Mediterranean diet could stave off Alzheimer's

The Mediterranean diet is good for you in all sorts of ways and a new study by researchers at Columbia University Medical Centre in New York has found that it can help stave off memory problems as well. The researchers studied 712 people and divided them into three groups depending on how closely they stuck to a Mediterranean diet high in vegetables, fruit, cereals and fish. Six years later they carried out MRI brain scans on the volunteers looking out for damage to areas of the brain that deal with memory. Those participants who followed the Mediterranean diet most closely were 36% less likely to have damage in these areas than those who stuck to a 'North European' diet high in dairy products, meat and chicken and with a moderate intake of alcohol. The researchers next project might be to work out a way to make broccoli, kiwi fruit and herbal tea taste as nice as chocolate, chips and whisky!

You can find out more about this study at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7189891/Mediterranean-diet-can-lower-risk-of-Alzheimers.html