"They may be onto something," said Rachel Richardson, the methods support unit lead for evidence production and methods directorate at Cochrane, an independent non-profit network that gathers and summarises medical research. However, she said this "does not represent a smoking gun" linking early sugar intake to dementia. One big issue is, it is impossible to know how much sugar each of the people in the study were actually eating, merely when they were born relative to sugar rationing. "This means it can identify links between diet and dementia risk, but it cannot prove that eating less sugar directly prevents dementia. "Eating a healthy, balanced diet is one of the best ways to support your brain health and it's never too late to make positive changes."