Eating these foods may prevent Alzheimer's and dementia

By Sean Dowling, Buzz60

There are certain things you should and shouldn't be eating at any age to help protect your brain from Alzheimer's or dementia.

Take it from Dr. Liz Applegate, nutrition and fitness expert at the University of California, Davis.

Dr. Applegate tells the Sacramento Bee that, "diet not only plays a supporting role in weight loss, it also helps us ward off Alzheimer's or dementia."

Dr. Applegate recommends following an eating plan that favors leafy greens, fish and berries as opposed to red meat, butter and fried foods.

Research shows that this diet plan, appropriately known by the acronym MIND, lowers the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease by as much as 53 percent.

Even those who weren't as rigorous about keeping to the diet still reduced their risk by about a third.

MIND was developed by researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago. It's a combination of the Mediterranean and DASH diets.

DASH stands for Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, while MIND stands for Mediterranean-Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay.

Here's what foods you should eat:

However, researchers report you should stay away from the things most of us love and Dr. Applegate suggests that fried foods may accelerate cognitive decline and memory loss.

Here's what foods you should stay away from:

All of this information is suffice to say the saying, "you are what you eat," is popular for a reason!