A 15-year Swedish study found that people carrying the APOE4 gene, which raises Alzheimer's risk, had lower dementia rates when they ate the most meat. Unprocessed meat contains creatine, B12, carnosine, and taurine, nutrients that might protect the brain. The study is observational, not a controlled trial, so results need careful interpretation.
If you like meat and you care about your brain, you're going to want to hear this. A new study just dropped in GemOpen Network out of Sweden that followed people for 15 years to look at the association between meat intake and cognitive decline, dementia. And interestingly, what they found is that those at highest risk for Alzheimer's disease, those that carry the APOE4 risk gene for Alzheimer's disease, had a lower risk of Alzheimer's when they were higher meat eaters. In fact, in the highest quintile, the highest fifth of meat eaters, there was no distinction between those carrying the high-risk gene and those not carrying it in terms of dementia risk. This is interesting. Now, this is not a randomized controlled trial. You can't conduct these for dementia over 30 years with dietary interventions, but there is a signal here. I think the conservative approach is at least meat is not bad for the brain, might even be good for the brain in some people. Now, the questions become how, what nutrients— is it the creatine content in meat? Is it the B12? Is it the carnosine, the taurine? Bottom line is Meat, especially unprocessed meat, can be a health food, and it might even be a brain food too.
