Increasing nuts and olive oil in the diet may help improve brain function, according to researchers at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. For the study, researchers enlisted 522 adults with an average age of 75.
Each volunteer switched to a low fat diet with one third also taking added nuts, one third adding olive oil and the other adding neither. Overall, 35 participants developed dementia before the end of the trial.
Twelve of the dementia patients came from the olive oil subset with six from the nut subset. The other seventeen were from the group that had neither.
"Our trial suggests that nutritional intervention with MedDiet supplemented with either extra-virgin olive oil or nuts is associated with improved global cognition," the authors wrote. "There are mechanisms that can explain the protective effect of MedDiet on cognitive status, including antioxidative and anti-inflammatory effects and reduced vascular comorbidities."
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