Drinking Orange Juice Could Slash Your Risk of Dementia by 50 Percent as It Protects the Brain, Study Finds

A 20-year Harvard University study of about 28,000 men published in Neurology determined subjects who drank a small glass of orange juice were 47 percent less likely to have cognitive difficulty, reports London's the Daily Mail . The effect on brain health was measured by testing the men's thinking and recall skills when they were 73 years old, on average. Generally, 6.6 percent who ate the most vegetables developed poor cognitive function and performed badly on the tests, compared with 7.9 percent of those who ate the least. Overall, fruit consumption did not seem to influence the risk of moderate cognitive problems, but consumption of orange juice did. Only 6.9 percent of people who drank orange juice daily developed poor cognitive function versus 8.4 percent of men who drank orange juice less than once a month. "The protective role of regular consumption of fruit juice was mainly observed among the oldest men," notes Harvard's Changzheng Yuan. "Since fruit juice is usually high in calories from concentrated fruit sugars, it's generally best to consume no more than a small glass four to six ounces per day."