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Do This to Slow Brain Aging and Decrease Risk of Dementia with Dr. Austin Perlmutter

28 Jan 2026 · 1 min

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In this segment Dr. Austin Perlmutter explains the strong evidence linking dietary patterns to brain aging. He notes that people who consume a healthier diet—rich in minimally processed foods—exhibit slower cognitive decline, reduced brain atrophy, and a lower incidence of Alzheimer’s dementia. Brain imaging studies show that such diets are associated with overall younger‑appearing brains. In contrast, diets high in ultra‑processed or unhealthy foods are linked to accelerated brain aging and higher dementia risk. Perlmutter also highlights that certain individual nutrients have an outsized protective effect on brain function, suggesting that targeted nutritional choices can further slow brain aging.

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When we look more generally at the correlations between diet and brain aging, we see that people who eat a healthier diet have slower rates of brain aging. And you can look at this across a variety of different metrics. So cognitive decline. People who eat a healthier diet, a diet rich in minimally processed foods, have a lower rate of developing brain atrophy and conditions like Alzheimer's dementia. But we also see, when we look at brain imaging, that people who eat a healthier diet seem to have overall younger brains and people who eat an ultra processed or unhealthy diet. So again, that's all the background as to why we need to focus on nutrition for brain aging. And certainly it is the case that there are individual nutrients within our food that seem to have an outsized effect on preserving brain function and slowing the rate of brain aging.