The ongoing study published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society (JAGS) by a team comprised of researchers from the Department of Odontology and the Aging Research Center (ARC) at Karolinska Institute and from Karlstad University has brought light to a very important issue. They looked at tooth loss, chewing ability and cognitive function on a sample of 557 people aged 77 or older. One of the main things they found out was that those who had difficulty chewing hard foods such as apples were at significantly higher risk of developing cognitive impairment (dementia). This correlation remained even when controlling for sex, age, education and many other variables that could have affected the level of cognition.