Eat Your Dark Leafy Greens to Have a Younger Healthier Brain and Memory
If you aren't a vegetable lover, you might want to become one, especially by eating more dark leafy greens. Why the dark green leafy vegetables? Because a study indicates they help to delay a decline in memory and thinking skills that happens as we age.
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A study published in Neurology looked at green leafy vegetables and cognitive decline. Over 950 adults between 58 and 99 years old were asked about different types of food they ate over a period of about five years. The cognitive function of the participants was also measured.
Those who ate about 1.3 servings of leafy green vegetables tended to have slower cognitive decline, translating to the equivalent of having a brain that functioned like people 11 years younger. Green leafy vegetable consumption was the most significant factor in protecting the brain, even after controlling for other memory-affecting aspects like age, activity level, smoking, and alcohol consumption. Modifying the diet can have a positive impact towards preventing cognitive disease despite other factors influencing their development.
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That doesn't mean other factors aren't influencing the brain to age better. Also, the participants had to recall everything they ate over the past month or year, and we all know how hard it can be to do that.
According to the study with the lead author developing the MIND diet, leafy greens stand out as the most important food linked to better brain health, slowing cognitive decline and lowering the risk of dementia or Alzheimer's disease.
A diet rich in vegetables also helps lower the risk of health problems like obesity, heart disease, cancer and type 2 diabetes. The nutrients in vegetables can help prevent and repair damage to the brain. Vitamin E has been shown to reduce inflammation in brain and also reduce the accumulation or amyloid plaques on nerve cells. Leafy greens also have antioxidants, vitamin K and vitamin B folate. Even if the green leafy vegetables aren't 100% proven to prevent dementia or Alzheimer's, they are good to eat. There is no downside, only positives.
Some easy ways to get more leafy greens in your diet include adding raw lettuce, cooked collards, raw/cooked kale and raw/cooked spinach to your meals. This can be done by adding some to pancake or muffin batters, soups, chilies, casseroles and even in your fruit smoothie. If a green salad is too boring for you, you can add some beans, nuts and whole grains to add some additional flavor.
Do you get enough dark green leafy vegetables in your diet?
References:
- Eating Leafy Greens Each Day Tied to Sharper Memory, Slower Decline
- Eating Leafy Greens May Slow Memory Loss
- Martha Clare Morris details her MIND diet for healthy brain aging at 2017 Fall Lecture
- Nutrients and bioactives in green leafy vegetables and cognitive decline
- Does This Study Show That Leafy Green Vegetables Prevent Dementia?
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I LOVE greens.. my friends saying I must have been a cow or a horse in another past life 😂🤣
I feel pitiful to my friends who must add dressing to greens in salad 🥗 otherwise they cannot eat it .. I don’t add any dressing as I enjoooooooooy the green taste 😍😅
Green vegetables, as a first measure, are an important source of nutrients for our health, since they provide us with minerals, vitamins and fiber. Its distinctive color is due to an essential component, chlorophyll. Studies claim that this compound serves to prevent cancer, improve cardiac function and prevent anemia, among other qualities.
Not for nothing, our mothers and grandmothers have insisted that we eat chard or spinach from a young age, or that salads never miss the lettuce (besides being delicious). It was not a whim, but everything they told you about the properties of these vegetables was true.
Go chlorophyll! I try to eat kale often. If not dark green leafy, the green leafy lettuces ;) Stay healthy!
You are right, friend ..
And eating a whole food plant based diet helps to repair your DNA strands too, keeping you younger for longer. Nice work @krnel.😊
Yes, whole plant foods, go veganism :)
Yeah, I have been eating more green leafy vegetables for quite some time now and I feel really good! At first I didn't even like the taste, but now... Now I eat them as a snack! As far as memory goes, I think I can notice some improvements, but my memory was really good all my life anyways.
SUper! Glad you increased the intake. It will serve you well in the long run :)
I have read many articles on many different sites that show this link between healthy veggie diet and health benefits. It seems obvious to me but many still question it or don't do it.
No downside. Make a nice dressing, or toss in with other stuff and get the benefits ;)
Yeah my mom was always saying vegetables is good to our health. It's just that life is busy so there's no much time to pick foods. I'll try to some green veggies tomorrow thanks for sharing!
Yes, listen to mom, you should eat more and more greens :)
I love spinach and Kale. They are very good for our health. Thanks for sharing this.
Yes indeedy :) Eat that kale!
A healthy post it is. I'm sure many people would change their minds after reading this post
very good post, very much information I get from your post.
First, you should grow the green leafy vegetables
... and then, you should eat them.
Green leafy vegetable's nutrition value is really based on the soil it is planted in. And most of the stuff in the stores are grown in poor degraded, poisoned, soil.