Dementia is a growing concern, and many people are searching for ways to prevent cognitive decline. One promising approach is the MIND diet. The MIND diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets. It was developed to help prevent dementia and slow the decline in brain function that can happen with age. The acronym MIND stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.
Origins and Development of the MIND Diet
Martha Clare Morris, ScD, a nutritional epidemiologist, and her colleagues at RUSH and Harvard University developed the MIND diet based on research showing a correlation linking certain foods and nutrients to effects on brain function. The MIND diet is a hybrid of the Mediterranean and DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension) diets.
In 2017, researchers at RUSH and Harvard School of Public Health began a three-year study to compare of the MIND diet and a second diet intervention to see what effects they have on the development of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
How the MIND Diet Works
The MIND diet combines the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet to create a dietary pattern that focuses specifically on brain health. Researchers wanted to create a diet specifically to help improve brain function and prevent dementia. To do this, they combined foods from both diets that had been shown to benefit brain health. For example, the Mediterranean and DASH diets both recommend eating a lot of fruit. Fruit intake has been linked with improved brain function, but berries, in particular, are supported by the strongest evidence. Thus, the MIND diet encourages eating berries but does not emphasize consuming fruit in general.
The MIND diet emphasizes healthy food groups while restricting foods. One advantage of the MIND diet is that benefits have been shown for people following the diet in moderation - meaning one does not have to achieve the target goal for each food in order to gain brain health benefits. “MIND is about changing your lifestyle, not following a fad diet,” said Jennifer Ventrelle, MS, RD, lead dietitian for the MIND Diet Intervention to Prevent Alzheimer’s Disease at RUSH. Dishes such as a spinach salad with walnuts, dried cranberries and a balsamic and olive oil dressing use common foods that are easy to obtain and fit the diet’s specifications.
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Key Components of the MIND Diet
The MIND diet identifies foods that are good for brain function and foods that you need to avoid and also recommends serving sizes. The diet features green leafy vegetables and other vegetables, prefers berries over other fruit, and endorses whole grains, beans, nuts, and at least one weekly serving of fish. The MIND diet contains foods rich in certain vitamins, carotenoids, and flavonoids that are believed to protect the brain by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation.
Foods to Emphasize
Here is a list of nine foods that the MIND diet encourages:
- Green, leafy vegetables: Aim for six or more servings per week. This includes kale, spinach, cooked greens, and salads.
- All other vegetables: Try to eat another vegetable in addition to the green leafy vegetables at least once per day. It’s best to choose non-starchy vegetables because they provide a lot of nutrients for a low number of calories. Opt for colorful and non-starchy vegetables like carrots, cucumbers and tomatoes.
- Berries: Eat berries at least twice per week. Berries such as strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries all have antioxidant benefits. Berries tend to be high in fiber and they tend to be high in antioxidants. If you eat a half a cup of raspberries or blueberries, you’re going to get a lot more antioxidant power than if you were to just eat watermelon or bananas.
- Nuts: Try to get five or more servings of nuts each week. The creators of the MIND diet don’t specify what kind of nuts to consume, but it is probably best to vary the type of nuts you eat to obtain a variety of nutrients. You can pick whatever variety you’d like - almonds, walnuts, pistachios. But you do want to be mindful not to go overboard with how many nuts you eat, as some nuts can have a high-calorie count.
- Olive oil: Use olive oil as your main cooking oil. Choose extra-virgin olive oil as your go-to cooking oil, rather than other types of oil, butter or margarine.
- Whole grains: Aim for at least three servings daily. Try to get at least three servings a day of whole grains like quinoa and oatmeal. Whole grains are a good source of fiber and nutrients and cause less inflammation than white bread, rice and noodles. A lot of those overly processed grains are bad for our brains. Choose whole grains like oatmeal, quinoa, brown rice, whole wheat pasta, and 100% whole wheat bread.
- Fish: Eat fish at least once per week. Fish is a great option because most contain omega-3 fatty acids, which help your brain function well. It is best to choose fatty fish such as salmon, sardines, trout, tuna, and mackerel for their high amounts of omega-3 fatty acids. Fatty fish, like salmon, trout, mackerel and sardines, are more beneficial thanks to their omega-3s. But any fish will do. Fish eat phytoplankton, which are rich in nutrients that reduce inflammation throughout your brain and body.
