Antioxidant, polyphenol-rich Med diet could slash Alzheimer’s risk (click for more):
"The Med diet, rich in cereals, wine, fruits, nuts, legumes and whole grains, fish and olive oil, has been linked to longer life, less heart disease, and protection against some cancers. The diet's main nutritional components include beta-carotene, vitamin C, tocopherols, polyphenols, and essential minerals.

It is these antioxidants and polyphenols that appear to offer protection, suggest the researchers from Columbia University, and not to any impact on general cardiovascular health.

Although the mechanism of Alzheimer's is not clear, more support is gathering for the build-up of plaque from beta-amyloid deposits. The deposits are associated with an increase in brain cell damage and death from oxidative stress.

It is against the oxidative stress that the Mediterranean diet could offer protection.

The findings of Nikolaos Scarmeas and his colleagues, published on-line ahead of print in the Archives of Neurology (doi: 10.1001/archneur.63.12.noc60109), are based on results from a study of 194 Alzheimer disease (AD) cases (average age 82) and 1790 non-demented controls (average age 76). The controls had almost equal representation of White, Black and Hispanic subjects, while 59 per cent of the AD cases were Hispanic, 31 per cent Black and 9 per cent White.

Dietary assessment was performed by asking the subjects to complete a validated 61-item semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire, while AD diagnosis took place in a university hospital setting.

After adjusting the results for possible confounding factors, such as age, education, BMI, smoking status, and ethnicity, the researchers reported that people with the highest adherence to a model Mediterranean diet were associated with a 60 per cent lower risk of Alzheimer's disease, compared to people with the lowest adherence to the diet..."