MIND Diet and Cognitive Performance

[Jbriones]

Protecting the mind from decline as we age is something I can definitely focus more on. Here is a summary of a study on this subject:

A study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease investigated the MIND diet, which combines elements of the Mediterranean and DASH diets. This diet was linked to better cognitive performance in community-dwelling older adults.

The MIND diet emphasizes natural, plant-based foods and limits the intake of animal and high-saturated fat foods, which are believed to have positive effects on brain health.

Here is the link to the article: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/09/210921172721.htm

One of the things the study mentions is to reduce butter intake to 1.5 teaspoons a day. Usually when I make fried rice or some pasta, i use like half a stock of butter!!

Reducing butter is definitely something i can do and be more mindful of. My goal is to plan my week meals without any butter and focus on taking butter out completely for the one week.

I think this will help me see how I can substitute butter out and show me it is not needed in what i make. Eventually, I will use butter again but would love to limit it to the 1.5 teaspoon per day or less.

Now it is important to remember there will probably not be any improvement seen right away. For example, I stop eating butter for a week then all of a sudden I can memorize a deck of cards in 10 seconds. That is not how anything works!

A lot of the things from studies you can do to help improve your mind are not going to take effect right away. They are more of a long game to see the actual benefits. I think this is why people don’t take what studies say to heart because they won’t see the benefits right away.

But I am ready to take more of the studies to heart and actually apply what I learn to my life. Hopefully, future me will thank me for starting these things when I did! haha

Wish me luck!

[Jbriones]

UPDATE

So… I did ended up eating butter

Okay I didn’t go totally overboard on the butter haha I ate some Tuna Helper and a burger that was made with butter! I am a monster!?!

Actually with the butter I ate, I did come in under the 1.5 teaspoon/day for the entire week! I think maybe I ate a full tablespoon for the whole week which is pretty good for just deciding to reduce my butter intake!

For the most part, it was easy to not eat butter since I just avoid meals that included butter. The reason I ate butter was because I didn’t really plan my meals, and I was hungry one day so a quick meal was Tuna Helper which uses butter.

If I just do some better planning, I could definitely eliminate butter from my diet because I use mostly olive oil for when I cook. But I don’t think completely eliminating is in my future because some of my favorite meals, like the Culvers’ burger, have butter!

I am not sure if it is a good idea if I limit myself to 10.5 teaspoons per week where I can eat maybe 5 teaspoons one day but still portion the rest out. Or if it is better to stick under the 1.5 teaspoons per day?

I would assume eating the 10.5 teaspoons in one day definitely is not good even though you don’t eat butter for the rest of the week. I also will probably look at some healthy alternatives to help reduce the overall butter I would eat. But I can’t go out with my Culvers’ Burger!! haha