Macro partitioning
High carbohydrate intake (highest tertile, median 59.3% energy) is associated with increased MRI-detected vascular brain injury (covert brain infarcts and white matter hyperintensities) and lower cognitive scores (MoCA and DSST) in middle-aged adults.
If you are middle-aged and concerned about brain health, look at your overall macronutrient balance. High carbohydrate intake (over 59% of calories) is linked to more silent brain injuries and lower cognitive scores. Try shifting some of those carbohydrates to healthy fats, like those found in nuts, olive oil, or fish, which were associated with better brain health in this study.
In multivariable adjusted analyses, higher carbohydrate intake was significantly associated with higher covert brain infarct (highest third (T3) vs. lowest third (T1), OR 1⋅40; 95% CI 1⋅11–1⋅78), high WMH (T3 vs. T1, OR 1⋅51; 1⋅20–1⋅89), and composite vascular brain injury (T3 vs. T1, OR 1⋅48; 1⋅24–1⋅75), and lower MoCA and DSST z-scores.
Why this rating
Large multi-national cross-sectional study (n=9886) with rigorous adjustment for confounders, but observational design limits causal inference.
Source
Association of dietary macronutrients with MRI-detected vascular brain injury and cognition in 9886 middle-aged participants from four countries: for the Canadian Alliance of Healthy Hearts and Minds (CAHHM) and the Prospective Urban Rural Epidemiological (PURE) Study Investigators
Victoria Miller et al. · EClinicalMedicine · 2025
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