A new study found that eating a Mediterranean diet rich in healthy fats and limited in dairy and meat can prevent dementia, according to an article on CNN Feb. 8, 2010.

The study led by Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas, a neurologist at Columbia University Medical Center, found that in addition to reducing heart conditions and other health issues, a Mediterranean diet may also help lower the risk of developing dead tissues in the brain that are linked to thinking problems such vascular dementia. Vascular dementia is the second most common form of dementia.

The researcher team found that people who ate a predominantly Mediterranean-like diet were 30 percent less likely to have areas of dead tissue in the brain, known as brain infarcts, compared to people whose diets were not at all similar to Mediterranean diet.

"A Mediterranean diet includes a lot of fruit, vegetables and fish, olive oil, legumes and cereals, and fewer dishes containing dairy, meat, poultry, and saturated fatty acids than other diets," wrote CNN reporter Elizabeth Landau. "It also involves small to moderate amounts of alcohol."

The study looked at more than 712 people over the age of 65 living in New York. The researchers have followedthe participants for six years, asking them about their diet and studying their brain activity via an MRI.

The study results showed a stronger association between the overall diet and the prevention of dementia than any specific food in the diets. According to the article, this suggests that the health effect may result from the combination of food elements rather than any individual food.

The researchers plan to continue studying participants every 18 months for several more years.

Previously, Scarmea’s research found that a Mediterranean diet could also reduce the risk of Alzheimer's.

His research, published in the Annals of Neurology in 2006, studied more than 2,200 people from the Washington Heights-Inwood Columbia Aging Project and found that people who ate a Mediterranean diet were a 40 percent lower risk of developing Alzheimer's disease than those who did not.