Foods such as fish, nuts, fruits, and green leafy vegetables are part of a dietary pattern that may help to prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.
BALTIMORE—A reduced rank regression (RRR) dietary pattern— high in healthy fats (monounsaturated and omega-3 and omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids), folate, and vitamin E, and low in saturated fatty acids and vitamin B12—is associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease, according to research presented at the 134th Annual Meeting of the American Neurological Association.
In a community-based study of 2,148 nondemented subjects ages 65 and older, 253 developed Alzheimer’s disease during a mean 3.9 years of follow-up. The investigators used RRR to determine linear combinations of 30 food groups that explained variation in seven nutrients potentially related to Alzheimer’s disease, according to Nikolaos Scarmeas, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology in the Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer’s Disease and the Aging Brain, Columbia University Medical Center in New York City. Dietary information was gathered using Willet’s 61-item semiquantitative food frequency questionnaire.
The Alzheimer’s disease protective RRR dietary pattern included “green foods,” such as salad dressing (olive oil and vinegar), nuts, fish, poultry, tomatoes, cruciferous vegetables, fruits, and dark- and green-leafy vegetables. Low consumption of the RRR pattern’s “red foods” such as high-fat dairy, red meat, organ meat, and butter was also beneficial.
“The higher the consumption of the ‘green foods’ of the RRR pattern and the lower the consumption of ‘red foods’ of the RRR pattern, the lower the risk of disease,” Dr. Scarmeas told Neurology Reviews. “If subjects are divided into three groups based on their adherence to the RRR pattern—high RRR pattern, middle RRR pattern, and low RRR pattern—those with middle RRR pattern had a 19% to 27% risk reduction, and those with high RRR pattern had 38% to 46% risk reductions, as compared to those with low RRR pattern.”
Although the beneficial foods are similar to those found in a Mediterranean-type diet, they are not identical, Dr. Scarmeas pointed out. “This diet represents an aspect of food combination that is associated with lower Alzheimer’s disease risk via a particular set of nutrients,” he noted. “Other diets may be protective via other nutrients or other biologic pathways.”
—Rebecca K. Abma