Want to Stay Smarter as You Age? Think About Eating More Vegetables

Now, what was I saying?

Oh, yes-thinking! Well, it's an accepted fact that brain function declines as we age. But it seems there might be a simple way to slow this decline-eating more vegetables.

A recently published study in Chicago followed more than 3,700 people for six years. The participants had their cognitive ability, which involves thinking and memory, measured at the beginning of the study, at its halfway point, and at its conclusion. There were too many variables to identify a direct cause and effect, but there was one major observation-the people who ate at least two servings of vegetables a day had a 40% slower decline in their cognitive ability than the others.

Just in case you're wondering, the people who performed better on the tests were not better educated; the average education for all survey participants was 12.2 years-the equivalent of a high school diploma. And the average age was 74, so these people were generally past middle age and into their senior years.

Since the Food Pyramid jointly recommends fruits and vegetables, you may also be wondering what effect the consumption of fruits had on the results of the study. Interestingly, the 40% statistic was associated with the consumption of vegetables but not with fruits.

The question, of course, is "Why Vegetables?" The researchers have theorized that it's the vitamin E. Most of the people who did well in the study were eating green leafy vegetables, like spinach, kale, and collard, which are all high in vitamin E. Plus, most people tend to eat vegetables with fats like butter or salad dressing, and fats help this vitamin absorb better.

As for vitamin E-well, its main function seems to be as an antioxidant. It helps prevent cell damage, especially in the brain and other parts of the nervous system.

If you'd like to take advantage of some of these benefits, experts recommend eating vegetables either raw or only slightly cooked (for example, steamed). Heavy cooking can destroy or inactivate a lot of the nutrients. The tomato is about the only exception to this rule, because its lycopene, another strong antioxidant, is more easily digested and absorbed if the tomatoes have been processed (for example, in tomato paste).

Most of us have heard, from the time we were children, that vegetables were good for us. Well, it seems that researchers are getting closer and closer to proving the truth of that statement.