AARP Hearing Center
You may want to grab some extra oranges or tangerines during your next grocery shopping trip. A new study published in the British Journal of Nutrition found that older people who eat citrus fruit frequently were 23 percent less likely to get dementia.
The study, conducted on more than 13,000 elderly Japanese adults, found that participants who reported eating citrus fruit almost every day were significantly less likely to develop dementia after an almost six-year follow-up when compared with those who ate it two or fewer times a week.
The dementia data were taken from the Japanese long-term care insurance database. Researchers adjusted for other factors, including general consumption of vegetables and fruits and overall health, and found that the relationship between citrus fruit consumption and dementia didn’t change significantly, Men’s Health reports.
The researchers note that further research is necessary in additional populations and locations to compare with their initial findings.
According to the USDA, citrus fruits include:
- clementines
- grapefruit
- kumquats
- lemons
- limes
- oranges
- pomelos
- tangerines
Mandarin oranges were the most commonly eaten fruit in the region studied.
