This Special Diet May Slow Brain Aging
Adopting a green-Mediterranean diet, which incorporates green tea and the aquatic plant Mankai, has been linked to slower brain aging, according to recent research. The study, published in the journal Clinical Nutrition, was conducted by scientists from Ben-Gurion University, the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and the University of Leipzig.
Neurological disorders such as mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease are often associated with an increased brain age gap, meaning the brain appears biologically older than a person’s actual age. To explore whether diet could influence this process, researchers examined data from nearly 300 participants in the DIRECT PLUS trial, one of the most extensive long-term studies on diet and brain health.
Over an 18-month period, participants followed one of three diets: a standard healthy diet; a traditional calorie-restricted Mediterranean diet, which limited simple carbohydrates, emphasized vegetables, and replaced red meat with poultry and fish; or the green-Mediterranean diet, which included all of the above along with green tea and Mankai.
When the researchers measured protein levels in the participants’ blood, they found that higher levels of certain proteins were associated with accelerated brain aging. Further, they found that those protein levels decreased in participants who followed the green-Mediterranean diet. The researchers hypothesized that the protective effect of the diet could be a result of the anti-inflammatory molecules contained in green tea and Mankai.
“Studying the circulating proteins in blood allows us to observe, in a real-life setting, how the brain’s aging processes are influenced by lifestyle and dietary changes,” said Anat Meir, postdoctoral research fellow at Harvard Chan School, who co-led the study. “This approach gives us a dynamic window into brain health, helping to reveal biological changes long before symptoms may appear. By mapping these protein signatures, we gain powerful new insight into how interventions, such as diet, may help preserve cognitive function as we age.”
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