Evidence of an anti-inflammatory diet as a key protector for subjective memory complaints in women

Population aging is associated with increased neurodegenerative conditions. Subjective memory complaint (SMC) is an early symptom of cognitive decline and a crucial parameter for dementia prevention. Nutritional interventions play a key role in preventing chronic diseases and cognitive decline.

This study evaluates adherence to different Mediterranean dietary patterns and estimates the dietary inflammatory index (DII) to analyze its influence on SMC in women.

Adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MED), Mediterranean Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay diet (MIND), and Anti-inflammatory Mediterranean diet (AnMED) was assessed. The study analysed SMC, subtle cognitive decline, DII, chronic diseases, and physical parameters in 348 women over 50. Three dietary patterns were formulated based on the highest scores to evaluate their impact on DII.

The anti-inflammatory diet showed a protective effect against SMC (p-value: 0.0002). Protective components included greens, non-green vegetables, and legumes (p-value < 0.005), whereas dairy products, refined grains, sugar, pastries, and cakes increased the risk (p-value < 0.005). Quartile distribution based on DII indicated a better outcome for SMC, depression, and diabetes in participants with a higher anti-inflammatory DII (p-value < 0.05). The anti-inflammatory diet had the lowest DII (-3.43), making it the most anti-inflammatory of the studied diets.

This study emphasizes the importance of adopting an AnMED diet, avoiding red and processed meat, sugar, refined grains, and cow milk, while promoting fruits, vegetables, legumes, and nuts as it is related with a lower proportion of woman with SMC.