It’s one thing to have a health site like ours praise the benefits of a plant based diet. It’s another thing entirely to have Business Insider agree with us!
As we’ve told you before, evidence continues to suggest that a plant-based diet is the absolute best lifestyle change you can make; it’s been found to be ideal for losing weight, staying lean, and keeping the mind sharp.1
But it’s not just that. According to a recent report from US News and World Report, a plant-based diet is also good for our earth, heart, weight, animals- it’s just good overall! And, it seems the best of these types of lifestyles are the Mediterranean diet and the MIND diet (a version of the Mediterranean diet that focuses on “brain-healthy” foods):
- A Mediterranean diet is full of veggies, fruits, whole grains, beans, nuts, olive oil, and fish but low in inflammatory foods like red meat, processed foods, poultry, and dairy. And the MIND diet emphasizes green leafy vegetables, nuts, berries, beans, whole grains, seafood, poultry, olive oil, and even wine!
- A MIND lifestyle asks you to really limit or totally eliminate red meat, butter and stick margarine, cheese, pastries, sweets, and fried foods. (Not a bad suggestion.)
For the new study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, a team of researchers looked at data from almost 6,000 older adults who participated in a large study on health and retirement. Participants were first asked about their diet and the types of foods they ate or didn’t eat. Then, researchers “measured their memory and attention skills using reliable tests like word lists and backward counting exercises.”2
Researchers found that those who performed better on the cognitive tests were eating plans similar to the Mediterranean and MIND-style diets. Claire McEvoy, the lead author of the paper and a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of California San Francisco, wrote in the paper that the data seems to suggest that modifying diet “could be an important public health strategy to protect against neurodegeneration during aging.” 3
“Both diets are rich in antioxidants and two types of healthy fat — monounsaturated and omega-3 fatty acids. Previous studies have found a link between these ingredients and a reduced risk of dementia as well as higher cognitive performance. And the green vegetables and berries emphasized in the MIND diet have been shown to help protect against progressive loss of the structure or function of brain cells. This loss, known as neurodegeneration, is a key characteristic of diseases like Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.”
But it’s not just the brain, it’s the body as well!
In order to feel energized and healthy, your diet needs to feed more than just your stomach; your muscles want protein, your digestive system works best with fiber, and your tissues and bones work the best when they’re getting vitamins from food. This balance also allows us to feel full so we don’t overeat.
Overall, whole-foods, plant-based diets tend to be healthier with less risk of disease.
We couldn’t agree more and we are so glad to see that the mainstream media is finally saying what we’ve been saying for YEARS.
XO- Erin
