Orange juice, greens, fruits may lower memory loss risk
According to a recent study, eating leafy greens, red vegetables, berry fruits and drinking orange juice may be linked with a lower risk of memory loss in men over time.
The study was published in the Journal of Neurology. It looked at 27,842 men with an average age of 51, all health professionals. Participants filled out questionnaires on how many servings of fruits, vegetables and other foods they had daily, at the start of the study and then every four years for 20 years.
“One of the most important factors is that we were able to research and track such a large group of men over a 20year period, allowing for very telling results. Our studies provide further evidence dietary choices can be important to maintain brain health,” said study author Changzheng Yuan, ScD, of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health in Boston.
Participants also took subjective tests of their thinking and memory skills at least four years before the end of the study, when they were an average age of 73. The test is designed to detect changes people can notice in how they are remembering things before those changes would be detected by objective cognitive tests.
The men who consumed most vegetables were 34% less likely to develop poor thinking skills than men who consumed the least. Men who drank orange juice every day were 47% less likely to have poor thinking skills than men who drank less than one serving per month.