If you’re trying to figure out how to stay sharp as you age, I’m guessing you aren’t lacking advice. You’ve probably read dozens of articles telling you specific things you can do to reduce your risk of cognitive decline — work a sudoku every morning, learn Mandarin Chinese, eat seven servings of kale each week, join a book club, get up at 5 a.m. and meditate. There’s so much advice out there you may be confused. Or ready to just give up and let nature take its course.
If that’s you, then Laura Baker has some good news for you: It’s not that complicated. Baker, a gerontology and geriatric medicine professor at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, has studied aging and cognitive decline for many years. Currently, she’s one of the principal investigators on the U.S. Pointer Study, the world’s largest ongoing clinical trial looking at the effects of lifestyle interventions on cognitive function in older adults who are at increased risk for cognitive decline.
So yes, she can get into the weeds on this. But you don’t need to. The basics really are surprisingly simple.
1. Eat Well and Make Homemade Meals Often
Baker says that Americans are well-fed but undernourished. She says preservatives may make your food last longer, but they do not feed your brains. Eat real, homemade food as much as possible. When it comes to eating for brain health, stick to the same diet you’d choose for heart health. Keep it simple by following Michael Pollan’s famous advice: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
Read More: Can the MIND Diet Slow the Progression of Alzheimer’s?
2. Exercise
When it comes to exercise, the lesson is the same as with food: What you do to take care of your body takes care