Objective Consumption of saturated (SAFA) and polyunsaturated fats (PUFA), cholesterol and fiber have been linked with cognitive function in adults; weevaluated these associations in children by leveraging data from the Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP).

Study design STRIP recruited children aged 5 months, and randomly assigned them into intervention/control groups. The intervention introduced a heart-healthy diet, characterized mainly by low consumption of SAFA and cholesterol, via at least biannual counselling between the ages of 7 months and 20 years. Diet was repeatedly assessed using food diaries. Six years after the intervention phase had ceased, the participants were invited to the first postintervention follow-up (at age 26 years) including cognitive testing that covered learning and memory, verbal memory, short-term working memory, reaction time, information processing, and cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control. We studied the associations of the STRIP intervention and the consumptions of SAFA, PUFA, cholesterol and fiber within these cognitive domains.

Results Participants in the STRIP intervention group had better cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control and were better able to manage conflicting information and ignore taskirrelevant information (0.18SDs higher in the intervention group, adjusted for sex and socioeconomic status). No associations were observed with the dietary components studied.

Conclusions The infancy-onset STRIP intervention, which promoted a heart-healthy diet was favorably associated with cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control at the age of 26. No associations were found for the intervention targets studied, indicating that these specific dietary components did not underlie the observed intervention effect.