Dementia is the loss of cognitive functioning — thinking, remembering, and reasoning — to such an extent that it interferes with a person’s daily life and activities.
Some people with dementia cannot control their emotions, and their personalities may change.
In a study from the University of Bordeaux in France, scientists found it may not only be what foods you eat, but what foods you eat together that may be associated with your risk of dementia.
The team looked at “food networks” and found that people whose diets consisted mostly of highly processed meats, starchy foods like potatoes, and snacks like cookies and cakes, were more likely to have dementia years later than people who ate a wider variety of healthy foods.
A number of studies have shown that eating a healthier diet, for example, a diet rich in green leafy vegetables, berries, nuts, whole grains, and fish, may lower a person’s risk of dementia.
Many of those studies focused on the quantity and frequency of foods.
This study went one step further to look at food networks and found important differences in the ways in which food items were co-consumed in people who went on to develop dementia and those who did not.
In the study, the team tested 209 people with an average age of 78 who had dementia and 418 people who did not have dementia.
Participants had completed a food questionnaire five years previously describing what types of food they ate over the year, and how frequently, from less than once a month to more than four times a day.
They also had medical checkups every two to three years. Researchers used the data from the food questionnaire to compare what foods were often eaten together by the patients with and without dementia.
The team found while there were few differences in the number of individual foods that people ate, overall food groups or networks differed substantially between people who had dementia and those who did not have dementia.
Processed meats were a “hub” in the food networks of people with dementia.
People who developed dementia were more likely to combine highly processed meats such as sausages, cured meats, and patés with starchy foods like potatoes, alcohol, and snacks like cookies and cakes.
This may suggest that the frequency with which processed meat is combined with other unhealthy foods, rather than the average quantity, may be important for dementia risk.
Overall, people who did not have dementia were more likely to have a lot of diversity in their diet, showed by many small food networks that usually included healthier foods, such as fruit and vegetables, seafood, poultry, or meats.
The team says that more diversity in diet, and greater inclusion of a variety of healthy foods, is related to less dementia.
The findings suggest that studying diet by looking at food networks may help untangle the complexity of diet and biology in health and disease.
If you care about nutrition, please read studies about plant nutrients that can help reduce high blood pressure, and Vitamin B supplements could help reduce dementia risk.
For more information about nutrition, please see recent studies about the best time to take vitamins to prevent heart disease, and these antioxidants could help reduce dementia risk.
The study was conducted by Cécilia Samieri et al and published in Neurology.
