\n Time: 5 minutes\nDifficulty: Easy<\/p>\n MIND foods: Nuts, beans, berries<\/p>\n 1 cup strawberries, fresh or frozen\n1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen\n\u00bd cup soft tofu, drained\n1 tablespoon almond butter\n\u00bd cup unsweetened almond-coconut milk blend\n1 ice cube (optional)<\/p>\n Combine all ingredients into a blender. Pulse until fully combined. Additional ice cubes may be added for a colder temperature or thinner consistency, according to preference.<\/p>\n Nutrition: 180 calories, 8 g total fat, 1 g saturated fat, 6 g protein, 24 g carbohydrates, 5 g fiber<\/p>\n Maggie Moon, MS, RDN is a registered dietitian and author of forthcoming book on brain health, <\/em>The MIND Diet, (Ulysses Press, 2016). For more healthy eating tips, connect with her on Twitter @maggiemoon_RD.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The MIND diet is based on food, not specific nutrients or overly prescriptive diet rules<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4529,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,64],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2016","category-fall-2016-features"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4284"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4535,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4284\/revisions\/4535"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Vegetable](\"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/vegetable-fritata-mind-diet-750w.jpg\")
Summer Frittata<\/h4>\n
![\"Berry](\"https:\/\/healthyaging.net\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/berry-smoothie-mind-diet.jpg\")
Creamy Berry Smoothie<\/h4>\n