The ‘flavodiet’ and other ways to age well in 2025

Happy 2025! That came around quickly, didn’t it? Annabel and I hope you had a wonderful festive season and feel recharged, ready for the year ahead.

While we’re always wary of New Year’s resolutions here at the Age-Well Project, I’m looking at some nutritional tweaks to support my health – and particularly my cognitive health – in the year ahead.

We know that inflammation is one of the key drivers of age-related chronic disease – we’ve written about the concept of ‘inflamm-ageing’ many times. In a nutshell: scientists believe that inflammation and ageing are so closely linked they coined this portmanteau term to emphasis the point.

Chronic inflammation affects the whole body and is linked to all the major conditions of ageing: metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes, heart disease, auto-immune diseases including arthritis, and Alzheimer’s.

Dietary Inflammatory Index

Research published last month in the journal Alzheimer’s & Dementia links higher consumption of inflammatory foods with increased dementia incidence. The diets of almost 1500 people were evaluated according to a Dietary Inflammatory Index. The more anti-inflammatory foods consumed – like flavonoids (more on them in a moment), omega-3 fatty acids, beta-carotene and mono-unsaturated fats – the lower the dementia risk. And the more inflammatory foods consumed – including processed meats, sugar and saturated fats – the higher the risk.

Key nutrients

So how does this work in real life? There’s no official ‘anti-inflammatory diet’, but focus reducing processed foods and including these nutrients:

• Omega-3 fatty acids from oily fish, nuts and seeds
• Vitamin C from citrus fruits, kiwi, red peppers and spinach
• Polyphenols from brightly coloured fruit and vegetables, and olive oil
• Probiotics to support gut health
• Fibre from pulses and whole grains

The ‘flavodiet’

Flavonoids are a sub-group of polyphenols: antioxidants that cross the blood-brain barrier to reduce inflammation in the brain.  They came under the microscope, as it were, in a study published back in September which linked increased intake with a 28% lower dementia risk. The study, by researchers at Queens University Belfast, ran the numbers on 122,000 participants from the UK Biobank. They looked at adherence to a ‘flavodiet’, adding up the number of daily servings of flavonoid rich foods like:

• Tea (black and green)
• Berries
• Red wine
• Apples
• Grapes
• Oranges and grapefruit
• Red peppers
• Onions
• Dark chocolate

The strongest association was with tea. I’m sipping green tea as I write this! I certainly won’t be increasing my intake of red wine, though. Alcohol is a neurotoxin and for special occasions only.

Genetic risk

I have one allele of the Apoe4 gene, which increases dementia risk. So I was particularly interested to see that this study included further analysis of individuals who also carry  this gene variant. For them, the risk reduction of high flavonoid intake (equivalent to five cups of tea a day and half a portion of berries,) was 43%. There’s very limited research on us ApoE4 carriers, so it’s good to be included in this study – especially when it has a positive outcome.

The team behind the study hope that it may be used to provide ‘a clear public health message regarding the range of foods with the potential to lower dementia risk’. That would be a good start to 2025 indeed.

FEED YOUR BRAIN BETTER

Making sense of all this information in your own kitchen may feel a little overwhelming. If so, I’ve curated the best research, habit formation tools and mindset work so that eating for better brain health becomes, ahem, a no-brainer. Feed Your Brain Better is a simple, low-cost course and is available now.

Click here for the details and to get access straightaway. I’m also running a new bonus session on Zoom on January 9th for everyone who’s joined the course. It will help you kickstart 2025 with a plan to reduce your dementia risk and feel sharp right now.

FLAVONOID-PACKED RECIPES FROM THE ARCHIVE

Berry cashew chia breakfast bowl

Granola baked apples

Baked mackerel with rhubarb relish

Simple stuffed peppers

Roast red onions with rosemary and roquefort

Venison with blackberry and apple sauce

Spiced fruit loaf with green tea

Chocolate, orange and chestnut cake 

Wishing you a happy and healthy 2025

Susan

PS photo is of Annabel and I polishing off a delicious, flavonoid-filled dinner at Roka in central London to celebrate our birthdays!