The Mediterranean Diet is well-studied for its role in preventing dementia, but researchers wonder if a diet rooted in Asian culinary traditions might also be effective. Researchers analyzed the eating habits of 1,006 elderly Japanese adults and monitored them for any signs of dementia. Those eating a diet with lots of soy, vegetables, algae, and dairy, which the researchers note is “roughly correspondent to a customary Japanese diet,” were 44% less likely to develop all-cause dementia, 35% less likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease, and 55% less likely to develop vascular dementia.
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. 2013 May;97(5):1076-82. (Ozawa M et al.)