In a study from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, scientists found that dietary choices and their consequences may certainly influence cognitive function.
They found that certain metabolites—substances created when the body breaks down food—were linked to cognitive function across a diverse set of races and ethnicities.
Nowadays, researchers can discover biomarkers associated with health changes and diseases by utilizing approaches like metabolomic profiling, which can survey thousands of metabolites within blood samples.
A previous study in Boston looking at older adults of Puerto Rican descent found a series of metabolites that were linked to cognitive functions.
In the current study, researchers tested metabolite-cognitive function associations in 2,222 U.S. Hispanic/Latinx adults and in 1,365 Europeans and 478 African Americans.
They then examined causal associations between the metabolites and cognitive function, as well as between a Mediterranean diet and cognitive function.
The team discovered that six metabolites were consistently linked to lower cognitive function across all of the studies. Four of them were sugars or derivatives of sugars.
Another metabolite, beta-cryptoxanthin, was linked to a higher cognitive function in Hispanic/Latinx adults and is also strongly linked to fruit intake.
The team says it is possible that these metabolites are biomarkers of a more direct link between diet and cognitive function.
Diet itself can be an important source of many metabolites, including some with positive or negative associations with cognitive function.
The team also found the Mediterranean diet score was linked to higher levels of beta-cryptoxanthin, which was positively linked to cognitive function.
The Mediterranean diet was also negatively linked to the levels of other metabolites, which were associated with lower cognitive function.
Previous research has also shown that adherence to the Mediterranean diet is linked to cognitive benefits.
The researchers suggest that future studies assess metabolite associations with cognitive function and work to see whether observed associations indeed indicate that changes in diet—manifesting in changing metabolite levels—can improve cognitive health.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies about some meats linked to increased high blood pressure risk, and this diet could prevent memory loss and dementia
For more information about nutrition please see recent studies about six vitamins that help stop complications in diabetes, and results showing vitamin D may benefit men with advanced cancer.
The study was conducted by Tamar Sofer et al and published in Alzheimer’s & Dementia.
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