Research
Macro partitioning
High intake of saturated fat and cholesterol is associated with an increased risk of incident dementia, particularly dementia with a vascular component.
If you are over 55, consider reducing your intake of saturated fats and cholesterol to potentially lower your risk of dementia. Focus on balancing your diet with healthier fats, such as those found in fish, which this study links to a reduced risk.
GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
After adjustment for age, sex, education, and energy intake, high intakes of the following nutrients were associated with an increased risk of dementia: total fat (RR = 2.4 [1.1-5.2]), saturated fat (RR = 1.9 [0.9-4.0]), and cholesterol (RR = 1.7 [0.9-3.2]).
Why this rating
Prospective population-based cohort study with large sample size (n=5,386) and rigorous case-finding protocol, though observational nature limits causal inference.
Source
Dietary fat intake and the risk of incident dementia in the Rotterdam study
Sandra Kalmijn et al. · Annals of Neurology · 1997
DOI 10.1002/ana.410420514
cohort · n=5386Cited 891×
Read the paper DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10
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