: loss of neurons; contraction of dendrites; reduced synaptic plasticity; and degeneration of the myelin sheath that covers the axons , disrupting the transmission of nerve signals. Decline starts in the cognitively critical frontal cortex—last to mature, first to go—but it winds up being most pronounced in the cortex, the movement-necessary cerebellum, and the hippocampus, the brain’s learning center and memory storage site.
The raging metabolic furnace of the brain spews out highly unstable free radicals of oxygen that damage the machinery of cells and their protective membranes, the cumulative effects of which show up as slowing of functions and memory problems. A vigorous antioxidant defense is an essential way of buttressing the brain against neurodegeneration.
Good as the Mediterranean diet is, could its effects be even further amplified? A team of researchers from Harvard, the University of Leipzig in Germany, and Ben Gurion University, led by Israel’s Iris Shai, has tweaked the standard Mediterranean diet by nearly tripling the amount of polyphenols it supplies, creating the Green Mediterranean diet.
Both Med diet groups consumed 28 grams a day of walnuts, providing 440 mg/day of polyphenols. What distinguishes the Green Med diet is further provision of 1,240 mg/day of polyphenols: three to four cups daily of green tea, rich in the polyphenol epigallocatechin gallate; and 100 grams of duckweed, an aquatic plant traditionally consumed as a vegetable in Southeast Asia. It grows all over the world in still waters, and ducks and geese normally feed on it.
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Source: Nature - 🏆 64. / 68 Read more »