Max Lugavere's 'A Food-First Prescription for Cognitive Longevity' — published in Missouri Medicine

Max Lugavere’s sole-authored Perspective article, “A Food-First Prescription for Cognitive Longevity,” appeared in Missouri Medicine (the Missouri State Medical Association journal), May/June 2026 issue, and is free full-text on PubMed Central. In the paper, Lugavere frames dementia prevention as “food-first” clinical medicine, arguing that nutrient-dense, minimally processed diets — plus adequate protein intake of 1.2–1.6 g/kg/day — should be treated as front-line neuroprotection.

The article builds explicitly on the framework of his 2018 book Genius Foods. Lugavere defends unprocessed lean red meat, eggs, olive oil, fatty fish, and carotenoid-rich produce in the paper, while calling out ultra-processed foods and refined seed oils — though on seed oils his language is more cautious than in earlier public commentary, noting that long-term neurological consequences of chronically high linoleic acid intake remain uncertain and warrant further study. Per the dossier, this is Lugavere’s most substantive 2026 work product; he is a self-described health/science journalist, not a credentialed clinician, and the piece is a Perspective article rather than original clinical research.

Timeline

• 2018 — Lugavere publishes Genius Foods, the book the 2026 paper explicitly builds on.
• May/June 2026 — The Perspective article is published in Missouri Medicine and made freely available in full text on PubMed Central.
• 2026 — The paper becomes the cited backbone of his public positions on foods, protein targets, and dementia prevention across that year’s interviews.