Inclusion of leafy greens, dark orange and red vegetables and berry fruits, and drinking orange juice may be associated with lower risk of memory loss in men over time, according to a new neurologic study.
According to study author Changzheng Yuan, of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston, the study provides further evidence that dietary choices can be important to maintaining brain health.
The study looked at 27,842 men with an average age of 51 who were all health professionals. Participants filled out questionnaires about how many servings of fruits, vegetables and other foods they had each day at the beginning of the study, and then every four years for 20 years. A serving of fruit is considered one cup of fruit or half a cup of fruit juice, and a serving of vegetable is one cup of raw vegetables or two cups of leafy greens.
Participants were also measured on the thinking and memory skills at least four years before the end of the study, when their average age was 73.
Participants were divided into five groups based on fruit and vegetable consumption. For vegetables, the highest group ate about six servings a day, compared to about two servings for the lowest group. For fruit, the highest group had about three servings a day, compared to half a serving for the lowest group.
The study found that men who drank orange juice every day were 47 percent less likely to develop poor thinking skills than the men who drank less than one serving per month. The study also found that men who ate the most fruit daily were less likely to develop poor thinking skills, but that association was weakened after researchers adjusted for other dietary factors, such as consumption of vegetables, fruit juice, refined grains, legumes and dairy products.
Researchers also concluded that people who consumed more fruits and vegetables 20 years earlier were less likely to develop thinking and memory problems, whether or not they kept eating larger amounts of fruits and vegetables about six years before the memory test. While the study does not show that eating fruits and vegetables and drinking orange juice reduces memory loss, is does show a relationship between them, researchers said,
Study results were published on Nov. 21 in the online issue of Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology, and by EurekAlert, the online publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.
