The Mediterranean Diet has a surprising new benefit

The topic of brain health comes up almost on a daily basis in my practice. My patients want to keep their brains, as well as their bodies, young well into their golden years. And who doesn’t, for that matter? Because it’s a sad but true fact that nothing ages you faster than a brain that’s not firing on all cylinders.

So when I read about a new study that provides even more evidence that eating the right foods helps keep the brain healthy, I thought I should share it with you.

This study was from the Einstein Aging Institute cohort. And it consisted of 549 patients without dementia.

The test subjects were given a simple 27-question form that asked about their eating habits and how much exercise they got.

The overall conclusion of this study was that eating a Mediterranean-style diet may help keep your brain healthy well into your golden years. As you probably recall, the Mediterranean diet focuses on lean proteins, vegetables and healthy fats…which should sound familiar. My New Hamptons Health Miracle is based on these same foods — but with a few critical tweaks that make it even healthier. More on that in just a minute. But first, let me share some of the details about this new study.

Specifically, researchers noted that the Mediterranean Diet appeared slow down the impairment of executive functioning.

This means your working memory, reasoning abilities, problem solving, planning and execution of tasks will stay in tact longer.

But what I liked even more about this study was that the researchers came to the conclusion that there is a significant benefit to assessing the diets of elderly patients on a regular basis. This may be a novel idea for some doctors, but I’ve been making this a part of my patients’ visits for over 20 years — and not just for those who are older.

In fact, I always start off my patients’ visits by asking them to provide a detailed list of everything they’ve eaten in the past 24 hours. This not only gives me a good picture of what my patients are eating, it’s also a good chance to sneak in a memory test. Of course, many of my long-time patients know this trick so they always make sure to eat super healthy the day before their visit. But if their overall health (including their brains) is any indicator, I have no doubt they’re following my advice the vast majority of the time.

Following my Hamptons diet is a sure fire way to keep your brain — and the rest of your body — healthy as you age. And the younger you start, the better.

So, if you are just getting started, or need a refresher, here are the basic tenets of the Mediterranean Diet:

• Eat plenty of lean protein and lots of fish that’s rich in omega-3 fatty acids
• Eat ample quantities of vegetables and some fruits
• Eat healthful fats — including nuts
• Drink plenty of water each day, and drink alcohol in moderation
• Exclude trans-fatty acids

My Hamptons Diet is based on these principles, but features a few slight tweaks that ramp up the health benefits even more. For instance, instead of olive oil, I recommend macadamia nut oil. Among other advantages, it’s richer in healthy monounsaturated fatty acids.

You can read more about the subtle — but important — differences between the Mediterranean Diet and my New Hamptons Health Miracle in the article “New research confirms simple, natural CURE for deadly metabolic syndrome” published in the February 2015 issue of my Logical Health Alternatives newsletter. Subscribers can download this issue for free by logging on to my website. And if you’re not already a subscriber, the site also has all the information you need to  sign up today.

Resources:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/848514

https://www.alz.org/aaic/portal/overview.asp [A Brief Dietary Assessment Predicts Executive Dysfunction in an Elderly Cohort: Results from the Einstein Aging Study (EAS)]

http://www.jneb.org/article/S1499-4046(05)00043-6/pdf