Nutrition as Neuroprotection: A Role for the Mediterranean Diet

Brain health depends on a delicate and complex balance between vascular, metabolic, inflammatory, and neurodegenerative processes as well as reparative mechanisms that fluctuate throughout the lifespan. Accumulating evidence suggests that lifestyle-related factors can modify risk and potentially delay the onset of Alzheimer disease and related dementias. In this context, dietary intake has emerged as a biologically plausible and increasingly evidence-supported determinant of structural and functional brain outcomes. Although the impact of diet on brain health is likely multifactorial in nature, a key mechanism stems from its direct impact on cardiometabolic regulation. For example, dietary composition directly influences blood pressure, insulin sensitivity, lipid metabolism, visceral adiposity, and systemic inflammation through effects on endothelial function, hepatic lipid handling, glycemic variability, and adipocytes metabolism.¹ On the one hand, dietary patterns characterized by high saturated fat, refined carbohydrates, and ultra-processed foods promote insulin resistance, atherogenic dyslipidemia, and vascular stiffness.² On the other hand, those rich in unsaturated fats, fiber, and polyphenol-dense plant foods, such as the Mediterranean diet, are associated with a number of benefits, including improved endothelial function³ and reduced inflammatory signaling.⁴