Cognitive health wars
There’s an argument brewing amongst industry and some health experts about the credentials of food and drink aimed at improving cognitive health and helping fight against dementia.
On one side, leading industry researchers and scientists argue that there are products on the market that can boost consumers’ brain health and even fight the onset of dementia. Meanwhile, experts not linked with the industry remain sceptical and dismiss the claims made about such products. But who is right?
The world’s population, especially in the west, is growing older as modern medicine keeps people alive for longer. For instance, a child born today has a one-in-four chance of reaching its 100th birthday, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO). Living for longer, however, has many disadvantages, including an increased likelihood of poor cognitive function and a heightened risk of developing dementia, it adds.
There are more than 47.5M people in the world living with dementia, according to the WHO. This is expected to grow to 75.6M by 2030 and will more than triple by 2050, it adds. The estimated global costs associated with dementia, which has been called a public health priority by WHO, exceed $604bn annually.
No cure for dementia (Return to top)
There is no cure for dementia, such as Alzheimer’s Disease. However, the drug solanezumab from the pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly promises to cut the rate of dementia's progress by a third, according to the firm’s latest research published last month (July).
For now though, fighting cognitive decline is an area the food and drink industry is well equipped to take the lead in, according to Alexandra Gerstgrasser, scientific manager at health ingredients firm Vital Solutions, who spoke at a Nutrition Integrates conference on cognitive health in London in June.
“We have to keep in mind that most developed countries will experience a massive shift towards having an older population,” she says. “Furthermore, fighting age-related cognitive decline is a social and economic issue.”
Consumer interest in Europe around food and drinks that claim to promote better cognitive function and help to fight dementia is rising, she adds. In the future, such foods should be considered as medical foods.
Food and drink that promotes better mental health is gaining more interest from European consumers, agrees Charles Stacey, chief executive of clinical biotechnology company Accera. Although such products in Europe aren’t viewed with as much interest as they are in countries such as China and Japan, where consumers really buy into their ‘benefits’ and widely consume them.
“Consumers in Europe are interested in them [brain-boosting products], but they’re not educated or very aware about the offer enough to make it a big part of their diets,” Stacey, also speaking at Nutrition Integrates, explains. “The point of access to consumers isn’t clear enough for the industry to see a big benefit yet. More education is needed.”
Despite Stacey’s reservations about the current consumer understanding of products with a cognitive function in Europe, a leading UK scientist believes food and drink with brain-boosting benefits will soon become mainstream across the west.
Ongoing work (Return to top)
Professor Ian MacDonald, who is head of life sciences at the University of Nottingham, says: “There’s already been a lot of work going on about how to ensure an adult maintains their mental health, because cognitive decline in the ageing is a big problem.
“You can’t stop it [cognitive decline], but you can slow it, according to recent research into things such as cocoa flavanols,” MacDonald, who has worked with Mars on research into the cognitive benefits of cocoa flavanols, adds.
A study into cocoa flavanols, which are phytonutrients found in cocoa, was recently published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. It claimed they could play an important role in maintaining cognitive health in the ageing. The study, which was the second part of a two-part investigation, tested three drinks with varying cocoa flavanol content on men and women aged between 61 and 85 – who had no form of cognitive impairments.
Those who consumed higher levels of cocoa flavanols showed a big improvement in cognitive function.
Meanwhile, Brainwave, a drink containing green tea extract, jasmine extract, caffeine and other “secret” ingredients, fights against the risk of cognitive decline and even dementia, claims its founder Richard Baister.
It's mostly young people who are interested in the drink, because they are more aware of the benefits of functional products, Baister says. But a lot of older consumers are also keen to try it, because their understanding of such products is rising.
Like Baister, Karin Nielsen, director of ingredients at consumer insights company Canadean, believes drinks may be the best way to introduce cognitive health products to consumers. In fact, she predicts the popularity of such drinks will become bigger than energy drinks.
Better still, brain-boosting drinks made using natural ingredients would be able to more easily “pit themselves against sugar-saturated, stomach-churning energy drinks”, she adds.
Supplementation (Return to top)
But it’s not just food and drinks with brain health benefits that consumers need to know about, according to DSM, which specialises in nutritional health products. For instance, the firm has been carrying out research into the mental-health properties of vitamin E for many years. Recent studies claim to show that increased vitamin E intake can improve cognitive performance, it says.
Professor Manfred Eggersdorfer, senior vice-president, nutrition science and advocacy at DSM, explains: “For example, a study examined the mental development of extremely low birth weight children by assessing their vitamin E supplementation.
“The children with continuous intake of vitamin E over six months showed increasingly positive cognitive function than those with a shorter period of intake or none,” he adds.
Evidence from other DSM studies has shown there are wider positive health benefits of vitamin E with regards to cognitive function, Eggersdorfer says.
More importantly, research into vitamin E’s effect on Alzheimer’s Disease has been promising, he adds. “Research is ongoing into the possible interventions and the potential of vitamin E to delay the progression of mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease,” Eggersdorfer says. “An intake of 200IU [international units] a day of vitamin E has been shown to improve cognitive pathology in the elderly suffering from mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease and should be considered as a first-line pharmacotherapy globally.”
Despite such evidence from DSM and claims made by other companies about the cognitive health benefits of their products, Dr Louise Walker, a research officer from the UK charity the Alzheimer’s Society, believes it is misleading to promote products that claim to boost brain health and fight the onset of dementia.
Not enough research (Return to top)
Her biggest argument is that there’s not enough research into such products to say whether or not they have a positive impact on slowing the onset of dementia or have brain-boosting properties.
“I don’t think we should be making claims like that about helping cognitive health,” Walker says. “You can’t say that a product will reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s because there’s not enough evidence yet.”
However, she does advise that “what’s good for your heart is good for your brain” and says there are links between a healthy and balanced diet and a reduced risk of contracting dementia. There is some evidence to suggest that diets like the Mediterranean diet, which is high in fish and vegetables and low in meat and alcohol, can be good for brain health, Walker adds.Yet, she adds the caveat that suggestions that healthier diets can stave off cognitive decline are limited and require more research.
While Walker is concerned about the lack of evidence surrounding many of the cognitive health claims made by industry, she hasn’t completely written such products off. The idea of brain-boosting products is good, she says, but the industry has to do more research.
