A recent study reveals that adherence to a Mediterranean-style diet may significantly modulate dementia risk, even among individuals carrying high-risk Alzheimer’s gene variants.

A study using data from more than 5,700 people gathered over 34 years found that the participants who stuck to the Mediterranean diet were less likely to wind up with dementia. But the biggest benefit cropped up in the people who had the highest genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease—those with two copies of the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) variant.