Daily HealthBeat Tip

Alzheimer's and eating

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Eating the way people do around the Mediterranean seems to be good for you. One study suggests it could reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

The Mediterranean diet has lots of fruits, vegetables, beans, grains and fish – and olive oil, of course – some alcohol, and not much meat and dairy. And the researchers found people who ate like that were less like to have Alzheimer’s.

Nicolaos Scarmeas is with Columbia University Medical Center in New York:

"Those who were following the Mediterranean diet at the highest degree had their risk reduction of approximately 40 to 60 percent." (seven seconds)

A moderate amount still had some benefit.

Scarmeas says a Mediterranean diet might be good for Alzheimer’s, and tastes good. So he likes it.

The study in Archives of Neurology was supported by the National Institutes of Health.

Learn more at www.hhs.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I'm Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: December 29, 2006

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