And now for your health

Eat This & You'll Keep Your Brain Sharp Older women who eat more cruciferous and green leafy vegetables--that would be broccoli, cauliflower, romaine lettuce, and spinach--are more likely to keep their brains sharp as they age than women who don't eat these vegetables, Reuters reports of new research from Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. While the study did not include men, lead study author Jae Hee Kang says the results probably apply to them as well.
 The study: More than 13,300 nurses participated in a long-running health study that included tracking their eating habits over a span of 10 years when they were in their 60s. When they reached their 70s, the women were given a bundle of tests measuring memory, verbal ability, and attention. The tests were administered twice, two years apart. They included remembering word lists after 15 minutes, naming as many animals as possible in one minute, and reciting a list of numbers backwards. Then the researchers compared the women's diets when they were in their 60s to their test results in their 70s, especially noting score declines in the two years between testing sessions. A pronounced drop in performance could signal the start of Alzheimer's disease.  The results: Most of the women showed some decline, but those who had regularly eaten the most green leafy vegetables showed less decline than those who ate the least veggies. "It was almost like they were younger by one or two years in terms of their cognitive declining," Kang told Reuters.
The magic amount to eat? It appears to be eight servings a week. The study findings were reported to the International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related D  

 
From wmconnect