Why you should be enjoying red wine, berries and chocolate to stave off dementia

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Consuming flavonoid-rich foods, including red wine, berries and dark chocolate, may lower dementia risk. Photo / 123rf
A study by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast offers positive news for lovers of a glass of red – here’s what you need to know
Those who prefer red wine to white have long had good reason to be smug about it: the drink has previously been shown to lower cholesterol, fight inflammation and even prevent tooth decay.
Now there is yet another health benefit to add to the pile. A study by researchers at Queen’s University Belfast, published this week, found that consuming red wine instead of other types of alcohol could cut your risk of developing dementia by up to a third. That’s if you also eat the odd square of dark chocolate with a daily cup of tea, at least.
Researchers from the university’s Institute for Global Food Security reviewed the diets of more than 120,000 British adults aged between 40 and 70. Those who ate at least six servings of these foods per day were 28% less likely to develop dementia over the course of 10 years than those who did not.
What’s more, this study has shown for the first time that “these associations were evident in participants at high genetic risk of dementia,” as well as those at low risk, says Professor Aedin Cassidy, who led the study.
This was also true for those with acquired risk factors “including depression and hypertension.”
That’s because these foods are rich with flavonoids – natural compounds produced by plants “that have been shown to be anti-inflammatory, improve blood flow and exert neuroprotective effects,” Professor Cassidy explains.
Here is how you can incorporate these foods into your diet to help stave off dementia.
When it comes to dark chocolate, a dementia-preventing portion is a serving of just “one or two squares,” says Dr Amy Jennings, who worked with Professor Cassidy on this latest study.
“Dark chocolate contains a large amount of Flavan-3-ols, a subclass of flavonoids that is particularly associated with a reduced dementia risk,” Dr Jennings says.
A bar of Dairy Milk or a square of white chocolate just won’t cut it here, however, as “milk chocolate contains far fewer of those Flavan-3-ols and white chocolate contains none at all”.
When eating your one or two squares of dark chocolate it’s also important to make sure that the bar you choose “contains at least 70% cocoa solids”.
This study didn’t explore whether your chocolate must be low-sugar to protect you against dementia, though dark chocolate with a higher cocoa content generally has less sugar than other bars.
“All of our findings were seen as part of a balanced, healthy diet,” says Dr Jennings. “I wouldn’t say that consuming a full bar of dark chocolate every day would lower your risk of dementia either,” Dr Jennings adds, as “it’s good to consume a variety of flavonoid-rich foods”.
Much better to have “one serving of dark chocolate with an extra cup of tea or a handful of berries”.
Similarly, a bottle of red wine a day isn’t advisable when it comes to protecting yourself from dementia – not least because regular heavy drinking can raise your risk of developing the disease by as much as 72%.
How is it then that a small glass of red wine per day counts as a dementia-boosting portion of flavonoids?
Red wine contains anthocyanins, a subclass of flavonoid found in grapes, also shown to protect the brain against dementia Moment RF
“Previous research has shown that following a plant-based diet can lower your dementia risk, so we wanted to see which plant-based foods are particularly effective here,” Dr Jennings says.
“We didn’t want to pick out random high-flavonoid foods to study, but rather look at the ones that people already consume in large amounts.”
As Dr Jennings makes clear, “the current guidance is that there is no amount of alcohol that’s good for the brain” and the link between alcohol consumption and dementia risk is “very complicated”.
Rather than upping your intake, it’s those who already drink in moderation who should reach for a bottle of red over white wine, beer, cider or spirits.
“Red wine contains anthocyanins, a subclass of flavonoid found in grapes,” Dr Jennings says. So if you don’t drink, or would rather consume your flavonoids in other ways, “you can eat grapes or berries and still get this flavonoid in the same amount”.
Perhaps a wise choice as “those foods are going to be healthier for you”.
Berries, it was found, are a particularly potent form of flavonoid-rich food.
The Queen’s University study considered the impacts of regularly eating 40g – a small handful – of berries, classing this as one of your six portions per day, but “even half a serving could be one of the things you add to your diet to improve your health outcome”, Dr Jennings says.
Blueberries in particular are a dementia-busting super-food. “They’re very low in sugar, so you can include a lot of them in your diet without it having other negative effects on your health.”
But “strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants, any fruit with red, blue or purple skins are going to be high in anthocyanins”, those same flavonoids present in red wine.
When it comes to fresh or frozen berries, the health benefits are similar. Many large-scale studies have found that the freezing process preserves the flavonoid content of these berries effectively, and frozen berries are often cheaper and easier to have to hand.
Unfortunately the same does not go for raspberry or strawberry jam – “I’d definitely advise having fresh or frozen berries over something with a high sugar content like jam,” says Dr Jennings.
It will make many in Britain happy to know that tea was the foodstuff most strongly associated with reduced risk of dementia, in this latest study.
So long as it was paired with either a small glass of red wine or just half a serving of berries, drinking five cups of tea every day was found to be the most effective way to ward off dementia – and you needn’t have all three together or at the same time.
That said, “green tea has a much higher concentration of flavonoids, so I would definitely recommend that over black tea,” Dr Jennings says.
Green tea also contains less caffeine than black tea, an important fact as any link between caffeine consumption and dementia – for good or ill – is not yet fully understood by scientists.
Black teas, English breakfast or earl grey teas still contain “quite high levels” of flavonoids, which is fortunate as they are the most widely drank teas in Britain.
There has been some research to suggest that adding milk to tea might “interfere with body’s absorption” of those all-important flavonoids, says Dr Jennings, though “that link isn’t yet definite”.
If you’re someone who can’t stand the taste of black tea without any milk in it, then, “you should definitely keep drinking tea with milk”.
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