Sandy's Note: Feeding Your Brain

One of those web push articles came the other day touting a 10 second every morning cure for memory loss. It was an interview between 2 famous actor/comedians talking about this wonderful practice that cured their memory loss problems. My FAKE antennas went up so I searched and found that it was an AI produced fake ad trying to sell another “Sure Cure”. Those actors have refuted any relationship with the ads or the conversation around a memory cure.

Hard to know what to believe and if anything does help with memory strengthening as we age. My past few “Notes” pages have talked about the importance of social engagement, physical activities and sleep. This notes page will briefly touch on nutrition. It’s harvest time at many local farms so a great time to look at the relationship with what we eat and how our body, gut, heart and brain maintain our overall health and strength.

The Journal of American Medical Association Neurology published an article February 2026, “Dietary Patterns and Indicators of Cognitive Function” (online; February 23, 2026, 83;(4):382-391).

The article asks the question, “Are healthy dietary patterns associated with a lower risk of subjective cognitive decline”. Results are reviewed of the data from 6 studies and a total of 159,347 participants who responded to dietary habit questions. Respondents who followed the DASH eating plan (Dietary Approach to Stop Hypertension) were associated with a “lower risk of subjective cognitive decline and better objective cognitive function”.

The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute provides details around the DASH eating plan.

The JAMA article follows the path of earlier studies including the FINGER Study (Finnish Geriatric Intervention Study to Prevent Cognitive Impairment and Disability). Their study of 2654 individuals from 2009-2011 for over 2 years included nutrition as a component of their program.

The positive and interesting results from the FINGER study lead a group of 6 US Medical Centers to conduct the POINTER Study, (Protect Brain Health Through Lifestyle Intervention to Reduce Risk). Their study introduced recommendations towards nutrition, exercise, cognitive and social challenge and health monitoring for over 2000 participants and followed them for 2 years.

Following the MIND (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay), dietary recommendations was a key activity for the participants. The simplicity of this dietary plan is the flexibility of the plan. The MIND diet is based on the dietary components of the Mediterranean and DASH diets, including emphasis on natural plant-based foods and limited intake of animal and high saturated fat foods. There is no required monthly purchase for the MIND meal approach, simply a mind set to mind what you are eating and mind what is not a good food selection to support brain health.

The Alzheimer’s Association has a single page breakdown of the POINTER Study summary at “The U.S. POINTER Brain Health Recipe.”

Next month, a brief around both the FINGER and POINTER studies. Have a great September, eat clean, move daily, challenge your social group in dialogue and listen to your body.