Hello and welcome to Zoe Recap, where each week we find the best bits from one of our podcast episodes to help you improve your health.

Today we're discussing dementia.

Many believe that dementia is inevitable, something solely determined by our DNA.

But this isn't the case. In fact, lifestyle choices play the most

significant role in determining if we develop this disease. So what changes can you make today

to reduce your chance of getting dementia tomorrow? Dr. Claire Steves joins us to share simple

steps that will protect your brain for years to come.

Dementia is something whereby our functions are interfering with daily life.

And obviously, if we start off with really high functioning, then we get to that point much later in any disease process.

So you can put off significantly the time at which you fall below

that threshold of being able to function in daily life. It's about cognitive reserve. So that's the

kind of maximum cognitive ability that we might have, not just in terms of sort of intellectual

ability, but also psychological state as well. So, you know, I'm someone in my late 40s. I really want to make sure

that I don't have dementia. Give me the advice. If I was walking into your clinic, tell me what you

would be saying that I should be doing in order to try and make sure I never had to come back to

your clinic in, you know, 20 years. So actually what I realistically say to patients is, it's about

getting as many different colors of

fruit and vegetables into your diet as possible and making sure that you're getting good plant-based

fats into the diet because the brain is hugely metabolically active. It needs a lot of nutrients.

And we know that a wide variety of plant-based nutrients is really important for brain health.

And I talk about colours because actually there's evidence that flavonoids are really key,

phytonutrients for brain development.

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