Delay Brain Aging by 11 Years???

I am not a foodie. I loathe and detest cooking shows.  I believe they contribute to the obesity epidemic. When I see a TV chef blithely throw together a cup of sugar, a stick of butter and a cup of worthless white flour in a recipe, I mentally gag. I equally loathe and detest most “food” commercials on TV. Yes, the Pillsbury doughboy is cute but what he is selling is junk. No wonder we are sick and losing our minds. And don’t get me started on nutritionally bankrupt “breakfast cereals”.

Conscientious but ill-informed parents send Johnny to school on a bowl of that sugary stuff advertised on TV and then they wonder why Johnny fidgets, can’t focus, is diagnosed with ADD and put on medication. Perhaps Johnny needs some real food to help nourish his brain and developing body? Apparently that would help. Harvard’s Dr. Charles Popper, who recently published an 80 page review in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics of North America medical journal entitled Single-Micronutrient and Broad-Spectrum Micronutrient Approaches for Treating Mood Disorders in Youth and Adults, reported, “I have many patients who previously required close medication management on conventional drugs, but who now check in every 3 to 12 months with little symptomatology to report.”

Wow. That’s a lot of loathing, detesting, and foot stomping, isn’t it? But you know I’m right, right? Hold on. There is more pouty petulance ahead.

Not only am I not a foodie, I don’t like to cook. However, I do passionately care about my health so I take care to try to eat what is nutritious. It doesn’t matter if it’s not particularly tasty. I’m a big girl and know how to take my medicine regardless of what it tastes like. I have learned it’s’ possible to  develop a preference for most anything (except slimy mushrooms — ugh! and yes, I know how nutritious they are).

My preference for breakfast is a cup of coffee to wash down my supplements, eggs, an English muffin slathered with organic butter and organic strawberry jam. But good grief. What a pain to prepare and clean up after it’s eaten! It’s too much trouble. I feel exhausted just thinking about it. And  besides, that English muffin, butter, and jam is a no-no. Therefore, I may fantasize about that “all American” breakfast but I consume something different.

I drink my breakfast consisting of a huge (and I do mean huge) handful of kale, some ginger root, strawberries, blueberries, a squirt of MCT (medium chain triglycerides), carrot, almond milk and protein powder. Every day it’s pretty much the same thing. It’s a nuisance to clean the blender, but it’s a small price to pay for all that goodness. And, it’s quite tasty! (Frozen organic blueberries and strawberries are available pretty much all year at Costco. You gotta love Costco.)

How to delay brain aging by 11 years

What this is all about is an article in the April 2016 Life Extension Magazine, “How to Delay Brain Aging by 11 Years” by William Faloon. If you read it and don’t resolve to get your nutrition act together you are doing yourself a grave disservice.

Faloon reports on a study conducted by researchers at Rush University. They studied over 900 people, ages 58 to 98 years, and followed them on average for 4.5 years. Three different diets were evalu­ated: the Mediterranean diet, the DASH diet, and a hybrid of the Mediterranean-DASH diets called the MIND diet. The research­ers then looked at the effects of these three diets on the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

The researchers comprehensively adjusted for poten­tial confounding factors such as age, gender, education, APOE4 (the genetic risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease), pre-existing cardiovascu­lar problems, physical activity, and total dietary energy intake.

Results of their study analysis showed remarkable benefits for each of the diets, in particular for those folks  who closely followed the MIND diet with its emphasis on berries and green vegetables.

The highest level of compliance with the MIND diet resulted in a highly significant 52% reduction in the rate of developing Alzheimer’s disease compared with partici­pants with the lowest level of MIND dietary compliance.

In my opinion, this is awesome, mind-blowing information. If you care about your mental health now and in the future, perhaps it’s time to toughen up and start eating what’s good for you including (gag) mushrooms instead of what TV chefs and TV advertising encourage you to eat.

So,  here is the article link in Life Extension Magazine. Read it and be motivated to improve your health in one of the easiest ways possible.