Americans who ate a Mediterranean diet - lots of fruits, vegetables, legumes, cereals, some fish and alcohol, and little dairy and meat - had a reduced risk for Alzheimer's disease as they aged, a study has shown. The findings from this new study are published in the April 2006 issue of Annals of Neurology, a journal published by John Wiley & Sons.

"Higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet was associated with significantly lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease," the authors report. For each additional point of the Mediterranean diet scores (indicating increased adherence to the diet), Alzheimer's risk dropped by 9 to 10 percent. Compared with the subjects in the least adherent group (that adhered to a Mediterranean diet the least), subjects in the middle group had 15 to 21 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, and those in the highest group had a 39 to 40 percent lower risk, suggesting a significant response effect.

"We conclude that higher adherence to the Mediterranean diet is associated with a reduction in risk for Alzheimer's disease," they say.  In addition, they say that the beneficial effects of the Mediterranean diet for non-neurological conditions have been previously shown to be generalized to different populations, and that the current study provided the opportunity to examine the effect of this diet for a neurological disease in a multiethnic community in the U.S.  

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