- Beans: Include beans in at least four meals per week. This category includes all beans, lentils, and soybeans. Aim to get four or more servings of beans a week. This includes options like black beans, lentils, pinto beans and kidney beans. Beans are a great source of fiber and a really good source of protein. Especially if you’re using beans for your protein source, you’re likely decreasing your animal protein. For example, you might do a black bean burger instead of a beef burger. It’s a good way to increase your fiber, get healthy protein and potentially decrease animal protein that would be higher in saturated fat.
- Poultry: Try to eat chicken or turkey at least twice per week. You want to aim for eating a serving of poultry at least twice a week. Poultry is a source of nourishing protein, but it all depends on how you prepare your chicken or turkey. For poultry, ideally, you want to stick to a chicken or turkey breast with no skin and all the visible fat trimmed off. We want to remove saturated fat. Anytime we’re eating animal products - outside of fish - a lot of the fat we’re getting is saturated fat, and that’s what’s going to increase the inflammation in our bodies and also compromise the health of our arteries. Note that fried chicken is not encouraged on the MIND diet.
If you’re unable to consume the target number of servings, don’t quit the MIND diet altogether. Research has shown that following the MIND diet even to a moderate degree is associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease and cognitive impairment.
When you’re following the diet, you can eat more than just these 10 foods. However, the more you stick to the diet, the better your results may be.
Foods to Limit
The MIND diet recommends limiting the following five foods:
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- Butter and margarine: Try to eat less than 1 tablespoon (about 14 grams) daily. Instead, try using olive oil as your primary cooking fat and dipping your bread in olive oil with herbs. Small amounts of high-quality butter are OK on occasion, but it is suggested avoiding margarine and products made with soybean, corn or cottonseed oils, all of which are sky-high in pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids. Omega-6 fatty acids increase inflammation throughout our brains and bodies.
- Cheese: The MIND diet recommends eating cheese less than once per week. Cheese typically has high amounts of saturated fats, as well as sodium. Limit cheese to small amounts of higher-quality products, such as products made from grass-fed animals.
- Red meat: Aim for no more than three servings per week. This category includes all beef, pork, lamb, and products made from these meats. Studies show that red meat, such as beef and pork, increases inflammation, which may affect memory as we age.
- Fried food: The MIND diet highly discourages fried food, especially the kind from fast-food restaurants. Limit your consumption to less than once per week.
- Pastries and sweets: This includes most of the processed snack foods and desserts you may think of - ice cream, cookies, brownies, snack cakes, doughnuts, candy, and more. Think of pastries and sweets as an occasional indulgence - not an everyday treat. Try to limit these to no more than four times per week. Most store-bought treats are made of stripped carbs and ultra-processed oils that spike blood sugars, waste your insulin and increase your risk of dementia.
Researchers encourage limiting your consumption of these foods because they contain saturated fats. It’s worth noting that partially hydrogenated oils (the major source of trans fats in the food supply) have been banned by the Food and Drug Administration since 2020. They’re still naturally found in much lower amounts in fried foods, dairy, or red meat, but margarine, pastries, and sweets are no longer a major source.
Other Considerations
Experts advise avoiding alcohol if you’re trying to prevent dementia. If you’re going to have alcohol, your best bet is to choose a dry, red wine and have a glass a day, no more. Red wine is the better choice than bourbon or beer, but it’s always better to just completely abstain from alcohol as far as your health goes. Whether or not to include alcohol is a personal decision that should be discussed with your healthcare provider.
You may have noticed that the MIND diet doesn’t address everyday foods such as eggs, milk, and more. Eggs are a great source of protein, and you can eat them while following the MIND diet. Choline (found in egg yolks) is a B vitamin that contributes to healthy brain function. If you’re a big milk drinker, you should reduce your consumption for this diet. You can and should eat peanut butter to support your brain health. Peanuts are high in fiber and protein. Common russet potatoes contain little nutritional value, and you should limit how often you eat them.
Potential Benefits of the MIND Diet
The benefits of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet have been well studied - and the research around the MIND diet may be just as promising. The MIND diet may:
- Lower your risk of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.
- Lower your blood pressure.
- Improve your memory.
