Know All About MIND Diet

MIND Diet-

Know all about it here..

Diet is one four letter word having maximum number of misconceptions in the world. Think about what comes to your mind when you hear the word ‘diet’! The most popular thought is about specific food items to lose weight but if you are aware of dementia, the brain disease then we are talking about a diet that can help with it. Dementia is a disease  that hampers the ability of an individual to think normally and usually untreatable. Diseases like dementia and other mental illnesses that usually don’t have a proper medical follow up can be cured up to a great extent by a specific kind of diet known as MIND diet. 

MIND diet

Mind diet is considered a mix and match of Mediterranean and DASH diet. The roots of its research lay in the fact that we are what
we eat, so this serves a two fold objective of boosting brain health being the major along with reducing the risks of being prone to diseases like Alzheimer’s and Dementia.

The MIND diet stands for Mediterranean-DASH intervention for Neurodegenerative delay. This diet comprises beliefs from two major diet forms Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet (Dietary approach
to stop hypertension). This diet pattern is thus specifically suited for preventing the brain damage as it accumulates the benefits of the two very beneficial diets combine results of which aim at the prevention of major incurable diseases like dementia which are increasingly the threat to the upcoming generations. The research
started in 2015 when it was observed that diet patterns could help in prevention or curing of these diseases when a strict diet is followed without any failure to the prescribed items. The main criteria while deciding a diet suitable for any specific disease is to understand the
impact that the food nutrients have on the brain and how much consumption of it is good for the body. Here, Mediterranean diet focuses at consuming natural food products avoiding unhealthy fats and red meat, whereas DASH diet has a straight away approach to curb hypertension and thus focuses on reducing the consumption of sodium to reduce the blood pressure levels.

Alzheimer’s just like all kinds of dementia is caused by brain cell damage, although dementia is not a disease but it is a syndrome it is also caused by damages to brain reason of which can be any injury, stroke, brain tumour and others including sodium imbalance in the body.

Treatment

Now the question is how can these life threatening diseases just be cured by mere changes in the diet plan of the individual. The reason behind MIND diet being effective in these cases is that it focuses on consumption of such food items which help in strength the brain cells which are otherwise unsound.

MIND diet : Guidelines

The main rules of the diet include:

 Having salad everyday.
 Consuming at least three portions of whole grain per day.
 A vegetable daily is a must.
 Drink a glass of wine daily.
 Replace your snacks with nuts.
 Alternative days beans should be consumed.
 Focus on poultry and berries majorly in a week.
 Consume fish once a week or more.
 Butter should be avoided.

Foods to eat on MIND Diet

The following food items are the ones that should be included in an individual’s diet undertaking MIND diet.

 Green leafy vegetables like kale, spinach, lettuce should be
included in the regular diet constituting approximately 6 servings per week.

 Apart from focusing on green leafy vegetables all other vegetables should also be included in the diet at least once a day at minimum. It is best to focus on vegetables having high nutritional content.

 Berries have great nutritional value thus should be made a part of the diet at least twice a week. It has been observed that berries are a helpful in strengthening brain.

 Fish consumption is suggested once a week.

 Wine, both red and white wine are helpful in restricted limit, up to one glass daily. Limited consumption of wine proves to be beneficial for the mental health.

 Beans and lentils should be a significant part of your diet under MIND diet.

 Olive oil must be used majorly as part of MIND Diet.

 Whole grains no less than three servings would do in case of whole
grains.

 Nuts are nutrient rich food products and thus should be consumed on a larger proportion in diet.

 Poultry is part of Mind diet but keep in mind the method of preparation.

Foods to avoid during MIND diet

 Butter and cheese

To avoid maximum fat intake butter and cheese should be avoided as far as possible.

 Red meat

Beef, pork, lamb should be included in a limited quantity only having no more than three servings per week.

 Fried food

Fried food is usually avoidable in general consumption but it is highly non recommended under MIND DIET.

 Sweets

All kinds of processed food such as ice creams, candy, brownies, cakes should be avoided and minimum consumption of these should be encouraged.

Our Take

In a nutshell MIND diet is all about living a healthy lifestyle by stopping all habits that are detrimental to overall health. So what are you going to change for your mind?