Are you eating healthy foods to maintain good health? Do you see which foods do you eat together? We all know that a good diet leads to good brain health. But, it may not only be what foods you eat, but also what foods you eat together that may affect your brain health. According to a new study by researchers from University of Bordeaux in France, if you combine foods wrongly, it may increase the risk of brain issues like dementia.
The study was published in the online issue of 'Neurology', the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. The study looked at "food networks" and found that diets comprising more of processed meats, starchy foods like potatoes, and snacks like cookies and cakes, led to a greater risk of developing in future in comparison to healthy diets.
Study author Cecilia Samieri, PhD, of the University of Bordeaux in France, said, "There is a complex inter-connectedness of foods in a person's diet, and it is important to understand how these different connections, or food networks, may affect the brain because diet could be a promising way to prevent dementia."
The team of researchers observed 209 people with an average age of 78 who had dementia and 418 people who did not have dementia. They were asked to fill a questionnaire about their eating habits in the past five years and how they put together their meals.
"A number of studies have shown that eating a healthier diet, for example a diet rich in green leafy vegetables, berries, nuts, whole grains and fish, may lower a person's risk of dementia. Many of those studies focused on quantity and frequency of foods. Our study went one step further to look at food networks and found important differences in the ways in which food items were co-consumed in people who went on to develop dementia and those who did not. Processed meats were a 'hub' in the food networks of people with dementia," said Samieri.