Science has just uncovered another good reason to include kale, spinach, broccoli and peas in your diet.
Higher levels of specific carotenoid antioxidants in blood may help guard against age-related dementia, new research suggests. Carotenoids are pigments which play a major role in the protection of plants
Investigators have recently found that individuals with the highest baseline levels of such antioxidants were less likely to have dementia decades later than their peers with lower levels.
These types of antioxidants are found in green leafy vegetables such as kale, spinach, broccoli and peas. Others are found in fruits such as oranges, papaya, tangerines, and persimmons.
“Antioxidants may help protect the brain from oxidative stress, which can cause cell damage,” reported a researcher with the National Institute on Aging. The researchers tested associations and interactions of serum vitamins A, C and E, and total and individual serum carotenoids and interactions with incident Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and all-cause dementia. They analyzed data from 7283 participants in the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) who were at least 45 years old at baseline and followed for an average of 16-17 years.
This relationship remained strong in models adjusted for sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors but attenuated in subsequent models.