Researchers followed 447 men and women aged 55 to 80 years old for four years.They were asked to eat either a low fat diet or a Mediterranean diet that included consuming 30 grams of nuts a week and one liter of extra virgin olive oil per week.
The point of the research was to learm if and how diet could affect performance on cogntive tests. Participants were given a series of brain functioning tests at the start of the study and four years later at the end of the study.
Those on the low fat diet lost some memory and thinking skills. Those who added the nuts to their diet saw their memory skills improve, on average. Those who consuned the additional liter of olive oil had an improvement in their problem-solving and planning skills.
All this according to an article in the May JAMA Internal Medicine.
The article did not address wieght management. But it would not surprise me if the low fat diet group did poorest in managing their weight. After all the hype about low fat diets in the past thirty years it does seem that low fat is not, alone, the way to go. It may be hard for Americans to follow the Mediterranean diet however. First, serving size is a big issue. We Americans do serve and eat much larger portions than Europeans, especially Mediterraneans. And, we have a friend who claims what we buy in the US is NOT olive oil, especially not extra version olive oil. I don't know what he thinks we get in a bottle of olive oil if it isn't oilive oil. But he is not usually given to strange ideas. Not usually.
I would like to preserve the little good brain functon that I now have. And a diet of pasta, vegetables, tomatoes, wine and nuts sounds tolerable. I'm not sure how a liter of oiive oil would go down. One extra liter a week sounds like a lot. it's hard to alter one's thinking after years of being told to eat a low-fat diet.
The point of the research was to learm if and how diet could affect performance on cogntive tests. Participants were given a series of brain functioning tests at the start of the study and four years later at the end of the study.
Those on the low fat diet lost some memory and thinking skills. Those who added the nuts to their diet saw their memory skills improve, on average. Those who consuned the additional liter of olive oil had an improvement in their problem-solving and planning skills.
All this according to an article in the May JAMA Internal Medicine.
The article did not address wieght management. But it would not surprise me if the low fat diet group did poorest in managing their weight. After all the hype about low fat diets in the past thirty years it does seem that low fat is not, alone, the way to go. It may be hard for Americans to follow the Mediterranean diet however. First, serving size is a big issue. We Americans do serve and eat much larger portions than Europeans, especially Mediterraneans. And, we have a friend who claims what we buy in the US is NOT olive oil, especially not extra version olive oil. I don't know what he thinks we get in a bottle of olive oil if it isn't oilive oil. But he is not usually given to strange ideas. Not usually.
I would like to preserve the little good brain functon that I now have. And a diet of pasta, vegetables, tomatoes, wine and nuts sounds tolerable. I'm not sure how a liter of oiive oil would go down. One extra liter a week sounds like a lot. it's hard to alter one's thinking after years of being told to eat a low-fat diet.
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