People who followed the MIND diet more closely showed slower brain shrinkage over time, with the strongest differences equal to about 2.5 years of delayed brain aging, new research has found.

The study followed 1,647 middle-aged and older adults for around 12 years with dietary surveys and MRI brain scans. Those with the most MIND-like diets lost less grey matter, the tissue vital for thinking, memory and decision-making, and showed less enlargement of the brain’s fluid-filled ventricles.

Berries and poultry stood out. Higher berry intake was linked to slower ventricle enlargement, while poultry was tied to slower grey matter decline. In contrast, sweets were linked to faster tissue loss and fried fast foods to greater shrinkage in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory centre.

The findings were published in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. Researchers caution the study is observational and cannot prove cause and effect, and that overall dietary patterns matter more than any single food.