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Eating that yellow powder whose name starts with ‘T’ can boost brain power

I had a great idea for a food column this week. It was on... ah... Huh, I can't seem to... Oh! It was on what you can do food-wise to help your memory.

The idea was inspired by recent medical studies that confirm findings of an earlier one: a Mediterranean diet has good things in store for the brain and even better things if you exercise, too.

The first study, conducted in 2006 by Columbia University Medical Center, showed that elderly people in New Your who stick closest to a Mediterranean diet had slower age-related cognitive decline than those who didn't. A recent follow-up study of those same New Yorkers concluded that those who were the most active had an even greater chance of avoiding Alzheimer's disease - a 61-67 per cent greater chance.

All this was confirmed by an additional study of more than 1,400 older people in France. It also concluded that people who stick closest to a Mediterranean diet had slower age-related cognitive decline than those who didn't.

The nice thing is that the studies' main author, Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas, who's the assistant professor of Neurology at Division of Aging and Dementia at Columbia, says it's not about how much you eat, it's all about how well you eat.

Given Dr. Scarmeas's name, it's likely he's personally familiar with a Mediterranean diet. It's commonly defined as one very low in red meat and chicken, and very high in fruits, nuts, legumes, vegetables, and cereals - for the antioxidants and vitamin B, among other things - as well as high in fish for the Omega-3 fatty acids. You get to drink low to moderate amounts of wine and olive oil is your main source of fat.

We've heard before that the Mediterranean diet is good for our hearts and some would argue our souls, but now this even better news - it's also good for our brains! No wonder Spanish, Greek, Italian and Provençal food are all about conviviality.

As if by corollary, about the same time these studies were published, research conducted by Oxford University and funded by the British Heart Foundation showed that rats that were switched from their regular diets to high-fat ones showed decline in physical stamina and mental performance.

While this study was mostly aimed at short-term effects, such as athletes who go on high-fat diets thinking it will enhance their performance, it also reinforced past studies that showed high-fat diets impair mental or cognitive performance over the long term.

I think of all the people who went bonkers on the high-meat, low-carb Atkins diet several years ago, right before the economy crashed. The regime especially captivated high-powered decision makers in urban settings. We can only hope they've re-discovered lentils by now.

Why eat for good brain health? Even if you don't get a disease like Alzheimer's or Parkinson's, which can also impair cognitive functions, the normal impacts of aging on your brain leave it less able to defend itself from "regular" incursions, like inflammation and oxidation or "free-radical" damage. (A free radical, in case you don't remember, is a molecule or atom that has a free or unattached electron, which allows it to react or attach itself easily to other atoms or molecules. In the human body, free radicals can damage cells.)

On top of this, brain cells often simply stop communicating with each other as we age, making it harder to process thoughts and thwarting our short-term memory.

"Old neurons are like old married couples - they don't talk to each other very much anymore. They just sit in the room with the remote and stare at the TV," says Dr. James Joseph, director of the Neuroscience Lab at the Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University in Boston, in an article posted on MSNBC.com.

I burst out laughing when I read that quote. I guess all you can hope for is that your old partner likes olives, fish, tomatoes, lentils and red wine.

Mercifully, it turns out what's good for your brain is also good for your heart, which might also get those old married couples talking to each other, and more. (Good doctors everywhere consistently tout sex as a vital part of maintaining optimal health.)

A study published in Lancet that found an Indo-Mediterranean diet containing high ratios of fruits, vegetables, legumes, walnuts and almonds was better for preventing coronary artery disease than the usual preventative diet prescribed by the U.S. National Cholesterol Education Program.

The "Indo" side of the healthy heart Indo-Mediterranean diet also correlates back to a healthy brain. Rates of Alzheimer's disease in India as well as in the Mediterranean are much lower than in the Western world. And research points to curcumin as being one of the roots of that.

Curcumin is the phytochemical that gives turmeric powder its distinctive bright yellow-orange colour. Turmeric, used to flavour South/Southeast Asian and Middle Eastern curries and other dishes, comes from the bulbous, bright orange rhizomes of this member of the ginger family. The rhizomes are dried in big ovens then ground into the powder we're familiar with.

Turmeric has been an important part of Ayurvedic medicine for years, and now curcumin is on Western science's radar screens as an effective anti-inflammatory. A friend diagnosed for a hip replacement found much pain relief and increased mobility by taking turmeric capsules. I forgot to ask him if his memory improved as well.

Now you can see what a nice list of tasty foods we have to keep those brain cells happy: Indian curries, Mediterranean cuisine and all those delicious, intensely coloured fruits and veggies filled with antioxidants  - blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, beets, kale, spinach - that for years our doctors have been hounding us to eat.

Speaking of hounds, don't forget your beloved pets. A study done on older beagles in the U.S. showed that they performed old tricks better with several years of a diet rich in anti-oxidants. So what if we can't teach old dogs new tricks, we can help them remember the old ones.

The real trick to all this is that it doesn't work to suddenly start eating well on your 65th birthday. Diet will only help your brain - and heart - age gracefully and optimally if you do it, if not all your life, at least starting as early as you can. That could be today, if you remember all the good things you're supposed to get at the grocery store.

 

Glenda Bartosh is an award-winning freelance writer who forgot to take her vitamins this morning.