Mediterranean Diet Makes You Smarter? Well, maybe!
Well maybe it doesnt make you smarter but it might keep you from becoming dumber :) Research suggests that the Mediterranean Diet might help keep your brain from shrinking with age, of course, that does not prove you are smarter either but thats another issue altogether.
The Mediterranean Diet (click to design one) is a not really a diet but a nutritional philosophy, and a very healthy one at that in my opinion. Although you *can* lose weight as easily on the Mediterranean nutritional plan, it makes for a excellent nutritional plan 365 days a year because its so easy to adhere to. In this plan you eat a lot of foods in their natural state. Fresh vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, fruits, and seeds. The fats in this diet come from plant sources like olives and rapeseed oil rather than from animal sources like lard. Processed carbs like cookies, cakes, crisps, and chips are not part of this diet. Meat is limited to fish and a bit of chicken.
Previous studies have suggested that the Mediterranean Diet helps prevent Alzheimer’s disease. This study on the Mediterranean Diet suggests it prevents brain shrinkage in old age.
What does all this mean? Well we all know that nutrition is important. We know that processed foods are bad for us so its no surprise that the Mediterranean diet turns out to be healthy in so many ways because its basically all unprocessed foods. Of course, research always poses more questions than it answers. In this case, the question is WHAT? What is it in the Mediterranean Diet that seems to prevent brain shrinkage? Is it the lack of beef? Is it the fact that by the nature of the Mediterranean Diet fewer pesticides are ingested? Is it the fact that fewer of the calories come from animal products? It could be anything, we just don’t know!
