Multicultural Healthy Diet to Reduce Cognitive Decline

• Resident of Co-op City, Bronx, NY
• Willingness to accept assignment to intervention or comparison diet group
• Willingness to participate in a study in which weight loss is not a primary goal
• Sub-optimal diet

• Cognitively impaired
• History of traumatic brain injury
• Psychiatric illness
• History of diabetes treated with a medication that may cause hypoglycemia
• Kidney or liver disease
• Uncontrolled high blood pressure (greater than 140/90 mmHg)
• History of heart disease
• Severe chronic illness
• Low literacy
• History of alcohol or drug dependence
• Blood disease or malignancy not in remission for more than 5 years
• Visual, hearing, or motor impairment that would interfere with cognitive testing
• Chronic kidney disease

The Multicultural Healthy Diet emphasizes plant-based foods and limited animal and high-saturated fat foods. Participants will be randomly assigned to either the study diet or to their usual diet plus sessions that focus on self-care, such as dealing with aches and pains of aging and obtaining a healthcare proxy. Researchers will measure changes in cognitive function through assessments, as well as changes in biological markers of oxidative stress and inflammation.

Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Inc.

• Penn State University
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Minnesota - Clinical and Translational Science Institute
• National Institute on Aging (NIA)