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Cooking at home linked to lower dementia risk in older adults, study finds
A large study suggests older adults who cook more often may have a lower risk of dementia. Researchers say the link does not prove cause and may reflect overall healthier lifestyles.
The study highlights how simple lifestyle habits may support long-term brain health. (Image for representation: FreePik)
Forget about complex diet plans, new research suggests a simpler habit may be linked to better brain health. A recent study in Japan has found that older adults who cook meals at home more frequently tend to have a lower risk of developing dementia, though the findings show an association rather than a direct causal effect.
The research by The Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study on 11,000 Japanese adults — ranging from ages 65 and older since 1999 — over a period of six years, focused on how many people developed dementia, how often they cooked food, and how they rated their prowess in cooking.
Individuals who cooked at home at least once a week had experienced remarkably less cognitive decline than those who cooked less often. The study revealed 23 per cent lower risk of dementia in men and 27 per cent in women(all who cooked regularly). People who just started out cooking seem to benefit the most with 67 per cent lower chances of dementia.
A life changing habit
“We focused on home cooking because the 2020 Lancet Commission identified that around 40 per cent of dementia cases could be prevented by changing lifestyle factors like diet and physical activity,” co-author of the study Yukako Tani who is an associate professor in the Department of Public Health at the Institute of Science Tokyo in Japan, told Medical News Today.
“Additionally, cooking requires complex cognitive tasks such as planning, selecting ingredients, and following recipes, providing mental stimulation. Because home cooking combines nutritional, physical, and cognitive benefits, we saw it as a promising but underexplored factor in reducing dementia risk,” she added.
But the study does not prove the fact that the activity of cooking reduces the risk of dementia, it just brings light to the link between home cooking and lower risk of dementia. Only a single demography, the aged Japanese adults, were studied under the research.
“Dementia is a growing global public health concern, particularly in aging societies,” Tani added. “Identifying modifiable lifestyle factors is essential because they offer practical and accessible ways for individuals to reduce their risk and maintain cognitive health.”
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“Cooking is more than the action of simply making food, it is a mentally stimulating task involving planning, sequencing, attention, memory, decision-making, and follow-through,” said Lynette Gogol, DO, DipABLM, a Texas-based neurologist (not working in the research) told health.com.
When you cook for yourself, you eat better food. Research has also shown that eating healthy whole grains, fruits and vegetables instead of processed food could reduce cognitive decline in middle-aged and aged adults. Cooking also involves social connections and gets you moving. Hence instead of consuming heavily processed or takeouts food, just groove up some healthy meals according to your mood.
The research was published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.
(This article has been curated by Seekriti Saha, who is an intern with The Indian Express)
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