Spinach leaves, handfuls of red fruits, grilled fish fillet: these foods often come up when we talk about “good for the head” cuisine. Until now, they were mainly highlighted in general nutrition advice and a few scattered studies; a team of researchers from Guangzhou, China, has just examined them much more rigorously.
Their work, published in 2025 in the journal Scientific Reportsfollowed 1,500 people aged 50 to 75, half of whom suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, for five years. Objective: to understand whether diets rich in leafy green vegetables, berries,
fish and other typical foods
MIND diet and of
Mediterranean diet are accompanied by better cognitive health and a brain that deteriorates less quickly. The results clearly invite us to look at our salads and fish fillets in a different way.
Large study links green vegetables, berries, fish and cognitive health
Alzheimer’s disease already affects more than 55 million people worldwide and the authors point out that this figure could triple by 2050, in a context of rapid aging of populations. In the absence of curative treatment, attention is increasingly focused on lifestyle factors, including diet. The Mediterranean diet emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, fish, olive oil, and moderate wine consumption; The more recently developed MIND diet combines this Mediterranean base with elements of the DASH diet, with particular emphasis on leafy green vegetables, berries, nuts, and whole grains, while severely limiting red meat and ultra-processed foods.
The team led by Xiaofang Liu, at Huadu District People’s Hospital in Guangzhou, recruited 750 healthy participants and 750 patients already diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The average age of the entire group was 64.6 years. Eating habits were assessed by questionnaires, 24-hour dietary recalls, adherence scores to the Mediterranean diet and the MIND diet, but also using a mobile application analyzed by artificial intelligence algorithms to better track what the volunteers actually ate over the seasons. All had regular memory and executive function tests (MMSE and MoCA), blood and cerebrospinal fluid samples to measure key biomarkers (amyloid-beta, tau protein, neurofilament light chain, inflammatory markers); Brain MRIs made it possible to monitor the volume of the hippocampus and the thickness of the cortex, regions very affected in the disease.
MIND and Mediterranean diets: what effects on the brain?
Over the five years of follow-up, people who adhered best to either diet had significantly higher cognitive scores than those who deviated, with p-values below 0.0001. Regression models show that a one-point increase in the MIND score was associated with an increase of approximately 0.33 points on the MMSE and 0.31 points on the MoCA, while a one-point increase in the Mediterranean score was related to a gain of 0.11 points on the MMSE and 0.13 points on the MoCA. The more dietaryly “virtuous” participants also had lower levels of amyloid-beta, tau, and neurofilament light, as well as less inflammation (with reduced values of CRP, IL-6, and TNF-α).
Imaging examinations confirm this protection: in the best adherents to the two diets, the reduction in the volume of the hippocampus and the thinning of the cortex progressed more slowly than in the others, both in healthy subjects and in Alzheimer’s patients. After adjusting for age, sex, education level, and genetic status, the MIND score remained a particularly strong independent predictor of better cognitive performance. The authors summarize what they observe as follows: “Although both diets provide neuroprotection, our results suggest that the MIND diet may provide slightly greater benefits due to its targeted inclusion of neuroprotective nutrients such as berries, leafy green vegetables, and whole grains.“, indicated the authors of the study, cited by PsyPost. In the analysis of biomarkers, higher levels of polyphenols, omega-3 and B vitamins went hand in hand with better cognitive performance and fewer signs of inflammation. In detail:
- The polyphenols present in berries and certain whole grains were associated with lower inflammatory markers;
- Omega-3 fatty acids from fish were linked to slower progression of amyloid-beta and tau proteins;
- B vitamins, measured in blood, correlated with higher MMSE and MoCA scores over the duration of the study.
What menus rich in leafy green vegetables, berries and fish actually change
The 60-month follow-up curves show that, despite everything, Alzheimer’s patients continued to see their cognitive scores decline and their brain structures deteriorate more quickly than healthy controls. But among these patients, those who most faithfully followed a MIND or Mediterranean diet showed a less marked decline, both on tests and on measures of hippocampal atrophy and loss of cortical thickness. In carriers of the APOE‑ε4 risk gene, the fall remained more rapid (approximately 0.96 MMSE points and 1.15 MoCA points less), while being attenuated when dietary adherence was high. The team also offered these patients personalized recommendations further emphasizing the place of fish rich in omega-3, green vegetables and berries, given their increased vulnerability to lipid disorders, oxidative stress and neuroinflammation.
For researchers, these results clearly place the MIND and Mediterranean diets among the major non-drug strategies for the prevention and management of Alzheimer’s disease. At the same time, they highlight several limitations: part of the dietary intake remains self-declared, with a risk of imprecision, and the study excluded people with severe comorbidities, which reduces the possible generalization to the entire population.
In practice, the data collected between 2020 and 2024 suggest that a diet that places large emphasis on
leafy green vegetablesto
berriesAt fishwhole grains, nuts and olive oil, while restricting red meats and highly processed products, is systematically associated with better cognitive health, both in healthy elderly subjects and in people already affected by Alzheimer’s disease.