A Mediterranean diet, covering with fruits, vegetables, olive oil and fish, may help older adults to engage more brain capacity, researchers have found. The Mediterranean diet also contains beans also cereal grains such as wheat and rice, moderate amounts of fish, dairy and wine and lean red meat and poultry.

Characterized Especially By More Veggies, Olive Oil And Moderate Protien

"As we get age, our brain declines and we lose brain cells which can sway learning and memory. This learning adds to the body of indication that suggests the Mediterranean diet has a constructive impact on brain health," said Michelle Luciano from the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. For the study, scientists gathered data on the eating habits of 967 Scottish people aged around 70 who did not have dementia.

The findings exhibited that people who did not follow as carefully to the Mediterranean diet were more likely to have a higher loss of total brain capacity over three years than those who tracked the diet more closely. The variance in diet explained 0.5 percent of the distinction in total brain volume, an effect that was half the dimensions of that due to normal ageing.

The results were the same when used to for other factors that could influence brain volume such as age, education and having diabetes or high blood pressure, the researchers said. In addition, eating fish and meat were not related to brain changes, they said. This is contrary to earlier studies.

"It's possible that other items of the Mediterranean diet are in control for this relationship or that it's due to all of the components in mixture," Luciano said. No relationship was found between grey matter volume or cortical depth - which is the outer layer of the brain - and the Mediterranean diet, the researchers noted.