Heart-healthy diet boosts cognitive development during youth

A diet low in cholesterol and saturated fatty acids (SAFA), initiated and maintained from infancy, seems to improve cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control at young adulthood, reports a new study.

The researchers drew data from the Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP), which enrolled children 5 months of age and assigned them to receive an intervention (heart-healthy diet low in SAFA and cholesterol) or a control diet. Participants were monitored via at least biannual counselling from ages 7 to 20 years, during which food diaries were used to assess diet.

Participants were then followed up to 6 years after the intervention, at which point cognitive tests were administered to evaluate learning and memory, short-term working memory, reaction time, verbal memory, cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control, and information processing.

A total of 542 children completed cognitive testing and were eligible for analysis. Those who received the heart-healthy intervention showed significantly better cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control than controls during the attention-switching test (β, 0.181; p=0.042). Adjusting for covariates slightly weakened this effect and attenuated its significance (β, 0.167; p=0.057).

Looking at specific dietary factors, the researchers found a direct association between SAFA intake in young adulthood and verbal memory on the verbal recognition test (β, 0.037; p=0.008). Fibre consumption in childhood, in comparison, was inversely correlated with cognitive flexibility and inhibitory controls (β, –0.317; p=0.030).