Want to improve your memory? The MIND diet may help

Many people worry about losing their mental sharpness as they get older. That’s not surprising given that we’re all hearing about rising rates of dementia as the population ages: A study in the January issue of Nature Medicine suggested that by the year 2060, the number of adults in the U.S. who will develop dementia is likely to double to a million people. That’s a club no one wants to join. Fortunately, science is showing that healthy eating habits can have a powerful impact on protecting cognitive function and memory.

Developed in 2015 by researchers studying the effects of diet on brain function and cognitive decline, the (aptly named) MIND diet combines the Mediterranean diet—with its focus on whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, and olive oil—and the fruit and veggie-rich DASH diet (which was designed to prevent or treat hypertension). Effectively, the MIND diet boils down to eating more high-nutrient foods like leafy greens and berries, and avoiding highly processed foods and saturated fat-filled stuff.

Studies show the MIND diet is associated with better brain function and could even help slow age-related cognitive decline. Those with the closest adherence to the MIND diet experienced slower aging of their brains—equivalent to being 7.5 years “younger” than those with the least adherence.

The MIND diet (short for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) may also play a role in protecting against Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. In one study that tracked middle-aged and older adults for an average of four and a half years, those who most closely followed the MIND diet had lower rates of Alzheimer’s disease. Even those who moderately adhered to the MIND diet saw a decreased risk of Alzheimer’s, more so than those who moderately followed the Mediterranean or DASH diets alone. Again and again—in studies involving Puerto Rican adults in the Boston area, and middle-aged and older adults in China—research shows that close adherence to a MIND-style diet is associated with better global cognitive function and less decline over time.

Even when it’s started later in life, the MIND diet is associated with a consistent reduction in dementia risk, according to new research presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition. Those who improved their adherence to the MIND diet over a period of ten years had a 25 percent lower risk of having dementia.

The findings are promising not only for older adults but for younger people, too. Middle-aged women with obesity who followed the MIND diet closely for three months showed greater improvements in their working memory, verbal recognition memory, and attention, compared to women who followed a calorie-restricted diet. And a study in the April 2025 issue of Child Neuropsychology found that kids ages seven to 13 whose food intake most closely resembled the MIND diet had “significantly lower odds of ADHD” in comparison to kids whose diet least resembled it.

The secrets to its protective powers? The foods in the MIND diet reduce inflammation and oxidative stress, both of which are bad for the brain. 

Eating right for your brain

The MIND diet is not a rigid one. It’s more of a lifestyle, and a framework for thinking about foods that are best for your brain and body. It relies on a scoring system to rate people on how well they follow the diet: the closer someone adheres to the tenets of the MIND approach—by eating mostly plant-based foods, healthy fats, and lean protein and avoiding highly processed foods, saturated fats, and the like—the higher their “score.” 

“One of the beauties of the MIND diet is the fact that you don’t have to be perfect on it and you still see benefits,” says Christy Tangney, a professor of clinical nutrition and family and preventive medicine at the Rush University Medical Center in Chicago and codeveloper of the MIND diet. “The MIND diet offers more flexibility than the Mediterranean or DASH diets.”

The key components of the MIND diet are dark green leafy vegetables (think spinach, kale, Swiss chard, collards, arugula); other colorful veggies such as asparagus, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, carrots, and bell peppers; berries (all kinds); extra-virgin olive oil; and nuts like almonds, walnuts and pistachios. Also important are whole grains such as brown and wild rice, quinoa, barley, farro, oats, and whole-grain breads; beans and legumes; and fish and poultry (white meat, without the skin). And, yes, wine is permitted in moderation.

The diet also encourages people to avoid (or, at least, limit) red meat and processed meats, butter and margarine, full-fat cheeses, pastries and other sweets, fast foods, and fried foods. “One of our big goals is to reduce saturated fat and added sugar intake,” says Tangney, because they promote inflammation.

The truth is, the MIND diet, the Mediterranean diet, and the DASH diet have a lot in common—especially an emphasis on fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and an avoidance of saturated fats, red and processed meats, fried foods, fast foods, and sweets. While the DASH diet places a premium on restricting sodium intake and incorporating low-fat dairy foods, the MIND diet doesn’t. While the plant-based foods recommended in all three diets are similar, the MIND diet has a greater focus on leafy, green vegetables, berries, and nuts.  

How the MIND diet fights inflammation

Many of the foods that are emphasized in the MIND diet—such as green leafy vegetables and  berries—are high in plant-based compounds called flavonoids, which have strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects, notes Natalia Palacios, an epidemiologist and associate professor of public health at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. “Oxidative stress and inflammation are very bad for the brain—and antioxidants, especially flavonoids, help reduce inflammation.”

Meanwhile, “fish, which is emphasized in the MIND diet, has long been considered one of the most brain-healthy foods because it is high in omega-3 fatty acids, which help protect neurons from damage,” Palacios says. 

“The older we get, the more inflammation we get in the brain and body,” explains Rudy Tanzi, a neuroscientist and director of the McCance Center for Brain Health at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Neuroinflammation is what leads to dysfunction in the brain, as well as nerve cell damage and cell death.

“Once you have inflammation that triggers cell death, you have more inflammation, [and] it becomes a vicious cycle,” Tanzi adds. “The biggest benefit of the MIND diet is that it fights inflammation and damage from inflammation.”

As an added perk, the diet’s fiber content and diversity of plant-based nutrients feed the gut microbiome in a positive way so that “it has more protective bacteria and less harmful bacteria,” Tanzi notes. This in turn has a positive trickle-up effect on brain health.

The MIND diet may even influence total brain volume in addition to boosting overall cognitive functions like verbal memory, visual memory, processing speed, and verbal comprehension and reasoning, as one study reported.

“In terms of the integrity of the brain, polyphenols and other antioxidants preserve hippocampal volume and white matter integrity,” explains Uma Naidoo, director of nutritional and lifestyle psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston and author of This Is Your Brain on Food.  

Indeed, a 2023 study in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia found that people who adhered most closely to the MIND diet had larger volumes of the hippocampus, thalamus, and other critical brain areas—which play key roles in memory, learning, motor control, attention, and emotional regulation—and lower white matter hyperintensities (which indicate tissue damage), as seen on MRI scans.

Ultimately, the MIND diet reminds us that what we eat has as much of an effect on our brains as on our bodies. “What matters most for brain health is overall diet quality and consistency, day after day, year after year,” says Palacios.

“It’s not an age-related issue,” adds Naidoo. “My feeling is we should always be eating this way. We want people to be thinking about their brain health all the time.”

This article is part of Your Memory, Rewired, a National Geographic exploration into the fuzzy, fascinating frontiers of memory science—including advice on how to make your own memory more powerful. Learn more.