Fruits, vegetables, tea and wine help the memory of the elderly

Older people who eat or drink things that contain antioxidant flavonols, such as fruits, vegetables, tea and wine, experience slower memory loss, a new US scientific study shows.

Flavonols are a type of flavonoids, a group of phytochemicals that have beneficial health effects thanks to their antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions.

The researchers, led by Dr. Thomas Holland of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, who published in the journal Neurology of the American Academy of Neurology, studied 961 people with an average age of 81, none of whom had dementia. at the beginning of the study. The participants were monitored for seven years for their diet and at the same time took cognitive and memory tests, while other factors were taken into account such as gender, smoking, their educational level, the degree of physical exercise, the time they spent on mental activities, such as reading etc.

Read more: Crossword puzzles VS video games: Which ones help older people’s memory more?

The people were divided into five groups based on the amount of flavonols they consumed in their diet (from 5 to 15 milligrams, with an average of about 10 milligrams a day). Each participant was given a “score” that summarized their performance on a total of 19 cognitive tests: from 0.5 for those without problems to 0.2 for those with mild cognitive impairment and -0.5 for those with Alzheimer’s.

It was found that the cognitive “score” of people with the highest consumption of flavonols declined on average at a rate of 0.4 points per decade more slowly than those with the least consumption of these substances in their diet. In other words, the more flavonols an older person consumed, the more likely they were to have impaired cognitive and memory function.

“Something as simple as eating more fruit and vegetables, as well as drinking more tea, is an easy way to take more active care of our brain health,” said Dr Holland.

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