Mediterranean MIND boost
New research this week found the Mediterranean MIND diet can reduce brain ageing by up to 2.5 years — a clear win for long-term cognitive health. Doctors also point to the Mediterranean pattern for heart-health benefits, lower cholesterol and chronic‑disease prevention. (irishmirror.ie) (medicaldaily.com)
Lead authors Hui Chen and Changzheng Yuan used data from 1,647 participants in the Framingham Heart Study Offspring cohort, combining food‑frequency questionnaires administered at Exams 5–7 with repeat brain MRIs collected between 1999 and 2019. (jnnp.bmj.com) The primary MRI finding was that each three‑point uptick in the MIND diet score correlated with a 0.279 cm³/year slower decline in total grey‑matter volume (95% CI 0.089 to 0.469), representing a 20.1% attenuation of age‑related change over the study period. (jnnp.bmj.com) Higher MIND scores were also linked to smaller increases in lateral ventricular volume (−0.071 cm³/year) and specifically the left lateral ventricle (−0.041 cm³/year), amounts the authors equate to roughly an 8.0%–8.8% attenuation of age‑related ventricular enlargement. (jnnp.bmj.com) Component analyses identified berries (associated with slower ventricular expansion) and poultry (associated with slower ventricular enlargement and grey‑matter decline) as key contributors, while higher intakes of pastries/sweets and fried fast foods were tied to faster structural decline in some brain regions. (jnnp.bmj.com) That observational MRI signal contrasts with a 2023 randomized MIND‑diet trial in the New England Journal of Medicine (604 enrolled; 301 MIND, 303 control) in which the 3‑year change in the trial’s primary global cognition score did not differ significantly (mean difference 0.035 standardized units; 95% CI −0.022 to 0.092; P = 0.23). (nejm.org) The JNNP paper — received 17 June 2025 and accepted 4 October 2025, published online in March 2026 — used validated FFQs and linear mixed models across a median follow‑up of 12.3 years and points readers to supplemental Figure S2 and Table S4 for the detailed food‑group results and sensitivity checks. (jnnp.bmj.com)
