Improved Brain Volume with "Mediterranean-type" diet

[slacker]

This one's for you, MAC!

"Lower adherence to the MeDi in an older Scottish cohort is predictive of total brain
atrophy over a 3-year interval. Fish and meat consumption does not drive this change, suggesting
that other components of the MeDi or, possibly, all of its components in combination are respon-
sible for the association."

Medscape summary and editorial comments:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/874 ... ac=40458HG

Full article:
http://www.neurology.org/content/early/ ... l.pdf+html

[apod]

"Lower adherence to the MeDi in an older Scottish cohort is predictive of total brain
atrophy over a 3-year interval. Fish and meat consumption does not drive this change, suggesting
that other components of the MeDi or, possibly, all of its components in combination are respon-
sible for the association."

Very interesting -- I wish there was more information on how these "Mediterranean-type" diets might compare.

The very first description of the diet before any other components is "high consumption of fruit" -- a while back, I was eating 300-400g of net carbs/d on workout days, often primarily from fruit, which would give me 200+g of sugar... yet my current diet is basically fruit-free, replacing these with fibrous vegetables and extra fat calories (relatively omega-6-heavy olives / avocados / nuts once you eat a lot of them) -- is this more or less beneficial for cognitive / cardiovascular health?

The other descriptors include "high consumption of legumes" and "high consumption of cereals" -- I'm not eating these at all on my current diet, further doubling or tripling down on the extra servings fibrous vegetables and more fat calories... perhaps those are a key component to the success of the diet? They list olive oil as the principal source of fat, where I spread this between nuts, avocados, and olive oil.

I'm not sure if my current diet would classify as a sort of super Mediterranean-type diet, or hardly one at all. If I was eating a high consumption of fruit, legumes, and cereal grains, my meals and macros (and insulin / leptin signaling) would be completely different.

[slacker]

As the Medscape summary article linked in my initial post notes, diet based studies are typically dependent on the recall of participants. Their diet is not monitored and measured by third parties for 3 years. So some inaccuracies occur. We also don't know what percentage of participants were ApoE4.

And as most of us on this website believe, you can't even push all E4's down the same nutritional path and get similar results. You are one of the most thoughtful and diligent in monitoring and adjusting your diet. I bow at your feet! And here I am, tempted to jettison my new resolution to get serious (creative, and playful) about cutting down on my precious wheat and grains after cherry picking this one article to post! Just call me slacker...

[MAC]

So MeDi trumps haggis and scotch, they actually had to do a study to conclude?!

MeDi is all about eating veggies, fruits, whole grains, fiber, EVOO, seafood, limited meat, a little red wine (nothing packaged/processed, low sugar) and exercise. Very local, in season, fresh foods, great variety, and LOW calorie intake...mediterraneans don't over ANYTHING if you study their eating habits.