What is MIND Diet & Its Health Benefits

The MIND diet was designed by Martha Clare Morris, a nutritional epidemiologist. The MIND diet signifies Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay and it is an amalgamation of two healthy diets i.e. the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet. The very basic motive of this diet is to decrease the possibility of Alzheimer’s disease, avoid dementia and other damages in brain health due to the old age.

Both Mediterranean diet and dash diet combined together to formulate a dietary arrangement that mainly emphases on brain health. This diet helps in decreasing the deterioration in brain health that happens when an individual gets older.

Rules of the MIND Diet
The MIND diet encourages to eat healthy and natural foods like fishes, poultry, green leafy vegetables, berries, nuts, beans, whole grains, and replace your refined oil from olive oil. It focuses on reducing the consumption of foods like fast food, processed foods, fried foods, sugary foods, cheese and red meat.

Here are the basic rules of the MIND diet.

• Aim to consume three servings of whole grains regularly
• Limit unhealthy fats and red meat
• Try to consume low sodium foods
• Regular consumption of 3 servings of whole grains
• Consume salad every day
• Aim to consume 4 meals of beans every week
• Snack on nuts regularly
• Poultry and berries should be consumed at least twice a week
• Consume fish once in a week (best to choose fatty fishes)
• Can consume butter less than one tablespoon on a daily basis
• Use olive oil as your key your key ingredient while cooking

As mind diet introduced in 2015, there are not many pieces of research that claim its benefits to be true, however, there are 3-4 kinds of research that said MIND diet lesser the threat of Alzheimer disease by 53%. There are other benefits of MIND diet as well.

Here are some of the significant profits of the MIND diet.

• Brain health: The mind diet mainly focuses on brain-boosting foods and nutrients like antioxidants, Vitamin C, K, E and omega 3s which is quite advantageous for the brain health and can profit the brain in two ways, first is, diminish the threat of Alzheimer and dementia by 53% and the second is, enhance the memory, cognition, attention and visual-spatial skills.
• Inflammation: MIND diet focuses on nutrient-dense foods while eliminating the high fat and sugary foods that help in soothing the inflammations caused in the body. Eating MIND diet foods for 12 weeks can lower the chronic inflammation up to 95%.
• Cardiovascular disease: The MIND diet is rich in dietary fibre, complex carbs (good carbs), Vitamins and Minerals, healthy fats and antioxidants which reduce the risk of various cardiovascular diseases like heart attacks and stroke. Moreover, it keeps a check on cholesterol levels, blood sugar levels and blood pressure.
• Diabetes: MIND diet focuses on eating significant amounts of fruits, whole grains, cereals and green leafy vegetables which help in improving the blood sugar levels while decreasing the risk of type 2 diabetes by 20%.

There are various other advantages of MIND diet like weight loss, preventing depression, reducing the risk of developing Parkinson disease and life longevity but there is no proper evidence found for these. Try to speak to a doctor before following the MIND diet and especially if you are suffering from any health complications.

Over to you
The MIND diet is rich in various nutrients that can benefit your overall health and well-being like no other but various researches said that there can be several dangers due to the food items involved in this type of diet. For example, contaminants found in fish like mercury can be dangerous for the nervous system. Talk to a doctor before adding it to your diet.