Eating a healthy diet while avoiding certain food and drinks could be one of the best best ways to push back the onset of dementia, a new study suggests.

New research from a team of experts from the US and Switzerland suggest that following a healthy lifestyle could help fight Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's is a type of dementia that affects memory, thinking and behaviour. Symptoms eventually grow severe enough to interfere with daily tasks.

In the study, experts analysed data from 2,449 pensioners who signed up to the Chicago Health and Ageing Project (CHAP), which began in 1993.Researchers identified a 'healthy lifestyle' included eating a Mediterranean-style diet consisting of whole grains, green leafy vegetables and berries.Other 'healthy' choices included avoiding eating fast food and doing at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week.As well as this, the healthy types didn’t smoke, drank low amounts of alcohol and did brain stimulating activities like reading and crosswords.Results of the study showed both women and men were able to live longer and those extra years weren’t affected by neurological decline.The research revealed that for women with a healthy lifestyle, just 2.6 years were lost to Alzheimer’s, and 1.4 for men.

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