Veggies 'slow memory loss'
2006-10-24 09:41
Chicago - An apple a day may keep the
doctor away but a plate full of vegetables is more likely to
help fight memory problems in old age, US researchers said on
Monday.
Elderly people who reported eating at least 2.8 servings of
vegetables a day compared to people who ate less than one
serving a day saw their rate of memory loss and other mental
decline slow by 40% over six years, the researchers
found.
"This is very encouraging news that may help us retain our
cognitive abilities as we age," study author Martha Clare
Morris of Rush University Medical Centre in Chicago said in a
telephone interview.
Her team studied 3 718 people in Chicago aged 65 and older,
who filled out questionnaires on what they ate and who were
given tests of mental ability at least twice over the study
period.
People who ate the most green leafy vegetables such as
lettuce and spinach had the least memory loss, on average. Next
best were yellow vegetables such as squash and cruciferous
vegetables such as broccoli.
Legumes such as peanuts and lentils had the least effect,
and eating fruit frequently did not have any apparent effect at
all, the researchers reported in the journal Neurology,
"Our finding of fruits in general does not mean that there
aren't some individual fruits that would be protective," said
Morris. She noted that another study from Tufts University in
Boston showed that showed a diet rich in berries improved brain
function in aging rats.
Morris said one possible explanation is that vegetables
contain high amounts of vitamin E, which is linked with better
brain function.
Vegetables also are typically eaten with fats such as those
found in salad dressing, butter, margarine and mayonnaise,
which help absorb vitamin E, Morris said.
Morris said she has also found in separate studies that
healthful fats, such as the monounsaturated and polyunsaturated
fats found in vegetable oil, helped reduce the risk of memory
loss and Alzheimer's disease.
The study's participants received at least two cognitive
tests over a six-year period measuring skills from memory to
spatial perception.
The study also found that the older the person, the greater
the slowdown in the rate of memory loss if that person consumed
lots of vegetables every day.