Important Study on Diet & Dementia.

As science discovers lifestyle patterns that prevent dementia, you might want to take advantage of all of them. Research is moving from single nutrients to dietary patterns. This dietary pattern is one you should know about.

Research has already suggested that healthy dietary patterns favourably influence brain health and development of dementia and that inflammatory diets are associated with worse brain health and increased risk of dementia.

This study carefully looked at diet and dementia risk in 1865 people who were 60 or older. The average age was 70.5, and they were followed for an average of 8.4 years.

The study found two important things. The first is that people with healthier dietary patterns had a lower risk of dementia even when they had biomarkers of dementia that suggested that they had an Alzheimer’s disease pathology and were at greater risk.

The second is that in people with biomarkers of Alzheimer’s pathology, an anti-inflammatory diet had the most powerful effect. Each unit increase in following an anti-inflammatory diet led to a 29% reduced risk of dementia in people with the Alzheimer’s biomarker p-tau217.

The study also revealed that healthier diet patterns delayed the onset of dementia by nearly a year even in people with biomarkers of dementia.

The healthy diets studied all had in common high consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and whole grains while discouraging red and processed meats and sweetened beverages.

This study adds to the evidence that healthy diets are protective from dementia. It adds the important discovery that this remains true even in people who are at higher risk.

JAMA Netw Open. June 25, 2026;9;(6):e2620254.

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For much more on natural approaches to preventing and treating dementia and Alzheimer’s, see our book The Family Naturopathic Encyclopedia.

For much more on healthy eating for cognitive health, see Linda’s newest cookbook, The All-New Vegetarian Passport Cookbook, a complete cookbook and health book in one.

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