Mediterranean Diet, Ketogenic Diet or MIND Diet for Aging Populations with Cognitive Decline: A Systematic Review

(1) Background: Compelling evidence shows that dietary patterns can slow the rate of cognitive decline, suggesting diet is a promising preventive measure against dementia. (2) Objective: This systematic review summarizes the evidence of three dietary patterns, the Mediterranean diet, the ketogenic diet and the MIND diet, for the prevention of cognitive decline. (3) Methods: A systematic search was conducted in major electronic databases (PubMed, ScienceDirect and Web of Science) up until 31 January 2022, using the key search terms “Mediterranean diet”, “ketogenic diet”, “MIND diet”, “dementia”, “cognition” and “aging”. A statistical analysis was performed using RoB 2 and the Jadad scale to assess the risk of bias and methodological quality in randomized controlled trials. (4) Results: Only RCTs were included in this study; there were eleven studies (n = 2609 participants) of the Mediterranean diet, seven studies (n = 313) of the ketogenic diet and one study (n = 37) of the MIND diet. The participants’ cognitive statuses were normal in seven studies, ten studies included patients with mild cognitive impairments and two studies included Alzheimer’s disease patients. (5) Conclusion: All three dietary interventions have been shown to slow the rate of cognitive decline in the included studies. The Mediterranean diet was shown to be beneficial for global cognition after 10 weeks of adherence, the ketogenic diet had a beneficial effect for patients with diabetes mellitus and improved verbal recognition, while the MIND diet showed benefits in obese patients, improving working memory, verbal recognition, memory and attention.