Your favorite movie theater snack may be better for you than you think, a new study suggests. Researchers from Rush University in Chicago have found that adding more whole grains - like popcorn - to your diet could help lower the risk of cognitive decline.
Study authors worked with 3,326 participants with an average age of 75 who didn’t have dementia.
- They followed them for around six years, having them complete a survey about their diet and do cognitive and memory tests every three years.
- The research shows that those who ate more whole grains were 8.5-years younger cognitively than those who ate smaller amounts.
- Whole grains included in the study were some breads and cereals, quinoa and popcorn, with a serving defined as one ounce of food, which is about half a cup of cooked quinoa or rice, a cup of dry cereal or one slice of bread.
- Researchers found that participants who ate the most whole grains - more than three servings a day - had slower cognitive decline than those who ate less than one serving daily.
“With Alzheimer’s disease and dementia affecting millions of Americans, finding ways to prevent the disease is a high public health priority,” says study author Dr. Xiaoran Liu. “It’s exciting to see that people could potentially lower their risk of dementia by increasing their diet of whole grains by a couple of servings a day.”
Source: NY Post