Preventing Alzheimer’s / dementia with dietary means

Most people have heard about Alzheimer’s disease, but it isn’t the only form of dementia, but stands more like a model for diseases, that go with symptoms like loss of memory, depression, mood changes, inability to recognize even close relatives, problems to find an unknown route, etc. Most researchers believe that a combination of factors is responsible for this debilitating disease; the Alzheimer's Society lists: “age, genes, environment, lifestyle and general health”. A little aside: the original description of the disease by Alzheimer has been about premature dementia.


I’ve run through different sources on the net about preventing Alzheimer’s / dementia with dietary means. There’s lots of hype, uncertainties, lack of studies … but some ideas on a healthy diet won’t harm.


There are some things that one better stays away from [eat less or avoid], like, red and organ meat, dairy products high in fat like cheese, butter, icecream, foods rich in trans fatty acids like “packaged, fast, fried and frozen food, baked goods and margarine spreads”, hydrogenated oils (margarine sticks), alcohol.


Other foodstuffs might have a protective function [eat more]: seeds, beans, whole grains, nuts like walnuts, tomatoes, red bell peppers, beets, cruciferous and dark green leafy vegetables like broccoli, kale, spinach, fruits in general, especially dark-skinned fruits (high levels of antioxidants) like blueberries, blackberries, prunes, raisins, raspberries, cherries and more, certain oils (like linseed oil because of high contents of omega-3 fatty acids), coldwater fish (also rich in omega-3 fatty acids).