Feeding your child these foods now could cut risk of Alzheimer’s as they grow old – The Mirror
Many parents are concerned about the health of their children. With high obesity levels as well as coughs and colds what they eat can seem important to stave off both weight gain and bugs.
But researchers have now found that what a child eats when they are young can have a major impact on their lives as they get older. And a diet packed with the right foods in early life can mean a lower risk of Alzheimer’s Disease or other age-related cognitive decline.
The preliminary findings add to a growing body of evidence that a healthy diet can make a difference to long-term health. However whereas most previous research has concentrated on eating habits of people in their 60s and 70s, the new study is the first to track diet and cognitive ability throughout the lifespan — from age 4 to 70.
And its findings suggests the links may start much earlier than previously recognised. Dr Kelly Cara a recent graduate of the Gerald J. and Dorothy R. Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University said: “These initial findings generally support current public health guidance that it is important to establish healthy dietary patterns early in life in order to support and maintain health throughout life.
“Our findings also provide new evidence suggesting that improvements to dietary patterns up to midlife may influence cognitive performance and help mitigate, or lessen, cognitive decline in later years.”
Cognitive performance, or thinking ability, can keep improving well into middle age, but then typically begins to decline after the age of 65. More severe conditions such as dementia can also develop alongside aging-related declines.
Researchers say that eating a healthy diet — in particular, a diet rich in plant-based foods that contain high levels of antioxidants and mono- and polyunsaturated fats — can support brain health by reducing oxidative stress and improving blood flow to the brain.
In the study scientists looked at data from 3,059 adults in the UK who were enrolled as children in a study called National Survey of Health and Development. Members of the group, called the 1946 British Birth Cohort, have provided data on dietary intakes, cognitive outcomes and other factors via questionnaires and tests over the course of more than 75 years.
They analysed the participants’ dietary intakes at five timepoints in relation to their cognitive ability at seven timepoints. They found that dietary quality was closely linked with trends in general, or “global,” cognitive ability.
For example, only about 8% of people with low-quality diets sustained high cognitive ability and only about 7% of people with high-quality diets sustained low cognitive ability over time compared with others.
Cognitive ability can have important impacts on quality of life and independence as we age. For example, at age 68-70, participants in the highest cognitive group showed a much higher retention of working memory, processing speed and general cognitive performance compared to those in the lowest cognitive group. In addition, nearly one-quarter of participants in the lowest cognitive group showed signs of dementia at this timepoint while none of those in the highest cognitive group showed signs of dementia.
While most people saw steady improvements in their dietary quality throughout adulthood, the researchers noted that slight differences in diet quality in childhood seemed to set the tone for later-life dietary patterns, for better or worse. Dr Cara said: “This suggests that early life dietary intakes may influence our dietary decisions later in life, and the cumulative effects of diet over time are linked with the progression of our global cognitive abilities.”
The researchers used the 2020 Healthy Eating Index, which measures how closely one’s diet aligns with the 2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans to assess diet quality. Those participants who maintained the highest cognitive abilities over time compared with their peers tended to eat more recommended foods such as vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains and less sodium, added sugars and refined grains.
Dr Cara added: “Dietary patterns that are high in whole or less processed plant-food groups including leafy green vegetables, beans, whole fruits and whole grains may be most protective. Adjusting one’s dietary intake at any age to incorporate more of these foods and to align more closely with current dietary recommendations is likely to improve our health in many ways, including our cognitive health.”
The study was conducted mainly involving caucasian individuals from across the UK which means further research is needed to see how it compared with people from other racial or ethnic groups or diets. The findings were presented by Dr Cara at NUTRITION 2024, the flagship annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition in Chicago.
