{
  "id": 17264936,
  "title": "Low-fat diets do not prevent dementia deaths in older women",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/30/low-fat-diets-do-not-prevent-dementia-deaths-in-older-women",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-30T18:00:17.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "PsyPost",
    "slug": "psypost",
    "url": "https://www.psypost.org/low-fat-diets-do-not-prevent-dementia-deaths-in-older-women/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "A recent study published in the journal Menopause has found that adopting a low-fat diet high in fruits, vegetables, and grains does not prevent dementia-related deaths in postmenopausal women over a twenty year period. Researchers from The Lundquist Institute in California analyzed data from a major clinical trial involving 48,835 women aged 50 to 79, all of whom consumed at least 32% of their daily calories from fat at the start of the study. Half of the participants followed an intensive low-fat diet, while the other half served as a control group. Despite the intervention lasting a median of eight and a half years and significantly lowering fat intake, there was no statistically significant difference in dementia mortality between the two groups. The study, which tracked participants for a median of twenty years, found that the low-fat diet did not reduce the risk of deaths from either Alzheimer's disease or non-Alzheimer's forms of dementia. While the intervention did improve other health markers such as body weight, physical activity, and the risk of diabetes and high blood pressure, the researchers concluded that these improvements alone were not enough to prevent existing neurodegenerative processes from progressing to death.",
  "summary": "A large clinical trial tracked nearly 50,000 postmenopausal women for two decades to see if a low-fat diet could prevent dementia deaths. The results suggest that changing your diet later in life might not stop severe cognitive decline.",
  "key_points": [
    "Low-fat diet study tracked 48,835 women for 20 years",
    "No link found between low-fat diet and reduced dementia deaths",
    "Improved health markers didn't prevent neurodegenerative deaths"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}