I’m excited to be back sharing this FREE 2021 expert brain health lecture series. You already know that much of my work is focused in this space. Well, this series is an incredible opportunity for you to advance your understanding of the brain and its marvelous ability to change and adapt. You’ll listen AT NO COST to four of the world’s leading brain health experts and pioneers, each TUESDAY evening in February (8:00-9:00 PM EST). Guys, these fab four are key insighters!
The lecture series is called “The Brain: An Owner’s Guide”.
Tag Archives: Obesity
Weight and Avocados (Replace Refined Carbs with Half or Whole Avocado)
Summary: Few studies look at the role of nutrient combinations (particularly fat and fiber) to enhance satiety. With avocados the rage now, many wonder about the impact on their waist from eating avocados because they are high in fat. What most don’t realize though is that avocados are inherently rich in fiber and that fiber/fat combo should remind you of another functional food (i.e., nuts) which have loads of documented health benefits! Spoiler alert: If you haven’t begun yet to add avocados to your meal, read on. This newly published study found that those replacing refined carbohydrates with fat and fiber (from avocado), as part of a meal, felt significantly less hungry and more satisfied after 6 hours, compared with those who ate a low-fat, high-carbohydrate meal. Spoiler alert: They also found that this group had a healthy metabolic hormonal response, and that combo can help mitigate overweight and obesity! In other words, isocaloric dietary manipulation with a whole avocado promotes favorable metabolic responses in addition to enhancing satiety and reducing motivation to eat. This study was a randomized three-arm crossover clinical trial, [Zhu et al 2019], and it published in the journal Nutrients. The researchers looked at how meals that SUBSTITUTE a half or whole fresh avocado for refined carbohydrates affects hunger and meal satisfaction both subjectively and physiologically over 6 hours, in overweight and obese adults. Many of us are eating low-fat, high-carbohydrate meals so from a practical standpoint, the population studied represents a typical cohort of middle-aged people at risk for cardio-metabolic disease—a point when realistic dietary changes can make a significant impact on reversing the disease risk trajectory. The cohort, N=31, was relatively healthy overweight or obese volunteers having elevated fasting insulin concentrations with insulin resistance [27]. Listen up –> The important physiological implications learned from the study was that the addition of avocado limited insulin and blood glucose excursions, and this correlated with an intestinal hormone called PYY which is an important messenger associated with the physiological response. What that means is that this study provides more evidence that adding healthy fats and fibers into a regular daily diet can modulate blood sugar and insulin spikes and that can reduce the risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Britt Burton-Freeman, Ph.D., the senior study author and director of the Center for Nutrition Research at Illinois Tech said, “The responses on the different satiety variables was surprising and helps us understand [or] think about how the fat and fiber may work to enhance satiety, even later, in the post-meal period.” End-game thought: E- A -T AVOCADOS in place of the refined carbs!
Diet, Dementia, Cognition, Alzheimer’s
SUMMARY: We’re excited to be presenting what the evidence finds for WHAT TO EAT, and WHAT NOT TO EAT, for BRAIN HEALTH! We will be at the beautiful Blue Ridge Region for the 2019 Virginia Council of Nurse Practitioner (VCNP) Annual Conference! IN the meantime, you win too because we decided to share a bonus here –>\0/ the prelude videoto our presentation, which is called “Add 7.5 yrs to Brainspan with MIND diet and SAGE Cognition Assessment Tool”. We also want to let you know that your response has been overwhelming for wanting us to bring our DIET, DEMENTIA, COGNITION, ALZHEIMER’S presentation to you! We’re here to dispel the brain age MYTH –> Those in their 40s and 50s realize that brain changes are occurring in the midlife time-frame. By 2050, 20% of the US population will be over age 65. One fifth will have mild cognitive impairment, increasing risk of Alzheimer’s. The Western diet is aging the brain faster than the Mediterranean diet as found on both MRI and PET imaging. You need to learn all about this! We’re booking now, so if you are interesting in having your group learn this powerful information, click here to contact us! And, just adding… they are also including our other Therapeutic Diet presentations for (1) Hypertension, Atherosclerosis, and Obesity, (2) IBS and Autoimmunity, and of course (3) Dementia, Cognition, and Alzheimer’s. You can learn about all of those programs here! Let’s hear from you today. Let’s move off DiseaseSpan and onto HealthSpan!
Intervention Diet Weight Loss Study
Summary: It is NOT calories in, calories out. This Intervention Diet Weight Loss Study is looking to show just that. It is being conducted by five prestigious universities: Framingham State University, Boston Children’s Hospital, Indiana University Bloomington, University of Alabama at Birmingham, and Baylor University! The study evaluates the effect of dietary carbohydrate and sugar consumption independent of energy content on body fatness and metabolism in a rigorous feeding study. The study looks at WHY diets high in total carbohydrate, with or without added sugar, acts through increased insulin secretion, all during substrate partitioning towards storage and body fat, leading to increased hunger, slower metabolism, and accumulation of body fat. This is a randomized controlled feeding study involving 128 adults with BMI between 27 to 40. The test diets include very low carbohydrate (about 70% fat), High carbohydrate low sugar (25% fat, 0% added sugar), and high carbohydrate high sugar (about 25% fat, 20% added sugars).
