Context: Optimizing cognitive performance and preventing cognitive impairments that result from exposure to high-stress situations are important to ensure mission-readiness for military personnel.
Objective: This systematic review assesses the quality of the evidence for plant-based foods and beverages, or their phytochemical constituents, across various outcomes related to cognitive function in healthy adult populations to develop research recommendations for the military.
Data sources: PubMed, CINAHL, Embase, PsycInfo, and the Cochrane Library were searched.
Study selection: Peer-reviewed randomized controlled trials published in the English language were eligible.
Data extraction: Twenty-five trials were included and assessed for methodological quality, and descriptive data were extracted.
Data synthesis: The acceptable (n = 16) to high-quality (n = 4) studies produced either no statistically significant effect or mixed results for enhancing cognitive function.
Conclusions: The evidence suggested that healthy populations do not experience significant changes in cognitive performance when consuming soy- and non-soy-sourced isoflavones or cocoa. Heterogeneity among other interventions precluded reaching formal conclusions surrounding the evidence. Research recommendations are offered, including conducting more studies on the effect of plant-based interventions on populations reflective of military populations when exposed to military-like situations.
Keywords: cocoa; cognitive brain function; diet; healthy; isoflavones; military; mission-readiness; phytochemicals; soy; systematic review.
© The Author(s) 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Life Sciences Institute. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.