Dietitian Ngaire Hobbins, a lecturer with the University of Tasmania's Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, is the author of Eat to Cheat Dementia, a new book that explains how to keep your brain in peak condition.
Hobbins maintains that eating foods that are as close to nature as possible and regular exercise all work together to protect the brain from dementia in a number of ways.
"Food and exercise can both reduce the chronic inflammation thought to help drive the build-up of the amyloid plaques that can disrupt or sever communication between brain cells," she says, explaining that inactivity, high intakes of processed food - and eating too much - all conspire to cause the low level inflammation that contributes to dementia, as well as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer.
On the other hand, foods like oily fish, nuts, seeds, legumes, avocado and a broad mix of vegetables and fruit deliver a range of anti-inflammatory substances and antioxidants that help protect the brain.
"You don't need to know much about nutrition to make sure you get plenty of antioxidants, you just need to eat a variety of colours - ideally five or six different coloured foods or shades of colour at each meal. You don't need much of each different food - you just need to think variety," she says.
Source: smh.com.au