Research

Mixed

High adherence to a Mediterranean diet is associated with a lower likelihood of incident cognitive impairment in nondiabetic adults, but this protective association is not observed in individuals with diabetes mellitus.

If you do not have diabetes, maintaining a high adherence to a Mediterranean diet (high plant foods, olive oil, low saturated fat/meat) is associated with a reduced risk of developing cognitive impairment over time. However, if you have diabetes, this specific dietary pattern did not show a protective effect against cognitive decline in this study, suggesting that diabetes may override or interact with the diet's benefits through other mechanisms like insulin resistance.

GoodQualifiesHIGH confidence
high adherence to MeD was associated with lower likelihood of incident cognitive impairment in nondiabetic participants (OR 0.81; 95% CI 0.70–0.94; p = 0.0066) but not in diabetic individuals (OR 1.27; 95% CI 0.95–1.71; p = 0.1063).
Georgios Tsivgoulis et al. · Neurology · 2013

Why this rating

Large population-based cohort (n=17,478), prospective design, adjusted for numerous confounders, but observational nature prevents causal inference.

Source

Adherence to a Mediterranean diet and risk of incident cognitive impairment

Georgios Tsivgoulis et al. · Neurology · 2013

DOI 10.1212/wnl.0b013e3182904f69

cohort · n=17478Cited 182×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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