Eating a Mediterranean diet rich in leafy vegetables will help you stay mentally sharp later in life.

Eating a Mediterranean diet has been found to keep you mentally fit during your golden years, new study finds.

People who follow the popular regiment – full of vegetables, fruits, beans, whole grains and healthy fats – have better cognitive function later in life, according to a new report from Scotland.

A group of over 500 seniors were asked about their eating habits and faced a series of memory and thinking challenges.

Those who followed the Mediterranean diet closely, especially eating a lot of green leafy vegetables and only a little red meat, had better results.

But there didn’t seem to be any connection between diet and better physical brain health, such as increased gray matter volume.

Researchers say the diet may be affecting specific areas of the brain that cannot be seen by neuroimaging of the whole organ.

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The traditional Mediterranean diet includes lots of vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains, as well as lots of healthy fats like olive oil.

It contains moderate amounts of fish, chicken and dairy products and very little sugar or red meat.

For decades, it’s been linked to everything from protecting against diabetes and Parkinson’s disease to reducing the risk of cancer, heart disease and stroke.

In a recent study sponsored by Age UK and the Medical Research Council, scientists at the University of Edinburgh tested the thinking skills of more than 500 people aged 79.

Participants were given memory, vocabulary and problem-solving tests, and were asked about their eating habits.

MRI scans were performed on more than 350 subjects to collect data on their brain structures and form a statistical model to compare.

According to the study, published in the journal Experimental Gerontology, sticking closely to the Mediterranean diet had a weak but statistical association with higher scores.

This was true even taking into account childhood IQ, activity level, smoking, and other health issues.

The association appears strongest for those who eat a lot of green leafy vegetables and little red meat, the researchers said, suggesting that they are crucial parts of the diet.

Strangely, the reflective power benefits that were evident in their test results were not evident on their MRI scans.

There was no more volume of white or gray matter, nor other structural signs of better brain function.

“ In our sample, the positive relationship between a Mediterranean diet and thinking skills is not explained by a healthier brain structure, as one would expect, ” said lead author Janie Corley, researcher postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Psychology, University of Edinburgh.

“While it is possible that there may be other structural or functional brain correlations with this measure of diet, or associations in specific regions of the brain, rather than the brain as a whole, as measured here “, added Corley.

Subjects were selected from the Lothian 1936 Birth Cohort, made up of individuals born in 1936 who participated in the 1947 Scottish Mental Survey.

The cohorts have been helping researchers analyze the effect of aging on thinking since 1999.

Although this study was one of the first to incorporate neuroimaging, it follows on from previous research linking the Mediterranean diet to better cognitive function.

In January, a team from Rush University Medical Center in Chicago found that adding foods from a typical Western diet – like pizza, candy, and processed meats – negated the cognitive benefits of the Mediterranean diet.

The study looked at more than 5,000 older people over three years and found that those who stuck to the Mediterranean diet had brains nearly six years younger than their peers who gave in to junk food cravings.

A report published in 2020 in the journal Gut found that older people followed for a year had slower cognitive loss, including with memory, compared to others who maintained their normal eating habits.

Those who adhered closely to the diet also had better walking speed and better grip strength.

Dieting has boosted their beneficial gut bacteria, which has been linked to preventing frailty and memory loss.

A 2018 study published in The Journal of Urology determined that men who ate a Mediterranean diet, especially rich fish, boiled potatoes, whole fruits, vegetables, legumes, and olive oil , and low juice consumption had a lower risk of aggressive prostate cancer.