Every year we are continually being told here’s the best way to eat for your health.  The information is ever changing and has been conflicting as well.  No wonder American’s are having such a hard time with optimizing their health.  How do you really know which “diet” is the best and if it’s going to be a lasting one or if it’s just the next latest fad?  Based on research that has been in existence for decades and has been proven over and over, I believe the following way of eating is the best path to take for not only improving brain health but for optimizing your overall health. Research is showing the over-consumption of carbohydrates is having a profound negative impact on brain health.  The worst of these are grains.  I know, that’s not exciting to read at all but it is the truth.  We were not meant to consume 60% of our diet in the form of carbohydrates.  This amount stresses our pancreas, makes us become insulin resistant, heads us down the path towards diabetes and ultimately destroys, or glycosylates, the proteins in our body – they are nutrient transporters, messengers and are necessary for every process in the body to function properly.  Science has already proven that if you end up with diabetes, you are twice as likely to end up with dementia/Alzheimer’s disease.  Dr. David Perlmutter, MD would like to rename dementia/Alzheimer’s as diabetes type 3.  The longer the body is over-exposed to carbohydrates in excess, the likelihood of dementia/Alzheimer’s increases drastically. Now, I’m not saying you should not consume any carbohydrates either.  The amount and the kind really matters.

Let’s talk grains for a moment.  First of all, as a species, we really were not meant to consume grains in such large amounts.  However, we’ve been being told for the past 50+ years that we need to be eating grains at every meal and that whole grains are the best option.  I use to think the same thing.  Whole grains were better for us because they had more nutritional value but also because they had a lower glycemic index (the rate at which the food is converted into sugar in our body).  However, there’s more to the glycemic index than what we first were taught.  Initially, the focus was just on how quickly a food was converted into sugar in our body and how high it would spike our blood sugar.  For example, plain white potatoes have a very high glycemic index value because they are converted to sugar almost immediately.  We’ve been taught that we want to stick to the lower glycemic foods to help avoid things like diabetes.  Well, guess what?  This has only been part of the story.  The glycemic index not only looks at how quickly foods are converted to sugar and how high they spike our blood glucose levels, but also how long does it keep our blood glucose levels spiked.  This is the other part we’ve been missing.  When you add this component in, it changes everything we’ve been being taught.  Dr. David Perlmutter, MD likes to put up a slide at his lectures that shows a picture of a tablespoon of sugar, a snickers bar, a piece of white bread and a piece of whole wheat bread.  He asks the audience to rank them in order from healthiest to least healthy.  How would you rank them?  Based upon what we’ve all been taught, most people would say the whole wheat bread is the healthiest and say the sugar or snickers bar is the worst.  Guess what, that’s wrong.  Now, no one is advocating the consumption of candy, but the snickers bar would be the best option out of the 4 and the whole wheat piece of bread is the worst.  Why?  The whole wheat bread will keep the blood glucose levels elevated the longest.  It’s worse than the white piece of bread!!  I know!  That’s not at all what we’ve been being taught!  The snickers bar is the best because it has fat and protein in it which helps to lower the glycemic index. So, here’s the scoop on grains; they are the only foods that have even higher glycemic index values than straight sugar.  Gluten is gaining more and more validation as to why, even if you’re not sensitive/allergic to it, it should not be consumed.  But guess what, the gluten-free grains are the worst of all grains!  Now, I’m definitely not suggesting to stick to your gluten-containing grains either.  I just want to clarify that gluten-free definitely does not necessarily mean it’s healthy for you.  If you switch out your daily gluten-containing blueberry muffin for a gluten-free version, you’re actually stressing the body more due to the higher glycemic index value of the gluten-free grains.  Obviously, you might be catching on that I’m not a fan of grains at all.  Let’s not get hung up on this though just yet.

Instead, let’s focus on what you want to be adding more of into your everyday lifestyle.  I’m not going to refer to this as a diet either.  Diets suggest temporary eating changes.  This needs to be a way of life.  The following needs to become your new way of eating for the rest of your life to ensure the health of your brain and every other system in your body. Research has shown since even before our food pyramid was switched and the 60% of caloric intake from carbohydrates was adopted that diets high in healthy fats and proteins and low in carbohydrates had the best overall results.  These results included blood makers like cholesterol levels, triglycerides, and glucose levels, blood pressure improvements, overall body composition improvements as well.  Studies date back to even 1968 dispelling the notion that low-fat diets are ideal.  In 1968, the International Atherosclerosis Project examined twenty-two thousand corpses from fourteen nations and found that it didn’t matter whether people ate large amounts of fatty animal products or followed a mostly vegetarian diet – the prevalence of arterial plaque was the same in all parts of the world, both in those with high rates of heart disease and in populations with little to no heart disease. (International Atherosclerosis Project, “General Findings of the International Atherosclerosis Project,” Laboratory Investigatioin 18, no. 5 (May 1968): 498-502).  The root cause of brain disease and obesity are the same.  To keep it simple, uncontrolled blood sugar turns on the inflammatory cascade.  If you’d like to read more on the relationship, one of my favorite resources is “Grain Brain” by Dr. David Perlmutter.  He details out all of the research and since behind this relationship.  If you eat for optimizing brain health, you’ll optimize you’re overall health. Start eating a “modified” Mediterranean diet or follow the Paleo eating plans out there and you will soon see your health begin to improve all around.

To begin, focus on adding in more of the healthy things instead on focusing on what you can’t have.  This will make for an easier transition and won’t leave you feeling so deprived.  You want to focus more on consuming nutrient dense foods and less on calories.  You should be eating about 50% or more of  your calories from good fats – coconut oil, grass-fed butter, ghee, avocado oil and olive oil (NEVER heat olive oil!  It’s too unstable and basically goes rancid as soon as you heat it.)  About 30% of your calories should be coming from healthy proteins – grass-fed beef is GREAT, poultry, fish, etc.  The main focus needs to be on CLEAN sources of your foods.  I will talk more about the effects of GMO’s, non-organic, hybridized foods down the road.  As far as carbohydrates go, you should only be consuming about 10-20% of your calories as carbs.  Focus on consuming predominantly vegetables and eat less fruits.  Eat as much of the veggies that grow above the ground as you want.  Eat less of the ones that grow beneath the ground as they have higher sources of carbohydrates, limit to a few times per week.  The fruits you can have on a daily basis are probably not recognized as fruits in your mind.  They include tomatoes, avocados, bell peppers, all squash, lemons and limes.  Berries are by far your best option if you’re actually wanting something more fruit-like.  The rest, keep more at a minimum again as a result of carbohydrate content.  Once you’ve got these steps implemented, then start working on minimizing your grain/sugar consumption.  There are many great resources on appropriate substitutions out there.  Some of the people I love to get recipes from include Danielle Walker from Against All Grains, her cookbooks are FANTASTIC, “Make Ahead Paleo” is one of our other favorite cookbooks.  We will also be posting more recipes right here for you all that follow this thought process.  One of my favorite kitchen gadgets since switching my way of eating is the Paderno Spiralizer.  If you have any questions or are needing any further explanation or guidance, please reach out.  We’re here to help you become the healthiest version of yourself and to help improve the overall health of your family as well.  You can do it!

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