Vegetables against neuronal aging

Aging is inevitable. Growing up means saying goodbye to a series of skills that were once enjoyed. An example is the deterioration neuronal that is checked over the years and that results in memory loss or less mental speed when performing mathematical operations. While you can not escape these situations, you can reduce their effects.

On this subject is the latest investigation of the Alzheimer's Association of Chicago. It determines that including vegetables in the usual menu of people makes the effects of neuronal aging less visible and the consequences of these dementias less noticeable in those who suffer. A way to prevent long term since people are children.


Diet and long-term development

While this research is not the first to talk about the long-term effects of a healthy lifestyle, it does provide a new insight into how diet can benefit people in terms of their mental health it means. A total of 960 adults aged 58 to 99 years who had to answer a questionnaire about their lifestyle participated in this research.

At the same time they had to answer a questionnaire to assess their mental agility and test your neuronal impairment. The results showed that the consumption of vegetables, especially those with green leaves in general, in at least one serving per day caused this aging to be reduced by 20%.


On average, people with a diet rich in vegetables showed a slower decline in mental abilities, compared to the rest of the participants who rarely consumed green leafy vegetables. The difference was equivalent to 11 years of aging, as explained Martha Clare Morris, principal investigator of the study, who points out that a portion of these foods is sufficient to obtain their benefits.

Benefits of a healthy diet

This research is not the first one that focuses on the benefits of a healthy diet. Even from the World Health Organization These advantages are reported for maintaining a correct diet:

- A healthy diet helps protect against malnutrition in all its forms, as well as noncommunicable diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer.


- Unhealthy diets and lack of physical activity are among the main risk factors for health around the world. A slight change in the menu is noticed in the day to day.

- Healthy eating habits begin in the first years of life. Breastfeeding promotes healthy growth and improves cognitive development; In addition, it can provide long-term benefits, such as reducing the risk of overweight and obesity and suffering from non-communicable diseases later in life.

- The caloric intake should be in line with the caloric expenditure. The available scientific data indicate that fats should not exceed 30% of total caloric intake to avoid an increase in weight, which means to stop consuming saturated fats to consume unsaturated fats and gradually eliminate industrial fats.

- Limiting the consumption of free sugar to less than 10% of the total caloric intake is part of a healthy diet. To obtain greater benefits, it is recommended to reduce your consumption to less than 5% of the total caloric intake-

- Maintaining salt intake below 5 grams daily helps prevent hypertension and reduces the risk of heart disease and stroke in the adult population.

Damián Montero

Video: Healthy (Nutrient) Wealthy and Wise: Diet for Healthy Aging - Research on Aging


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