New research update links Med Diet and reduced risk of dementia

The Olive Wellness Institute’s main purpose is to collate and share scientifically proven information on the nutrition, health and wellness benefits of olives and olive products. Health professionals are one target demographic, and more recently the food service industry.

Olive producers also benefit hugely from the Institute’s work via a constant stream of new science-based research and resources to help spread the message about the positive health outcomes from eating – and in the case of olive leaf tea, drinking – olive products.

The OWI team has recently added another piece of information gold to its online repository with the research update: Association of Mediterranean, high-quality and anti-inflammatory diet with dementia in UK Biobank cohort

The new cohort study investigates the relationship between adherence to the Mediterranean diet, MIND diet, Recommended Food Score (RFS), Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI), and Energy-adjusted Dietary Inflammatory Index (EDII) and dementia risk in a large UK population cohort.

Analysing data from 131,209 participants in the UK Biobank around adherence to each dietary pattern, the study found that greater adherence to Mediterranean, MIND, and high-quality diets is associated with a lower risk of dementia, while pro-inflammatory diets increase the risk.

In particular, high-quality anti-inflammatory diets play a significant role in reducing the risk of dementia, unpacking the potential benefits of anti-inflammatory foods like extra virgin olive oil.

You can access the full article on the Olive Wellness Institute’s website here, where you’ll find a wealth of other reports and resources to read and share with your networks.

The Olive Wellness Institute’s work is delivered via the Hort Innovation strategic investment project Increasing awareness of the health benefits of Australian olive products (OL22001). The project is funded by Hort Innovation using the olive research and development levy and funds from the Australian Government.