By Sarah Schafer

Mower County Senior Center

5.1 million senior citizens have Alzheimer’s, two-thirds are women, well recognized as the affliction senior citizens fear most.

If your doctor said to you, “Here is a diet; if you follow this, it decreases your chances of Alzheimer’s disease,” would you follow it?

Rush nutritional epidemiologist Martha Clare Morris, PhD, and colleagues developed the Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay (MIND) diet. The study shows the MIND diet lowered the risk of AD by as much as 53 percent in participants who adhered to the diet rigorously, and by about 35 percent in those who followed it moderately well.

If that convinced you to take a look, here is the basic idea. With the MIND diet, a person would eat at least three servings of whole grains, a salad and one other vegetable every day — along with a glass of wine — snacks most days on nuts, has beans every other day or so, eats poultry and berries at least twice a week and fish at least once a week.

You also must limit intake of the designated unhealthy foods, especially butter (less than 1 tablespoon a day), cheese, and fried or fast food (less than a serving a week for any of the three), to have a real shot at avoiding the devastating effects of AD, according to the study.

It sounds doable to me, but you can decide. If you would like more detail about the MIND diet just Google “MIND diet” for all the details. Let’s all stay active together.

We look forward to seeing you at our many programs at the Senior Center. Don’t forget our coffee shop where every day you can have homemade soup for $1 and a sandwich for 50 cents. Tuesday, March 31, we are having pizza pasta hotdish for only $2. You are always welcome at the center.

Upcoming Events

Monday: Blood pressure checks, 9 a.m.; Cards (Pinochle, Duplicate Bridge), 12:30 p.m.; Exercise with Evie’s Friends, 1 p.m.

Tuesday: Silver Sneakers, 8:30 a.m.; Exercise with Evies Friends, 9 a.m.; Pizza Pasta Hotdish, 11:30 a.m.;

Cards (Pinochle, Duplicate Bridge), 12:30 p.m.; Zumba/ZumbaToning, 5:45 p.m.; Zumba/Zumba Toning, 7 p.m.

Wednesday: Wood Carvers, 8:30 a.m.; Weight Watchers, 12:15 p.m.; cards (Duplicate Bridge, Pinochle, Cribbage), 12:30 p.m.; Stitching Bees, 1 p.m.; open chess, 1 p.m.; Weight Watchers, 5:30 p.m.

Thursday: Silver Sneakers, 8:30 a.m.; Exercise with Evies Friends, 9 a.m.; cards (Pinochle), 12:30 p.m.; open chess, 1 p.m.; Zumba/Zumba Toning, 5:45 p.m.; Zumba/Zumba Toning, 7 p.m.

Friday: Closed

Weekly Card Results

Monday Bridge

No Results

Tuesday Duplicate Bridge

March 17, 4.5 tables

1st Gail Schmidt, 1st Ray Schmidt; 2nd Jim Fisher, 2nd Larry Crowe, 2nd Rick Stroup, 2nd Edna Knobe; 3rd Bud Higgins, 3rd Arnie Lang

Tuesday 500

March 17, three tables

1st Gene Rauen, 2nd Jerry Downing, 3rd Joyce Bakke, 4th Dorothy Stern

Pinochle

David Solomonson

Jaynard Johnson

Friday Bridge

March 20, three tables

1st Russ Vaale, 2nd Anne Duo yak, 3rd Dave Solomonson, 4th Lois Johnson, 5th Ella Rouhof

Wednesday Cribbage

March 18, 1.5 tables

1st Russ Vaale, 2nd John Karnes, 3rd Loretta Nelson

Friday 500

March 20, three tables

1st Jaynard Johnson, 2nd Wayne Chilson, 3rd Hilton Henschen, 4th Lois Anderson

Friday Cribbage

No Results