Healthcare (Commonwealth Union) – According to a study presented today at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference (AAIC) 2024 in Philadelphia, USA and online, individuals who consume at least 1/4 serving of bacon, bologna, or other processed red meats daily, which is equivalent to two servings per week are at a higher risk of developing dementia compared to those who eat less than 1/10 of a serving daily, that is roughly around three servings per month.
The research also indicates that substituting one daily serving of processed red meat with a serving of nuts and legumes, such as beans and peas, can reduce the risk of dementia.
“Prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and all other dementia is a major focus, and the Alzheimer’s Association has long encouraged eating a healthier diet — including foods that are less processed — because they’ve been associated with lower the risk of cognitive decline,” explained Heather M. Snyder, Ph.D., Alzheimer’s Association vice president of medical and scientific relations. “This large, long-term study provides a specific example of one way to eat healthier.”
Researchers stated that consuming a generally heart-healthy diet may help reduce the risk of cognitive decline and dementia. However, no single food or ingredient has been proven through extensive scientific research to prevent, treat, or cure Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia. Given the complexity of Alzheimer’s disease, it is improbable that any one food or ingredient will have a significant beneficial impact.
Researchers followed over 130,000 participants from the Nurses’ Health Study and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study for up to 43 years to explore the link between red meat consumption and dementia. They identified 11,173 cases of dementia. Participants’ diets were evaluated every two to four years using food-frequency questionnaires that asked how often they consumed servings of processed red meat (such as two slices of bacon, one hot dog, two ounces or two small links of sausage or kielbasa, salami, bologna, or other processed meat sandwiches) and nuts and legumes (including one tablespoon of peanut butter, one ounce of peanuts, walnuts, or other nuts, an eight-ounce glass of soy milk, half a cup of string beans, beans, lentils, peas, lima beans, or tofu, or soy protein).
The findings, reported for the first time at AAIC 2024, indicated that participants who consumed 1/4 servings or more of processed red meat daily had a 14 percent higher risk of dementia compared to those who ate less than 1/10 of a serving daily.
The researchers also evaluated cognition using the Telephone Interview for Cognitive Status with 17,458 study participants. They found that each additional daily serving of processed red meat was associated with an extra 1.61 years of cognitive aging in global cognition, which encompasses overall cognitive functions such as language, executive function, and processing. Additionally, it was linked to an extra 1.69 years of cognitive aging in verbal memory, which involves the ability to recall and understand words and sentences. However, they discovered that replacing one daily serving of processed red meat with one daily serving of nuts and legumes was associated with a 20 percent lower risk of developing dementia and 1.37 fewer years of cognitive aging in global cognition.
Yuhan Li, M.H.S., a research assistant in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and the lead author of the study, which she conducted while a graduate student at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston indicated that studies on prior occasions have shown mixed results on the relationship between cognitive decline and meat consumption in general. Therefore, they examined the effects of different amounts of processed and unprocessed meat on cognitive risk and function. She also indicated that their long-term study revealed that consuming processed red meat could be a significant risk factor for dementia. Dietary guidelines might consider recommending restrictions on processed red meat to promote brain health.
With the study inciating that the reduced intake of processed red meat can lower the dementia risk and as nuts and beans can provide a protective effect it can be taken into account for habits to prevent dementia. The positive effects of this switch are likely to extend well beyond dementia.
