Eat Your Way to a Healthier Mind

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Alzheimer's is thesixth leading cause of death in the United States, with one in three senior adults beingimpacted by the disease.

That's the bad news. The good news is that a new study offers hopefor people who want to lower their risk for Alzheimer's.

Researchers at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, havedeveloped a diet plan (which they refer to as the MIND diet) that they say may reduce the riskof developing Alzheimer's by as much as 53 percent. That's forpeople who follow the diet rigorously. But even people who follow thediet "moderately well" see results, decreasing their risk ofdeveloping Alzheimer's by about a third.

The MIND diet divides foods into 10 food categories that are healthy, and5 food categories that are to be avoided or limited.

The foods you should be eating come from these food groups:

Green leafy vegetables, other vegetables, nuts, berries, beans, whole grains,fish, poultry, olive oil, wine (one glass a day).

The foods you need to limit are the usual suspects. What's nice aboutthe MIND diet is that that these foods aren't eliminated, just restricted.That means that juicy steak isn't out of your life forever. Here arethe five food groups from which you should indulge sparingly: red meat(limit to four servings a week), butter and margarine (limit to less thana tablespoon per day), cheese (limit to one serving a week), pastriesand sweets (limit to five servings to week), and fried and fast foods(limit to once a week).