Brain: No more red meat, here is the food that increases gray matter

Gray matter is the brain’s “command center,” responsible for information management and many cognitive functions. It contributes to a person’s overall intellectual abilities. Its integrity is crucial for proper mental and cognitive functioning. However, it declines with age, even more so in people with certain diseases such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, multiple sclerosis, or cardiometabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, stroke, and hypertension.

A new one study conducted from the UK Biobank (a large medical research database based in the United Kingdom) has highlighted a significant link between the consumption of certain foods and their positive effects on brain health. More than 84,000 people with an average age of 60 were followed for around 12 years. Of these, 14,079 suffered from at least one cardiometabolic disease (17%), a risk factor for dementia. The researchers aimed to determine whether following a certain diet could protect their brains from cognitive decline.

What they found was that participants with cardiometabolic disease who ate a pro-inflammatory diet (i.e., high in foods that promote inflammation) had twice the risk of dementia compared to those who ate an anti-inflammatory diet. Specifically, the risk of dementia was 31% lower in those who ate the so-called anti-inflammatory diet. The anti-inflammatory diet also delayed the onset of dementia by 2 years compared to the pro-inflammatory diet. But that’s not all. Brain MRI scans of nearly 9,000 participants showed that those who ate the anti-inflammatory diet had more gray matter volume than those who ate the pro-inflammatory diet.

Concretely, which foods should we favor? And which ones should we avoid? Remember that the Western diet characterized by red meat, high-fat dairy products, eggs, refined grains and processed foods is associated with higher levels of inflammatory biomarkers. On the contrary, a higher consumption of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, fish and legumes is associated with lower levels of these biomarkers. These foods should therefore be present alternately at each meal and replace the most inflammatory ones. In 2014, a study American research has specifically shown the benefits of consuming grilled or baked fish in increasing the gray matter of the brain (+4 to +14% depending on the areas of the brain).

This research demonstrates the importance of diet in preserving cognitive health, especially for people already at risk of dementia due to cardiovascular disease. If you have heart or metabolic problems, there is still time to rethink your plate: choosing an anti-inflammatory diet can not only protect your heart but also your brain.