Power foods for the brain - Neal Barnard
Context: Dr. Barnard's father passed away due to Alzheimer's, so he understands and explains the way it ravages a human of their identity. If you lose your memories, you lose yourself. Current wisdom knows that this disease has a clear genetic base, your chances of getting it increasing 3X to 15X depending on if you got one or two copies of the responsible gene from your parents.
Takeaways:
- Alzheimer's (henceforth Alz) happens because of the formation of plaques, the constitution of which includes "Beta-Amyloid Proteins" that accumulate in meatball structures in your neurons, iron, and copper
- Saturated fats are horrible, especially the kind that solidifies at temperature (Bacon grease).
- Dairy products are the highest source of Saturated fats (2nd is meat)
- People who ate double the amount of bad fat, their risk of developing Alz is 3X higher
- Similar finding for mild cognitive impairment (high functioning, but forget names and words) and they found the same pattern as Alz
- Iron and copper is an important part of our body, but:
- Iron is a double edges sword, too much is bad
- If you are using a cast-iron pan, then you are getting iron into your diet. Same with water that transports from copper pipes. The free agents and ions travel into your body and get assimilated into your body
- Vitamin E (mangos, spinach, avocado) is a natural extinguisher - knocks out the free radicals
- Cannot get from a store, because there's many forms in nature. If you ingest artificial supplements your body only absorbs that version and shuts off the absorption of all others. Hence get it from food, nature intended that way
- Don't eat nuts as snack food, crumble and use in salad
- Colorful foods are awesome, very rich in antioxidants. eg: Blueberry, grapes. carrots, apples
- Staples - fruits, legumes, grains and vegetables
- Exercise helps all bodily functions, memory benefits from it too (even something as simple as a 10 minute week)
- Genes are not destiny