New Research: Eating This Could “Significantly” Reduce Alzheimer’s Risk

You’ve heard that the Mediterranean diet is the one to follow for a healthy heart. Now, experts highlight how a way of adapting it could also extend to brain health.

While not quite as well known as the Mediterranean diet, the “Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay” diet—commonly known as the MIND diet, aptly enough—has been hailed one of the healthiest eating plans to follow. In fact, U.S. News & World Report rankings have consistently placed the diet among the top choices for healthy aging.

Originally developed by a team from Chicago’s Rush University on a team led by late nutritional epidemiologist Martha Clare Morris, ScD, the MIND diet merges key elements of the Mediterranean and DASH diets, both long recognized for their cardiovascular benefits. It emphasizes 15 dietary components, including 10 brain-supportive food groups—such as leafy greens, berries, whole grains, nuts, beans, olive oil, fish, poultry, and wine. It also gathers five categories considered harmful, like red meat, butter, cheese, pastries, and fried or fast food.

What distinguishes the MIND diet from others is its focus on brain health, specifically its potential to help prevent Alzheimer’s disease. In her 2016 study introducing the diet to the public, Dr. Morris found that individuals who followed it closely reduced their risk of Alzheimer’s by up to 53%, while even moderate followers saw a 35% reduction. While strict adherence to either the Mediterranean diet or the DASH diet also improved cognitive outcomes by 54% and 39%, respectively, modest adherence to either individual diet showed “negligible benefits,” Rush representatives have reported. 

“One of the more exciting things about this is that people who adhered even moderately to the MIND diet had a reduction in their risk for [Alzheimer’s disease],” Dr. Morris said. She noted that the findings could motivate people to adopt at least some of the diet’s principles, even if they do not follow it perfectly.

Now, an August 2025 study has further explored the neuroprotective benefits of the MIND diet, and found new pathways by which it could reduce Alzheimer’s risk. Published in JAMA Network Open, a team of neurology researchers reviewed data from more than 800 autopsied participants and discovered that following the MIND diet was associated with a lower likelihood of hippocampal sclerosis (HS)—a loss of neurons in a part of the brain involved in memory and learning. 

Damage to the hippocampus, including hippocampal sclerosis, is linked to higher incidence of Alzheimer’s, dementia, and other degenerative brain changes, the researchers note. “HS is present in 20% of individuals with cognitive impairment and increasingly recognized as an important pathology associated with cognitive impairment and dementia beyond Alzheimer disease (AD) pathology,” the study says.

Following the MIND diet was also linked to lower incidence of “limbic-predominant age-related TDP-43 encephalopathy neuropathologic change” (LATE-NC)—a brain disease characterized by the abnormal accumulation of harmful proteins in the brain’s limbic system. “It is a common cause of age-related dementia, often presenting with amnesia, and can exist alone or alongside other pathologies like Alzheimer’s disease,” the study authors note. 

So, as you prep your next meal, be sure to load up on all of the brain-healthy foods the MIND diet has to offer. According to Harvard’s site The Nutrition Source, the diet’s guidelines recommend:

• 3+ servings a day of whole grains
• 1+ servings a day of vegetables (other than green leafy)
• 6+ servings a week of green leafy vegetables
• 5+ servings a week of nuts
• 4+ meals a week of beans
• 2+ servings a week of berries
• 2+ meals a week of poultry
• 1+ meals a week of fish
• Mainly olive oil if added fat is used
• Less than 5 servings a week of pastries and sweets
• Less than 4 servings a week of red meat (including beef, pork, lamb, and products made from these meats)
• Less than one serving a week of cheese and fried foods
• Less than 1 tablespoon a day of butter/stick margarine

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