Chapter 24 - Whole of Diet Approaches: Evaluating the Evidence for Healthy Policy Guidelines, the Mediterranean, Vegetarian, Paleolithic, Okinawa, Ketogenic, and Caloric-Restrictive Diets on the Onset of Alzheimer’s Disease

By: Debra Krause BSc Christine Margetts Peter Roupas PhD
2015

Dietary patterns in populations or ethnic cultures have been studied in relation to chronic diseases including diabetes, atherosclerosis, hypertension, and more recently, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). This review evaluates the current evidence for the effects of dietary patterns, specifically whole of diet approaches as neuroprotective factors with the potential to delay cognitive decline and the onset of AD. While there is some evidence that adherence to the Mediterranean diet is associated with a reduced risk of AD, further confirmation in other study populations with different ethnicities and different dietary habits is warranted. There is also some evidence that adherence to diets based on health policy guidelines may be associated with improved cognitive function through population studies that examined cohorts from several countries. There is currently insufficient evidence to properly validate any effects of the vegetarian, Paleolithic, Okinawa, ketogenic, or caloric restriction diets on the prevention of cognitive decline or AD. Ultimately, controlled interventions with a common set of validated biomarkers of dietary compliance, cognitive function, and AD risk are required to verify efficacy and compare results across studies.