Most nutrition experts recommend at five least servings of fruits and vegetables each day for maintaining good health. A new study now supports the brain health benefits of daily salad consumption.

Scientists from Rush University Medical Center’s Memory and Aging Project assessed the mental abilities and eating habits of nearly 1,000 older adults over a five-year period.

Each year, participants completed an extensive questionnaire to record their eating habits. Researchers also performed a battery of mental evaluations to determine subjects’ memory and other cognitive abilities.

Consuming just one or two servings of vegetables led to significant slowing of cognitive decline compared with not eating any leafy greens.

Researchers are not sure of the mechanism, but the effect of consuming greens was clearly apparent from the new study.

Participants who ate just one or two daily servings of leafy greens showed a mental performance level comparable to someone a decade younger who did not eat leafy greens.

Although vitamin K is high on the list of nutrients that may be boosting brain health, the study does not prove that taking vitamin K supplements will offer the same benefit since other nutrients in greens that are associated with vitamin K may be the ultimate memory bolstering ingredients.