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Can diet protect your brain?
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The Brain Nutrient in Egg Yolks
When I began my desperate search to slow the rate of my cognitive decline, the MIND diet gave me a much-welcomed infusion of hope. Perhaps there was something I could do after all!
I'd never heard of it before. Had you?
My mission is to empower people to achieve real health through real food. Ultimately, I did not choose to follow the MIND diet as written, but I did begin somewhere close.
🧠 Welcome to the MIND Diet
I had never heard of the MIND diet, and yet suddenly there it was, research suggesting that food choices might influence brain aging.
Recent coverage of a large cohort analysis presented at Nutrition 2025 has renewed interest in this approach, linking long-term dietary patterns with cognitive outcomes.
The MIND diet was developed by researchers at Rush University Medical Center, combining elements of the Mediterranean and DASH diets to focus specifically on cognitive health.
At its core, the MIND diet emphasizes:
✅ leafy vegetables and other plant foods
✅ whole grains daily
✅ berries and nuts
✅ fish and poultry
✅ olive oil as the primary fat
❌ limited red meat, sweets, and fried foods
For those of us raised on the Standard American Diet, this represents a meaningful step away from ultra-processed foods (UPFs) and toward real food.
The promise? Better brain health.
🧠 Good News from MIND diet research
A large study presented at Nutrition 2025 and later summarized in Medical News Today reinforces something deeply encouraging:
it may never be too late to support brain health through better food choices.
Researchers found that people who followed the MIND-style eating pattern more closely had a significantly lower risk of developing dementia — even when they adopted it later in life.
As the article explains:
“The findings suggest that improving diet quality may help lower dementia risk regardless of the age at which healthier eating begins.”
In other words, your brain is not keeping score on when you start. It responds to what you do next.
This aligns with a growing body of research pointing in the same direction: food patterns that reduce inflammation and support metabolic health appear to help protect cognitive function over time.
For many people, the MIND diet represents a hopeful first step, a sign that meaningful change is still possible.
If you’d like to read more about the research, you can find the article here:
🧠 Can we do better? I think so.
As I studied this diet and others, I found a couple of missed opportunities, largely stemming from where the MIND diet still reflects some older assumptions about nutrition.
It emphasizes daily grains for one. Why? Grains offer scant nutrition, can spike blood sugar, and will continue the cycle of unwelcome carbohydrate cravings.
The MIND diet also demonstrates a low-fat philosophy, limiting cheese, butter, and red meat. Our brains and bodies need natural fat.
My concerns do not diminish the value of the MIND diet as a starting point, but I cannot embrace it as a fully nutrition first approach to brain and body health.
🧠 And with all due respect...
In the Medical News Today coverage of the Nutrition 2025 research, Dr. Russell P. Sawyer, MD, FAAN, a neurologist at the University of Cincinnati, offered a cautious reminder, “We do not yet have clearly proven modifiable risk factors that can completely prevent the onset of dementia.”
Recent large-scale research suggests otherwise.
A major review published in The Lancet Commission on Dementia Prevention, Intervention and Care concluded that addressing modifiable risk factors such as smoking, weight, exercise, and more across the lifespan could prevent or delay a substantial proportion of dementia cases worldwide.
And in a BMJ prospective cohort study, higher consumption of ultra-processed foods was associated with a significantly increased risk of dementia, while replacing those foods with minimally processed alternatives appeared protective.
Taken together, this body of evidence points to something both practical and hopeful: While no single food or lifestyle change guarantees protection, our daily choices, including (and especially?) food choices, shape brain health.
☀️ Do You MIND?
I don't MIND.
But I am grateful for the diet that launched my journey into living a Nutrition First diet, a diet that I credit fully with reversing the worst of my early Alzheimer's symptoms.
👉 Want to see the original research behind claims offered this week? Find them all here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1R1aC-bHfizM7msHVv0sn7PPzKML6sN5u?usp=drive_link
I'm Glad You're Here
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Until next time, stay strong, wise, kind, and good.
Choose real food for real health.
Disclaimer: I am not a doctor, scientist, or nutritionist. I do not provide medical advice. I share personal experience and ongoing learning about health through real food.
Good morning!
I am a late boomer spreading the gospel of good health through good food.
My bona fides?
Beating back Alzheimer's by eating clean low-carb.
And dropping a little weight effortlessly as a bonus.
Real food for real health.
Join me?
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