Healthy nutrition significantly increases our brain volume

How does the diet affect the brain??

A healthy diet has a big impact on the human body. But such a diet affects not only the body but also the brain positively. Researchers now found that a healthier diet is associated with greater brain tissue volume.

Researchers at the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam found in their current research that a healthier diet can be associated with greater brain tissue volume. The physicians published the results of their study in the English journal "Neurology".

A healthy diet has great effects on the body and mind. It also appears to be associated with greater brain tissue volume.

Diet can affect neurodegeneration

During the long-running Dutch cohort study, it was observed that a healthier diet is associated with greater brain tissue volume. This suggests that the diet might affect the so-called neurodegeneration of the brain structure. A better overall quality of nutrition is associated with a greater total brain volume, more gray matter, more white matter, and a larger hippocampal volume, study author explains. Meike Vernooij from the Erasmus University Medical Center in Rotterdam.

Which foods caused the changes?

The positive effect was driven by several food groups such as vegetables, fruits, nuts, whole grains, dairy and fish. These foods contributed differentially to the effect on brain alteration, explain the scientists.

Nutritional quality can sustain thinking ability

People with a larger brain volume generally have better cognitive abilities. Therefore, initiatives that contribute to improving nutritional quality may be a good strategy to sustain the thinking skills of older adults. Vernooij. More research is needed to validate the findings and explore the ways in which nutrition can affect the brain. There is increasing evidence that a healthy diet supports the cellular aging of the brain, which has a positive effect on cognition, the experts explain.

Mediterranean diet reduces dementia risk

A great deal of literature has already shown that cognitively healthy elderly and middle-aged people who implement a healthy diet such as the Mediterranean diet have a lower risk of cognitive decline and dementia later in life. While most of these studies have examined nutrition and cognitive outcomes, few analyze the relationship between food intake and brain structure.

4,213 subjects participated in the study

For the current study, the researchers evaluated a total of 4,213 participants from the Netherlands who had neither dementia nor cortical infarctions. The participants had an average age of 65.7 years and 56.8 percent were female. Subjects had to answer questionnaires about the frequency of food consumed and portion sizes in 389 different foods. In addition, so-called MRI brain scans were repeatedly performed between 2005 and 2915.

The so-called Mediterranean diet is considered very healthy. Through such or similar diets, people can protect their brains against aging. (Image: kab-vision / fotolia.com)

How did the diet work??

After adjusting the data to age, sex, education, energy intake, smoking, physical activity and body mass index, it was found that a higher quality of diet (for example, a Mediterranean diet) actually leads to more brain volume, gray matter volume, Volume of white matter resulted. The adaptation to other cardiovascular risk factors did not change the trend, the diet was not associated with lesions of the white brain substance or small cerebral hemorrhage, say the scientists.

Which diet is recommended?

A healthy diet in the Netherlands is similar to a Mediterranean diet in the Mediterranean. Of course, it is adapted to Dutch dietary habits. This means that it contains a higher fat content, the researchers explain. The scientific literature suggests that a balanced diet rich in healthy carbohydrates and fiber, with low to moderate fat content, supports brain aging. There is no evidence to the contrary, the doctors add.

Which mechanisms are responsible for the change??

Several mechanisms could be responsible for the association between diet and brain health. The diet could have a direct impact on neuronal health or affect vascular risk or cerebrovascular disease, study authors said. In addition, an effect of so-called neuro-development can be observed in which differences in the quality of nutrition throughout life have different effects on brain structure and brain health.

Results showed only one association

The current study shows only an association, not cause and effect, emphasizes Dr. med. Vernooij. The nutritional data of the subjects were all given by themselves. In addition, the participants were all people from the Netherlands, which may mean that examinations in other countries could lead to different results. (As)