How to use foods to calm down and dodge dementia

Cherimoya, samphire, jabuticaba, kiwano, pumelo and Romanesco. No, that is not the name of an international law firm, or the six magic words that will open the hidden door in King Tut’s tomb.

Those are very memorable fruits and vegetables (four are fruits, two are veggies; can you guess which is which?) that help reduce stress, bolster your memory and protect your brain from dementia.

A recent study in the journal Age and Aging found that adults who regularly eat three servings of veggies and two of fruit slash their risk for dementia substantially – and upping it to six servings of veggies was superprotective.

Another study, in Frontiers of Aging Neuroscience, found that for every three ounces of vegetables eaten daily, there’s a 13 per cent reduction in cognitive impairment, and folks with the highest consumption of fruits and vegetables slashed their risk for dementia by 20 per cent. Now, that’s thinking smart!

On top of that, a study in British medical journal Open measured the fruit and vegetable consumption of more than 60,000 people 45 and older and found that people who ate five to seven servings of vegetables daily had a 14 per cent lower risk of psychological distress (sadness) than those who ate four or fewer servings daily.

So if you want to get happy – and be able to remember those happy times – the smart move is to eat five to nine servings of fruits and veggies daily. (Psst: Cherimoya, jabuticaba, kiwano and pumelo are fruits; samphire and Romanesco are veggies.)