None
EN
A three-year randomised trial of the much-hyped MIND ‘brain diet’ found it did no better than a sensible control diet, and omega-3 pills show no cognitive benefit in healthy people: the evidence for brain foods is real, slow, and badly oversold
['Written By', 'Silicon Canals Editorial Team', 'The Silicon Canals Editorial Team Produces Content Across Our Three Editorial Pillars', 'Technology', 'Business', 'Power', 'Investigations', 'Human Systems. We Chronicle The Systems That Shape Our Lives', "The Global Infrastructure Of Technology To The Internal Infrastructure Of The Human Mind. Articles Reflect Our Team'S Collective Editorial Process", 'Sourcing']
Silicon Canals
What happened when a brain diet was tested properlyThe MIND diet is the most credentialled of the brain diets.
In 2023, a team led by Lisa Barnes published a three-year randomised controlled trial in the New England Journal of Medicine, Trial of the MIND Diet for Prevention of Cognitive Decline in Older Persons.
It followed 604 older adults, all of them overweight, with a family history of dementia and a poorer baseline diet.
Half were guided onto the MIND diet, half onto a control diet with mild calorie restriction.
Omega-3 fatty acids, the active ingredient in the “oily fish is brain food” story, have been sold in capsule form for exactly this purpose for years.