Unhealthy foods may attenuate the beneficial relation of a Mediterranean diet to cognitive decline.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: It is unclear whether eating Western diet food components offsets the Mediterranean diet's (MedDiet) potential benefits on cognitive decline. METHODS: The study includes 5001 Chicago Health and Aging Project participants (63% African American, 36% males, 74 ± 6.0 years old), with food frequency questionnaires and ≥ two cognitive assessments over 6.3 ± 2.8 years of follow-up. Mixed-effects models were adjusted for age, sex, education, race, cognitive activities, physical activity, and total calories. RESULTS: Stratified analysis showed a significant effect of higher MedDiet on cognitive decline only with a low Western diet score (highest vs lowest MedDiet tertile ß = 0.020, P = .002; p trend = 0.002) and not with a high Western diet score (highest vs lowest MedDiet tertile ß = 0.010, P = .11; p trend = 0.09). CONCLUSION: This prospective study found that high consumption of Western diet components attenuates benefits of the MedDiet on cognition.