Researchers in the US found that people whose diet is closer to a Mediterranean diet are at lower risk of developing MCI or Mild Cognitive Impairment (a stage between normal aging and dementia) and also have a reduced risk of MCI turning into Alzheimer's disease.

The study was the work of Dr Nikolaos Scarmeas and colleagues at Columbia University Medical Center, New York and is published in the February issue of Archives of Neurology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Previous studies have found that sticking to a Mediterranean diet may protect people from Alzheimer's disease, but not much is known about its possible ties with MCI.

A Mediterranean diet is high in fish, vegetables, legumes (beans and lentils), fruits, cereals and unsaturated fatty acids, and low in dairy products, meat and saturated fats, plus moderate amounts of alcohol.

For the study, the researchers asked 1,875 people to fill in questionnaires about their food consumption between 1992 and 1999. From the responses, the researchers then calculated a score for the extent to which each person's food intake most closely resembled a Mediterranean diet.

At the start of the study, 1,393 of the participants had no cognitive problems and 482 of them had MCI, and they were all examined, interviewed and screened for MCI…