Previous research has connected a Mediterranean diet to a reduced risk of developing Alzheimer's disease and other degenerative brain conditions, noted lead study author Yian Gu of Columbia University in New York.
For the current study, researchers focused on elderly people with normal cognitive function to see if the diet might also be tied to losing fewer brain cells due to aging, Gu said by email.
"Among cognitively healthy older adults, we were able to detect an association between higher adherence to a Mediterranean type diet and better brain measures," Yu said.
To understand the relationship between the diet and brain health, Yu and colleagues reviewed surveys that 674 elderly people completed about their eating habits and then examined magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans of their brains.
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