Diet, Dementia & Depression

Date: November 9th, 2017

Diet and nutrition are integral to all components of health, including mental health. This presentation will provide an overview of the evidence with respect to prevention of dementia and depression in later life. Common characteristics of anti-inflammatory, MIND, Blue Zones and Mediterranean diets will be discussed. For those with advanced dementia, mealtimes as an activity to promote quality of life will also be discussed.

About the Presenters:

Dr. Heather Keller is the Schlegel Research Chair in Nutrition & Aging at the University of Waterloo and scientist with Agri-food for Healthy Aging. Research programs cross the continuum of care and are focused on improving the nutritional status and food intake of older adults. As Co-Chair of the Canadian Malnutrition Task Force (CMTF), Heather leads an interprofessional team mandated to promote the prevention, detection and treatment of malnutrition in Canada. Current projects include More-2-Eat, an implementation project designed to advance nutrition care practices in hospitals. Heather also leads the Making the Most of Mealtimes (M3) research group and a recently completed prevalence study identifies multifactorial determinants of food intake in long-term care.  As Chair of the Canadian Malnutrition Task Force (CMTF), she leads an interprofessional team focused on improving the identification and treatment of malnutrition in the acute care setting.