The Impact of a Plant-Based Dietary Pattern on Dementia Risk: A Prospective Cohort Study.

Abstract

High antioxidants and phytochemicals from plant foods may protect against cognitive decline, while saturated fats from animal based foods considered as risk factors have been associated with dementia. Plant-based diets with limited animal products have been shown to improve glycemic control and reduce diabetes risk. The study aims to examine the association between vegetarian diet and dementia risk in a prospective cohort study. Quantitative data collected from 12,062 participants of Tzu Chi Vegetarian Study from 2005 to 2014 in Taiwan. Data included self-administered questionnaire on demographics, medical history, life-style, and a 57-item food frequency questionnaire (FFQ), National Health Insurance Database and the National Death Registry. Findings show that compared with non-vegetarians, vegetarians had 38% lower risk of dementia (HR = 0.62, 95% CI = 0.39, 0.98) after adjusting for age, sex, education, marital status, physical activities, smoking, alcohol drinking, hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, and ischemic heart diseases.

Plant‐based dietary patterns and cognitive function: A prospective cohort analysis of elderly individuals in China (2008–2018)

“…As an example, kimchi (Korean traditional pickled cabbage) contains vitamin B12 and vitamin E, which were associated with better cognitive function (Chen et al, 2017), although the biological mechanisms need further investigation. In our analysis, the effect estimates on cognitive impairment of salt-preserved vegetables were shown to be beneficial, compared to Inverse associations between plant-based dietary patterns and cognitive function were reported in some (Lin et al, 2019;Okubo et al, 2017) but not in all studies, depending on the length of follow-up (Akbaraly et al, 2019;Medawar et al, 2019). For instance, a US cohort reported that neither the diet with high consumption of meats (OR = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.92, 1.22) nor the diet with high intake of fruits and vegetables at middle age (OR = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.88, 1.12) was associated with incident dementia in later life after a 20-year follow-up (Dearborn-Tomazos et al, 2019).…”

“…Inverse associations between plant‐based dietary patterns and cognitive function were reported in some (Lin et al., 2019 ; Okubo et al., 2017 ) but not in all studies, depending on the length of follow‐up (Akbaraly et al., 2019 ; Medawar et al., 2019 ). For instance, a US cohort reported that neither the diet with high consumption of meats (OR = 1.06, 95% CI: 0.92, 1.22) nor the diet with high intake of fruits and vegetables at middle age (OR = 0.99, 95% CI: 0.88, 1.12) was associated with incident dementia in later life after a 20‐year follow‐up (Dearborn‐Tomazos et al., 2019 ).…”

“…The Singapore Chinese Health Study of 16,948 men and women reported that plant‐based dietary patterns in middle life were associated with lower risks of cognitive impairment in late life (Wu et al., 2019 ). Another cohort of 12,062 participants from Taiwan found that vegetarians had a 38% lower risk of dementia, compared with nonvegetarians (Lin et al., 2019 ). A study of Japanese elderly discovered diets with plentiful plant foods and fish were associated with better cognitive function (Okubo et al., 2017 ).…”

Interaction between plant-based dietary pattern and air pollution on cognitive function: a prospective cohort analysis of Chinese older adults

“… 10 Another cohort of 12,062 participants from Taiwan found that vegetarians had a 38% lower risk of dementia compared with non-vegetarians. 11 Nutritional solution or intervention for air pollution induced cardiopulmonary was introduced in several studies. These findings suggested plant-based food with higher antioxidants could reduce oxidative stress and inflammation in cardiovascular disease and other chronic inflammatory diseases induced by air pollution.…”

Integrated genome-based assessment of safety and probiotic characteristics of Lactiplantibacillus plantarum PMO 08 isolated from kimchi

“…However, fermentation can improve nutritional properties by degrading phytates to improve mineral absorption [ 5 ]. For these reasons, scientists have focused on identifying novel food-grade strains with functional properties for plant-based fermentation [ 6 ].…”