I promise I won’t just continue to re-post a bunch of papers, but this one seems relevant to many around these parts. In particular @Elizabeth (also, sorry if you dislike being at-ed like that).
Food preferences significantly influence dietary choices, yet understanding natural dietary patterns in populations remains limited. Here we identifiy four dietary subtypes by applying data-driven approaches to food-liking data from 181,990 UK Biobank participants: ‘starch-free or reduced-starch’ (subtype 1), ‘vegetarian’ (subtype 2), ‘high protein and low fiber’ (subtype 3) and ‘balanced’ (subtype 4). These subtypes varied in diverse brain health domains. The individuals with a balanced diet demonstrated better mental health and superior cognitive functions relative to other three subtypes. Compared with subtype 4, subtype 3 displayed lower gray matter volumes in regions such as the postcentral gyrus, while subtype 2 showed higher volumes in thalamus and precuneus. Genome-wide association analyses identified 16 genes different between subtype 3 and subtype 4, enriched in biological processes related to mental health and cognition. These findings provide new insights into naturally developed dietary patterns, highlighting the importance of a balanced diet for brain health.
I promise I won’t just continue to re-post a bunch of papers, but this one seems relevant to many around these parts. In particular @Elizabeth (also, sorry if you dislike being at-ed like that).
Associations of dietary patterns with brain health from behavioral, neuroimaging, biochemical and genetic analyses
h/t Hal Herzog via Tyler Cowen