Do you know what the best diet is?
It seems that would depend upon what your goal is. Aren’t you tired of those wishy-washy answers?…Even worse is well, this is the best diet for everyone, guaranteed to lose 4 pounds a week until…until you are a beach-body.” — Yeah, right. Or, how about, ” We know know that the food and diet which was all the rage last year is now the worst thing you can possibly do, this year.” Or, “if you eat whatever you want, as long as you don’t eat any carbs when you eat protein, and nothing sweet with anything other than carrots, except every other Saturday, if the moon is half full or more.”
It can get really confusing and frustrating. I was confused too. I had gone down a couple sincere, well-intentioned rabbit trails when I was younger. Now I know they were not good, and perhaps even harmful.
I want to help you avoid that.
When someone calls to ask if we have a diet program for them, it is usually to address their diabetes or body fat. Believe it or not, we have had a couple ladies who wanted to GAIN weight, specifically body fat. –not too many folks with that problem, huh? Lately, I have been working with people looking to prevent or reverse dementia. I will have much more to tell you about that in the coming weeks.
For now, we won’t concern ourselves with these questions: “Well, are you trying to gain weight or lose weight…or just maintain health?” ” Are you pre-diabetic?” “Do you have a family history of heart disease?” “Are you trying to prevent dementia?”
It turns out that there is a relatively simple answer.
Short Version:
- Proper eating is one of the most critical influences on brain health. The same factors that affect diabetes affect brain health.
- As of 2015, the M.I.N.D. (Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay) diet is the most healthy diet for the brain, being able to postpone dementia for years.
- Our Synergistic Steps to a Healthy Brain, featuring the healthy Brain Score is a great place to learn a personalized plan that will benefit you the most. (more about that in future posts)
- For now, use this table below as a checklist of how well you are doing and a target for next week and next month.
Sweets (Sweet desserts, Soda-like drinks,etc) 0-1 x / wk Fish (Sardines[herring], Mackerel, Salmon) 2 + x / wk Red meat and meat products < 4x / wk Cheese <1x / wk Legumes (Beans, Peas, Lentils) 4 + x / wk OLIVES, NUTS, & SEEDS 5 + x / wk HERBS, GARLIC, or ONIONS 4+ d / wk BERRIES (or tomatoes or peppers) 2+ x / wk GREEN LEAFY VEGETABLES (Spinach, Kale, Chard, etc.) 6+ x / wk Other vegetables 7 days / wk OLIVE OIL is the main oil you use Fast Food < 1x/ wk Eat while sitting & socializing with family or friends 4+ days/wk Water 30% of wt, in oz H2O Red wine 0-1 glass/d
Eating Plan: M.I.N.D. + Glycemic plan
A good resource for this is Grain Brain, by Dr. Perlmutter. In this book, he will give sample menu plan for a wk. He also has a cookbook for added ideas.
Benefit:
Significantly less risk for dementia (by 53%)1, heart disease, diabetes, a and other degenerative diseases.
Reference:
- Reduce your risk of dementia by 53% just by eating and drinking well: (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25681666)