Research shows that people who closely follow the MIND diet greatly reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. People who follow the MIND diet have also reported an improvement in cognition, sharper focus and less brain fog.
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The MIND diet is also a very heart-healthy diet. It encourages healthy arteries, which means we have better blood flow to places all over our body. People can have heart attacks and strokes when big areas get cut off from blood flow.
The MIND diet contains foods rich in certain vitamins, carotenoids, and flavonoids that are believed to protect the brain by reducing oxidative stress and inflammation. Researchers found a lower rate of Alzheimer’s disease for those with the highest MIND diet scores (indicating a higher intake of foods on the MIND diet). Even those participants who had moderate MIND diet scores showed a lower rate compared with those with the lowest MIND scores.
Research and Studies on the MIND Diet
The first official paper on the MIND diet was published in 2015. Since then, researchers have performed additional studies to investigate its benefits for brain health.
A 2023 study found that middle-aged adults who closely adhered to the MIND diet had faster information processing speeds than those who did not closely follow the diet.
A 2022 randomized clinical trial found that those who followed a calorie-restricted MIND diet for three months had higher scores for working memory, verbal recognition memory, and attention compared to the calorie-restricted control group.
Several other large cohort studies have shown that participants with higher MIND diet scores, compared with those with the lowest scores, had better cognitive functioning, larger total brain volume, higher memory scores, lower risk of dementia, and slower cognitive decline, even when including participants with Alzheimer’s disease and history of stroke.
Potential Downsides
The MIND diet is flexible in that it does not include rigid meal plans. However, this also means that people will need to create their own meal plans and recipes based on the foods recommended on the MIND diet. This may be challenging for those who do not cook.
Like any major life change, transitioning to the MIND diet can be challenging. If you don’t usually cook your own food or eat out often, you may find it challenging to switch to the MIND diet. While the MIND diet doesn’t emphasize the importance of exercise to overall health, physical activity is just as critical as what you eat.
Sample Meal Plan
Making meals for the MIND diet doesn’t have to be complicated. Focus your meals on the 10 foods and food groups that are encouraged on the diet, and try to stay away from the 5 foods that the diet recommends limiting.
Here’s a 7-day meal plan to get you started:
Monday
- Breakfast: Greek yogurt with raspberries and sliced almonds
- Lunch: Mediterranean salad with olive oil-based dressing, grilled chicken, whole wheat pita
- Dinner: burrito bowl with brown rice, black beans, fajita vegetables, grilled chicken, salsa, and guacamole
Tuesday
- Breakfast: whole wheat toast with almond butter, scrambled eggs
- Lunch: grilled chicken sandwich, blackberries, carrots
- Dinner: grilled salmon, side salad with olive oil-based dressing, brown rice
Wednesday
- Breakfast: steel-cut oatmeal with strawberries, hard-boiled eggs
- Lunch: Mexican-style salad with mixed greens, black beans, red onion, corn, grilled chicken, and olive oil-based dressing
- Dinner: chicken and vegetable stir-fry, brown rice
Thursday
- Breakfast: Greek yogurt with peanut butter and banana
- Lunch: baked trout, collard greens, black-eyed peas
- Dinner: whole wheat spaghetti with turkey meatballs and marinara sauce, side salad with olive oil-based dressing
Friday
- Breakfast: whole wheat toast with avocado, omelet with peppers and onions
- Lunch: chili made with ground turkey
- Dinner: Greek-seasoned baked chicken, oven-roasted potatoes, side salad, whole wheat dinner roll
Saturday
- Breakfast: overnight oats with strawberries and almond butter
- Lunch: fish tacos on whole wheat tortillas, brown rice, coleslaw, and pinto beans
- Dinner: chicken gyro on whole wheat pita, cucumber and tomato salad
Sunday
- Breakfast: spinach frittata, sliced apple with peanut butter
- Lunch: tuna salad sandwich on whole wheat bread, plus carrots and celery with hummus
- Dinner: curry chicken, brown rice, lentils, and a side salad
Making Your Own Salad Dressing
Most salad dressings you find at the store are not made primarily with olive oil, but you can easily make your own salad dressing at home. To make a simple balsamic vinaigrette, combine 3 parts extra-virgin olive oil with 1 part balsamic vinegar. Add a little Dijon mustard, salt, and pepper and mix well.