Interim entry on- What should I eat to protect my brain health?

 

Interim entry on- What should I eat to protect my brain health?

For the last month, I have been working on trying to make ivermectin available to Canadians https://vitamindcovid.blogspot.com/2021/03/ivermectin-petition.html; consequently, I have not been able to concentrate on my blog to improve my health. I plan to make several more entries in this blog although I still can’t spend as much time on it as would like. In fact, after I post this entry, I will probably return to it a few times to correct it and to elaborate.

The question of what to eat is a bit more complicated than simply making an outline of my diet. It’s probably worthwhile considering food in two main categories- macronutrients and micronutrients. In the first category, there would be carbohydrates, fats and proteins, and in the second category everything else that is consumed in smaller quantities, such as minerals and vitamins. I plan to address minerals and vitamins in subsequent blog entries; there is a lot of interesting information out there as I am learning and there is also a lot that we don’t know leaving plenty of room for research.

Some food pundits like to say that there are essential fatty acids and essential amino acids but no essential carbohydrates; in their view carbohydrates can be considered as an optional food category. Not surprisingly this opinion comes from adherents of the ketogenic diets. There is a pretty good argument for the sugar in our collective current diets being responsible for much of the chronic diseases of contemporary Canada (and other wealthy countries). Over the last many years, I have changed my diet to contain less sugar and am conscious of the glycemic index of food. Since I became the “chief cook and bottle washer” in our house, I have gradually decreased the overall glycemic index (and insulin demand) of our food and increased the fat content. Even before I started planning our meals, we had decreased our meat/protein intake; it’s still probably above what our bodies need but it tastes good. Ref. Holt et al, An insulin index of foods: the insulin demand generated y 1000-kJ portions of common foods. Am J Cln Nutr 1997: 66: 1264-76. If you know of more information insulin index of foods, please let me know directly in the comments section of the blog.

Back to fasting. After reading about the potential of fasting to improve brain health and mentioning it to Susie, she started a daily fast of ~16 hours starting after dinner each evening. When she told me, I had to jump on board a couple days later; both us were soon fasting ~16 hours and eating in an 8-hour window each day. I am a habitual evening snacker and I thought that this daily fast might be impossible to do but it turned out to be surprisingly easy. This could be a result of replacing some carbohydrate with fat, which is digested somewhat slower. After a couple weeks of this 16:8 fasting:eating schedule, I found that I was losing weight much to my dismay. Subsequently, I heard Dr. Jason Fung suggest that occasional full-day fasting might be a good alternative for those not wanting lose weight. For the last several weeks, we have tried fasting for 24 hours once every two weeks- from after dinner one day until dinner the next. During the fasting period, I consume only water and “bullet-proof coffee”; the latter is black coffee with medium chain fatty acids added in the form of butter and coconut oil. As long as I don’t think about food, this type of fasting is also not that difficult. One such fasting day, we happened to have walked about 30 km and we didn’t feel weak or exhausted. Unfortunately, even this occasional fasting causes me to lose weight so I might have to give it up and try something else.

A typical day’s meals (pictures below for interest). Breakfast- orange/orange juice, black coffee, toast (Susie’s multigrain+ bread) with lots of peanut butter (at least 5 mm) and a little jam. Lunch- leftovers or any conglomeration that includes all three of carbohydrate, protein and fat; thick carrot or lentil soup works. Dinner- Protein such as beef, chicken, pork or legumes; Carbohydrate such as sweet potato, steamed rice/quinoa, pasta; Vegetables usually alternating between a large salad and large serving of sauteed mixed vegetables; raw and cooked alternation.  The upper picture shows a full meal of vegetables, protein and carbohydrates; the lower picture shows the salad for a day when our vegetables are eaten raw.