A healthy diet is key to maintaining a healthy lifestyle. And a healthy lifestyle is the foundation of taking care of your brain. But what foods make a diet healthy? And how do these foods impact your brain? 

In recent years, the research community has come to identify the MIND diet as the foundation to brain health. The MIND diet is a combination of the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet (also known as Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension), both of which have been found to reduce the risk of cardiovascular conditions. Martha Clare Morris, PhD, a nutritional epidemiologist of Rush University and her colleagues developed the MIND diet based on information from years of past research about what foods and nutrients have positive and negative effects on the functioning of the brain over time.

The MIND diet includes at least three servings of whole grains, a salad and one other vegetable each day. It also involves snacking on nuts and eating beans every other day. Poultry and berries are recommended at least twice a week and fish at least once a week. Dieters are also recommended to limit eating designated “unhealthy foods” to avoid the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s disease. 

The MIND diet has 15 dietary components, including 10 “brain-healthy food groups:”