The Study
Associations of dairy, meat, and fish intakes with risk of incident dementia and with cognitive performance: the Kuopio Ischaemic Heart Disease Risk Factor Study (KIHD)
This study watched what men ate and then checked their brains years later. It found that people who ate more cheese or fish sometimes had better memory, but that doesn't mean cheese or fish made their brains better — maybe they were just healthier in other ways too.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
This study followed Finnish men for 22 years to see how eating cheese, meat, and fish affects memory and dementia risk.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 560 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1These differences are small but meaningful over decades — like remembering a few extra words on a test or finishing a task a few seconds faster, which could add up to better brain health over time.
- 2Men who ate more than 31g of cheese daily had 28% lower dementia risk.
- 3Those who ate more fish remembered 1.9 more words on a memory test.
- 4Those who ate more unprocessed red meat scored 0.4 points higher on a thinking test and finished a puzzle 4.9 seconds faster.
- 5Those who ate more processed meat forgot 2.5 more words.
- 6APOE-ε4 carriers who ate more fish remembered 5.8 more words.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
European Journal of Nutrition
Year
2022
Authors
Maija P. T. Ylilauri, S. Hantunen, E. Lönnroos, J. Salonen, T. Tuomainen, J. Virtanen
Related Content
Claims (7)
Middle-aged Finnish men who ate more than 31 grams of cheese per day had a 28% lower incidence of dementia over 22 years than those who ate less than 0.7 grams per day.
Middle-aged men who consume more non-fermented dairy and milk perform worse on verbal fluency tests after four years, producing 2.9 to 3.0 fewer words than those who consume the least.
People who eat the most fish over four years score 1.9 points higher on a verbal memory test than people who eat the least fish.
People who eat more processed red meat over four years recall fewer words and score lower on visual memory tests than those who eat less.
People who eat more unprocessed red meat score slightly higher on cognitive tests and complete processing speed tasks faster than those who eat less, after four years.
People with the APOE-ε4 gene variant who eat more fish perform better on verbal fluency tests, producing 5.8 more words on average than those who eat the least fish.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.