Mediterranean diet, Biobank & dementia

Executive summary

* The UK Biobank population data were used for a study to see if a so-called Mediterranean diet is associated with lower dementia risk.

* The paper acknowledged that research on this topic to date is inconclusive.

* The researchers looked at three measures of a Mediterranean diet – i) MedDiet Adherence Screener (MEDAS) score, which is based on the PREDIMED study, ii) a partial point version of MEDAS and iii) a score called PYRAMID. I highlight the differences between these scores, which confirms that even the fictitious MedDiet, made up by researchers, has no agreed upon definition.

* The study looked at 60,000 people for approximately 9 years, during which time there were 882 cases of dementia reported.

* The researchers claimed “higher MedDiet adherence was associated with lower dementia risk.” This was not universally true.