All individuals will experience some degree of cognitive impairment in their later years. Diet is one readily modifiable factor that may influence cognitive function and psychological well-being. Very little research has considered the potential role of dairy foods in modulating cognitive and psychological functions. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of a high intake of reduced fat dairy food on cognitive performance. Overweight adults with habitually low dairy intakes (< two serves/day) were recruited for a 12 month crossover dietary intervention trial and randomised to a high (four serves/day) or low (one serve/day) intake of reduced fat dairy, crossing over to the alternate diet after 6 months. Participants were tested at the end of each 6 month diet period on multiple measures of cognitive performance, including memory, information processing speed, executive function, attention and abstract reasoning. In 38 participants who completed the trial (average age=52±2 years; BMI=31.5±0.8 kg/m(2)), spatial working memory performance was marginally better following 6 months of the high dairy diet compared with the low dairy diet. Increasing the dairy intake of habitually low dairy consumers may have the potential to improve working memory.
Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.