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Consensus statement on exploring the Nexus between nutrition, brain health and dementia prevention
Alexandra M. Johnstone, Emiliano Albanese, Daniel R. Crabtree, Boushra Dalile, Stefanie Grabrucker, Jenna M. Gregory, Giuseppe Grosso, Adrian Holliday et al.. Nutrition & Metabolism, 2025-07-25
Topic: Risk, prevention and care in population studies
An international expert panel convened to evaluate nutrition-based approaches to brain health and dementia prevention. This consensus statement integrates perspectives from lived experiences, mechanistic evidence, epidemiology, and clinical interventions. Nutrition plays a crucial role in brain health throughout life and in cognitive decline pathogenesis, particularly through the food-gut-brain axis. Intervention effectiveness varies across the health promotion, prevention, treatment, and maintenance spectrum due to methodological differences and individual responses to nutritional interventions.The Mediterranean and MIND dietary patterns show promise for maintaining cognitive function across studies. Multi-domain interventions like FINGER effectively combine dietary modifications with lifestyle changes to delay dementia onset in at-risk older adults. These findings align with mechanistic evidence on the food-gut-brain axis in maintaining optimal brain health by preventing neurodegeneration. Key mechanisms include gut microbiota composition and function, blood-brain barrier integrity, endothelial and mitochondrial dysfunction, insulin resistance, oxidative stress, and inflammatory processes.Research priorities include standardizing cognitive assessment methodologies, developing early intervention strategies, and implementing integrated precision nutrition and lifestyle approaches. Incorporating patients' and caregivers' lived experiences in research co-production was identified as essential to support those with lived experience. The panel concluded that future directions should combine population and individual-level preventive approaches while addressing challenges in sustaining healthy behavioral changes and understanding the complex interplay between diet, lifestyle, and genetic factors in brain health and dementia prevention. Experts emphasized the need for both standardized methodologies and personalized interventions to account for individual variability in nutritional responses and facilitate effective prevention strategies across diverse populations.
Key findings
- These findings align with mechanistic evidence on the food-gut-brain axis in maintaining optimal brain health by preventing neurodegeneration.
- The panel concluded that future directions should combine population and individual-level preventive approaches while addressing challenges in sustaining healthy behavioral changes and understanding the complex interplay between diet, lifestyle, and genetic factors in brain health and dementia prevention.
Why it matters
This consensus statement concludes that the Mediterranean and MIND dietary patterns show promise for maintaining cognitive function, and that multi-domain interventions like FINGER can delay dementia onset in at-risk older adults. It is based on expert synthesis of existing evidence rather than new trial results, so it does not prove that any specific nutrition approach prevents or treats Alzheimer's disease.
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Study details
- Evidence strengthLow
How this study scored 46/100
Published in a peer-reviewed journal. Scored zero for study design, sample size, effect reported, studied in people and randomised / blinded because the record does not state it.
| Component | Points | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Journal tier | 7 / 10 | Tier 3 — peer-reviewed journal (Nutrition & Metabolism) |
| Journal's citation record | 1 / 4 | Nutrition & Metabolism: journal h-index 127 (OpenAlex, 2026-10-29) |
| Study design | 0 / 12 | No study design recorded — scores zero, not guessed (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Strength of evidence | 1 / 5 | Rated “low” in our summary |
| Peer-review validation | 10 / 10 | Peer-reviewed. Published as an article in a named peer-reviewed journal. |
| How recent | 4 / 5 | 2025 — within 3 year(s) of the newest study here |
| Sample size | 0 / 4 | Participant count not stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Effect reported | 0 / 3 | No effect size reported — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Studied in people | 0 / 3 | Not stated whether this was studied in people — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Randomised / blinded | 0 / 2 | No randomisation or blinding stated — scores zero (not stated in the record — scored 0) |
| Times cited | 3 / 7 | Cited 21 times (OpenAlex, 2026-10-10) |
| Citations per year | 2 / 5 | 7.0 citations a year over 3 year(s) since 2025 |
| Impact for its field and year | 4 / 6 | Cited 17.8× the average for papers of its field and year (OpenAlex FWCI) |
| Cited by studies here | 1 / 6 | Cited by 2 other studies in this library |
| Still being cited | 2 / 4 | Cited 21 times in 2024–2026 (2026 still in progress; OpenAlex) |
| Senior author's track record | 3 / 4 | Last-listed author Mario Siervo: h-index 69 (OpenAlex, whole career) |
| Institution's track record | 1 / 3 | KU Leuven: institution h-index 1,386 (OpenAlex) |
| Multi-centre collaboration | 3 / 3 | OpenAlex lists 14 institution(s) in 7 countries |
| Indexed in PubMed | 2 / 2 | Indexed in PubMed (PMID 40713732) |
| Free to read | 2 / 2 | Free to read |
| Total | 46 / 100 | — |
What each of these 20 components measures, and what this score is not →
Read the original
- DOI: 10.1186/s12986-025-00981-6
- PubMed: 40713732
- Original source →
- Free full text: Nutrition & Metabolism →
Full text: free to read — OpenAlex lists this copy as free to read: the link above (checked 6 Feb 1020).
Cite this study APA, Vancouver, BibTeX · download .bib or .ris
Built from the record alzhub holds for this paper, not looked up. Volume, issue and page numbers are not held in the record. The record's author list ends in “et al.”, so not every author is named. Check the citation against the original before you use it.
APA 7th
Johnstone, A. M., Albanese, E., Crabtree, D. R., Dalile, B., Grabrucker, S., Gregory, J. M., et al. (2025). Consensus statement on exploring the Nexus between nutrition, brain health and dementia prevention. Nutrition & Metabolism. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12986-025-00981-6
Vancouver
Johnstone AM, Albanese E, Crabtree DR, Dalile B, Grabrucker S, Gregory JM, et al. Consensus statement on exploring the Nexus between nutrition, brain health and dementia prevention. Nutrition & Metabolism. 2025. doi:10.1186/s12986-025-00981-6. PMID: 40713732.
BibTeX
@article{johnstone2025-40713732,
author = {Johnstone, Alexandra M. and Albanese, Emiliano and Crabtree, Daniel R. and Dalile, Boushra and Grabrucker, Stefanie and Gregory, Jenna M. and Grosso, Giuseppe and Holliday, Adrian and others},
title = {{Consensus statement on exploring the Nexus between nutrition, brain health and dementia prevention}},
journal = {Nutrition \& Metabolism},
year = {2025},
doi = {10.1186/s12986-025-00981-6},
pmid = {40713732},
url = {https://doi.org/10.1186/s12986-025-00981-6}
}
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