Cooking Health-Oriented Meals to Prevent Dementia and Diabetes

Previous research demonstrates that 1) adherence to a DASH dietary pattern and diets low in certain UPFs are linked to lower likelihood of experiencing cognitive impairments in later life, that 2) engagement in cooking is linked to healthier eating, reduced UPF consumption, and higher food self-efficacy, and 3) that cooking activity itself in midlife is associated with reduced incidence of dementia. There may be multiple pathways through which cooking engagement facilitates healthier cognitive aging- including the benefits of healthier meals on cardiometabolic and neural health, but also the role of cooking as a cognitively-engaging activity - one that has been identified as a potential contributor to cognitive reserve during aging. While at least one computerized cognitive training program is based on cooking activities and has demonstrated improvements to untrained EF processes in olde