Researchers analyzed the food intake and cognitive function in a group of 3,831 older adults in Utah over 11 years. Those most closely following a DASH diet (a healthy diet used to treat hypertension that emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low fat dairy, and limited sweets and salt) or Mediterranean diet at the start of the study were found to have consistently better cognitive function than those not following those diets. In particular, whole grains, nuts, and legumes were all linked with better cognitive function, and the researchers concluded that these “may be core neuroprotective foods common to various healthy plant-centered diets around the globe.”
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2013 Nov;98(5):1263-71. (Wengreen H et al.)

Scientists at Utah State University and Duke University assessed the cognitive function of 3831 men and women 65 or older over an 11-year period, and compared their cognitive abilities with their diet makeup. They found that higher adherence to both the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet corresponded with higher cognitive abilities, and that “whole grains and nuts and legumes were positively associated with higher cognitive functions and may be core neuroprotective foods common to various healthy plant-centered diets around the globe.”
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2013 Nov; 98(5):1263-71. (Wengreen et al.)

In an animal study in Malaysia, scientists compared the antioxidant activity in white rice, brown rice and sprouted brown rice. While brown rice fared better than white rice, it was the sprouted brown rice that was found to have the highest antioxidant activity. Additionally, researchers found that sprouted brown rice lowered the level of liver enzymes associated with liver toxicity (a side effect of some cholesterol lowering medications).
Food Chemistry. 2013 November 15;141(2):1306-12. (Mohd Esa N et al.)

A new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine demonstrates that eating a Mediterranean Diet is associated with greater health and well-being in older age. The study analyzed food frequency questionnaires collected between 1984 and 1986 from 10,670 women in their late 50s and early 60s with no major chronic diseases. Fifteen years later researchers again collected data from the same women and found that those who had adhered to a Mediterranean Diet in middle age were about 40% more likely to live past 70 and to have avoided 11 chronic diseases measured in the study including many cancers, type 2 diabetes, and Parkinson’s disease. Those who most closely followed a Med Diet also were more likely to age without physical disabilities, signs of cognitive impairment, or mental health problems.
Annals of Internal Medicine. 2013; 159(9): 584-591. (Samieri, et al.)

When researchers at Loma Linda University conducted a cross-sectional study of 71,715 subjects from the Adventist Health Study 2 to compare nutrient intakes between dietary patterns characterized by consumption or exclusion of meat and dairy products, they found a clear connection between diet type and weight among five groups: meat-eaters, semi-vegetarians, pescatarians, lacto-ovo vegetarians, and vegans.  Vegans were found to have the lowest average BMI, while meat-eaters showed the highest, along with the highest intake of heart-disease related fatty acids. Vegans also had the lowest occurrence of obesity (9%) compared to 33.3% of meat-eaters. The average age of study participants was 59.

Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. August 2013. (Rizzo, Jaceldo-Sigl, Sabate, Fraser.)

Researchers in Quebec measured an anti-inflammatory component of HDL (“good cholesterol”) in ten young adults and ten elderly adults, and found that the older people had less anti-inflammatory activity. After 12 weeks of Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) consumption, anti-inflammatory activity increased in both groups and reduced the age-related difference between the two groups.

British Journal of Nutrition. 2013 Oct;110(7):1272:84. Loued et al.

Researchers analyzed data from more than 22,000 participants followed over 11 years in the Greek cohort of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) to investigate the relationship between the Mediterranean Diet, glycemic load, and occurrence of type 2 diabetes. The researchers found that people who consumed a low glycemic load diet that adheres to the principles of the Mediterranean Diet may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes by 20%.

Diabetologia. 2013 Aug 22. [Epub ahead of print.] [Rossi, et al.]
 

Researchers in Sweden followed the fruit and vegetable consumption of more than 80,000 men and women over a 13-year period to investigate the relationship between fruit and vegetable consumption and occurrence of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). The aorta is the body’s largest artery. A bulge in the aorta’s wall in the abdomen is an abdominal aortic aneurysm. A ruptured aneurysm causes internal bleeding and can cause death. The research team found that people who ate more than two servings of fruit per day had a 25% lower risk of developing AAA and a 43% lower risk of rupture than those who ate less than 7/10 of a serving of fruit per day. They found no relationship between vegetable consumption and risk of AAA.

Circulation. 2013; 128(8):795-802. (Stackelberg, et al.)

Researchers from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (USDA HNRCA) at Tufts University and from the CIBER Fisiopatalogía de la Obesidad y Nutritión in Spain have found that the Mediterranean Diet reduces stroke risk in people with a gene variant associated with the development of type 2 diabetes. Working with the data from the PREDIMED study, researchers identified that patients carrying two copies of the Transcription Factor 7-Like 2 (TCF7L2) gene, which is known to place patients at high risk for type 2 diabetes and suspected of connections with other diseases, had a risk factor for stroke almost three times higher than those with only one copy or no copies of the gene. But patients with two copies of the gene who adhered to a Mediterranean Diet reduced their risk for stroke to the same levels as those with one or no copies of the gene.

Diabetes Care. Epub 2013 August 13. [Corella, et al.].

Researchers in Spain followed more than 5,500 high-risk men and women of the PREDIMED Trial ages 55 to 80 for up to seven years to assess the association between alcohol consumption and depression. Participants were free of depression or a history of depression at the beginning of the study and did not have a history of alcohol-related problems. Researchers found that participants who consumed moderate amounts of alcohol (between 2 and 7 drinks per week, most commonly wine over other types of alcoholic beverages) had lower rates of depression than participants who did not consume alcohol. However, heavy drinkers appear to be at higher risk than moderate drinkers and abstainers. Dr. Miguel Ángel Martínez-González, one of the researchers for the study, commented, “If you are not a drinker, please don’t start drinking. If you drink alcohol, please keep it in the range of one or less drinks a day and consider drinking wine instead of other alcoholic beverages.”

BMC Med. 2013 Aug; 11(1):192. (Gea, et al.)

In this review, researchers from Spain and the US analyzed existing research on seeds (whole grains, tree nuts, peanuts, pulses, cocoa, and coffee) to determine their relationship to heart health. Based on the research, including over 25 studies on whole grains alone, the scientists found a decreased risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes, and improved cholesterol, when eating seed foods like whole grains. They deemed seeds as “natural health capsules, where the synergistic interaction of their many bioactive constituents may all favorably influence human physiology.” The researchers also noted that “it is often difficult to tease out the effects of the individual components of a whole food,” indicating that seeds are best eaten in their whole form (like whole grains), rather than being refined into individual constituents.
Circulation. 2013 July 30;128(5):553-65. (Ros E et al.)

A cross-sectional study of more than 3.5 million administrative records in the New York State WIC Statewide Information System (WICSIS) was conducted to examine trends from 2008 to 2011 in prevalence of feeding practices after the 2009 implementation of new WIC food packages. Overall positive changes in all reported behaviors were observed. Reported behaviors included daily consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and low-/nonfat milk. 
Obesity. July 2013; 21(7): E1-E7. (Chiasson et al.)