Eating just ONE portion of leafy greens a day may de-age brain by four years trends now
Eating just one portion of leafy vegetables a day may lower the risk of dementia and de-ages your brain, a study suggests.
Scans showed seniors who ate at least six portions of greens had lower levels of plaques linked to Alzheimer's and had brains four years younger than their peers.
Dementia is thought to be caused by amyloid proteins in the brain that clump together and cause damage to key neurons.
Leafy green vegetables are rich in antioxidants which may help protect the brain from oxidative stress, which is linked to the build-up of these amyloid plaques.
Study author Puja Agarwal, from RUSH University in Chicago, said: 'These results are exciting. Improvement in people’s diets in just one area— such as eating more than six servings of green leafy vegetables per week, or not eating fried foods— was associated with fewer amyloid plaques in the brain similar to being about four years younger.'
People who had eaten the most green leafy vegetables, or seven or more servings per week, had plaque amounts in their brains corresponding to being almost 19 years younger than people who ate the fewest, with one or fewer servings per week, the study found
Researchers looked at 581 people with an average of 84 at the time of diet assessment, who agreed to donate their brains at death to advance research on dementia.
They completed annual questionnaires asking how much of various foods they ate.
Those involved in the research died an average of seven years after the start of the study.
Right before death, 39 percent had been diagnosed with dementia. When examined after death, 66 percent met the criteria for Alzheimer’s disease.
During a post-mortem examination, researchers examined their brains to determine the amounts of amyloid plaques and tau tangles.
Both are found in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease but may also be found in the brains of older people with normal cognition.
Researchers then looked
