You can help your brain, especially as it ages, by eating and drinking right
A review of research from 1957 to the present has concluded that a whole diet approach, and specifically Mediterranean-style diets, has more evidence for reducing cardiovascular risk than strategies that focus exclusively on reduced dietary fat.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/ehs-ssw020514.php
A Swedish study has found that those who ate poor breakfasts as year 9 students had a higher incidence of metabolic syndrome 27 years later, compared with those who ate more substantial breakfasts.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-01/uu-pbi012914.php
A study involving 39 young adult men and women of normal weight, who ate 750 extra calories in the form of muffins every day for seven weeks, found that those whose muffins were made with palm oil built significantly more fat and less muscle than those whose muffins were made with sunflower oil. Moreover, the palm oil group developed the fat in more dangerous places — in the liver and abdomen. The groups gained the same amount of weight.
A study in which 23 healthy volunteers ate half a kilo of strawberries every day for a month has found that their levels of bad cholesterol and triglycerides reduced significantly.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/f-sf-slc022514.php
"Sprouted" garlic — old garlic bulbs with bright green shoots emerging from the cloves — have been found to have even more heart-healthy antioxidant activity than fresh garlic.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/acs-dto022614.php
A study involving 44 middle-aged overweight men who consumed 70 grams of dark chocolate per day over two periods of four weeks, has found that dark chocolate helps restore flexibility to arteries while also preventing white blood cells from sticking to the walls of blood vessels. Both arterial stiffness and white blood cell adhesion are known factors that play a significant role in atherosclerosis.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/foas-wdc022714.php
A Finnish study has found that people who increased their intake of fatty fish to a minimum of 3–4 weekly meals had more large HDL cholesterol in their blood than people who were less frequent eaters of fish. Large HDL particles are believed to protect against cardiovascular diseases.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-03/uoef-iio030314.php
A large long-running study has found that eating a diet rich in animal proteins during middle age makes you four times more likely to die of cancer than a low-protein diet (a mortality risk factor comparable to smoking), 74% more likely to die of any cause within the 20-year study period, and five times more likely to die of diabetes. Even those eating a moderate amount of protein had much higher levels of mortality risk.
However, a high or moderate protein diet is helpful for those over 65, when levels of the growth hormone IGF-I drop off dramatically.
Middle-aged Japanese men living in Japan had lower incidence of coronary artery calcification, a predictor of heart disease, than middle-aged white men living in the United States, after accounting for risk factors such as smoking, cholesterol, alcohol consumption, diabetes and high blood pressure.
A new study from the Women's Health Initiative has found that calcium and vitamin D supplements after menopause can improve women's cholesterol profiles, with much of that effect tied to raising vitamin D levels. Taking the calcium and vitamin D supplements was especially helpful in raising vitamin D levels in women who were older, women who had a low intake, women who had levels first measured in the winter, and women who didn’t smoke and who drank less alcohol.