Associations of the MIND Diet with Human Health Outcomes: A Scoping Review

The MIND diet was designed as an intervention to delay neurodegeneration and has been explored by systematic reviews for associations with cognition and, more recently, cardiometabolic disease. Comparatively less is known about how the MIND diet is associated with other health outcomes (e.g., all-cause mortality, anxiety, insomnia). This scoping review included studies exploring associations between the MIND diet and health outcomes other than cognition and cardiometabolic disease. Online databases were used to identify 4090 studies published between January 2015 and April 2024, from which 47 publications were included for review. Associations between the MIND diet and health outcomes were assessed as either favorable, unfavorable, or having no statistically significant association. Overall, 47 studies were included in this scoping review, 46 were observational, and several were conducted in large, established cohort studies. Across the 47 studies, 18 different topics were explored. Higher adherence to the MIND diet was mostly associated with favorable health outcomes (65%), while roughly one-third (33%) of studies found no statistically significant associations. One study, in Italy, found that increased adherence to the MIND diet was associated with increased exposure to cadmium, a heavy metal. In populations that may benefit from the MIND diet, we recommend additional observational and exploratory studies to identify health associations. Studies exploring educational interventions would help to identify facilitators and barriers to adopting the MIND diet. This scoping review provides some evidence that higher adherence to the MIND diet is associated with risk reduction for many diseases. Further research on environmental exposures (e.g., cadmium) and other deleterious substances absorbed by food crops will be crucial as we strive to enhance health and food security through plant-rich dietary patterns.