CME MICROBIOME Questions & Answers
SUMMARY: CME MICROBIOME Questions is where the rubber meets the road! I learn what you really take away from the evidence packed Introduction to Microbiome presentation!!! Not only was it a GREAT turnout for the CME MICROBIOME, DISEASE, THERAPEUTICS, NUTRITION held OCT 25, 2017 in Pittsburgh, at Passavant Hospital (see this post for details), but the questions asked by these medical providers were spot on! Read below for some of the Q&A with focus on: What to do if on the “Avoid Diet”, the MIND Diet and Dementia Prevention, fermented foods, and the ketogenic diet — MACS, fruit and weight! The Therapeutic Manipulation of Microbiome slide (see below) shows how microbiome nourishingly sick the Standard America Diet is. Some call this diet void of MACs, or microbiota-accessible carbohydrates, leaving the microbiome to nosh on our carb-rich mucus gut lining, when dietary pickings get slim. [Desai et al 2016] This CME crowd took their first ever pass into the anaerobic world of this newly discovered organ and saw its systemic body-wide devastating health impact when the gut lining becomes compromised (see the below slide) ⇒ The next step is to learn our bolt on presentations of evidence based therapeutic diet ⇔ lifestyle changes that can move this organ to health. ♥ You want great timely, current, incredible microbiome and nutrition CME programs because microbiome information is what your medical professionals NEED to stay cutting edge current in understanding how to help patients keep (or move) off diseasespan! Click here to contact us
Businesses (especially self insured) looking to reduce healthcare costs, can contact us too because microbiome information is what your employees NEED to hear to keep (or move) them off diseasespan. Individuals and other groups wanting to hear this information can also CONTACT us to make that happen! See here for our SERVICES!
CME MICROBIOME Questions & Answers
I’m on the ‘Avoid’ Diet. “What do you recommend I do to get off that diet?“
First, the ‘Avoid Diet’ is on my ending slide, shown below! Generally, it is associated with the most restrictive elimination diet, Wahl’s Protocol, having research including clinical trial for neurological based MS as well as grants written for study for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) and ALS. I explained that ALL of the healing diets meld together in that they are =&0=&. David Katz, MD noted the same, Oct 2017, in “Awakening From Alzheimer’s”, Episode 11. Further, he explained that what we can ALL agree on resolves over 80 percent of the health concerns as shown by the North Karelia Project (Finland). Consider the ‘Avoid Diet’ tenets as food for thought when health isn’t restored. I totally ♥ this question because it shows that my presentation motivated this doc to rethink diet and instilled desire to act to get off the path leading to diseasespan! Patient microbiome awareness education nudges nearer, and that is so necessary!
“Don’t ever underestimate the public — the key issue is lack of knowledge about microbes, not lack of intelligence,”
—Ed Yong keynote, October’s 2017 MoBE.
My suggestions were:
- Quitting things cold turkey can be hard. I don’t recommend it!
- Try eliminating the bad by crowding it out with better alternatives!
- You cannot make the transition over night.
- The tools I provide really help! The Interactive Fiber Spreadsheet teaches what YOUR fiber loads are and especially those supporting your beasties. The EASY 10 Day Journal Spreadsheet teaches you what YOUR proportion of meats, dairy… and most important, processed and prepared foods are. Those usually contain gut harming emulsifiers [see this post], sweeteners, and other additives as well as low quality antibiotic and hormone laced meat and dairy protein and pesticide laced vegetables and fruits. The worksheet listings of vegs and fruits (Wahl’s Protocol and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute Phytonutrient PDF) helps you bump up your intake. Target 30 different vegs each week for microbiome diversity [see this post]. There are 21 meals in one week (3 each day). Think about eating a different vegetable or two at each meal!
- You can’t stop everything you are doing if you aren’t prepared to replace it with healthier alternatives. You need some recipes.
- I already armed you with a bank of recipes! Use my Pinterest Boards to learn what to eat and how to cook redic delic family and friend approved whole real microbiome friendly food. Focus on eliminating processed foods (having gut harming additives like emulsifiers) and increasing vegs!
- Certain vegs contain microbiota-accessible carbohydrates, or MACs, which nourish the beasties towards anti-inflammatory, and provides them food so that they don’t nosh on our carb-rich mucus gut lining, when dietary pickings get slim. [Desai et al 2016] The post, Fiber Additives Starve Gut Gut Microbes, They Eat Mucus Lining helps to explain.
- Contact me if recipes alone are not getting you where you want!
Healing Diet similarity
The top healing diets in each category share similar attributes including balance, higher vegetable and some fruit (especially low sugar like berries, avocados), wild caught fish/increased Omega-3s, fermented food, awareness of EWG toxin recommendations, along with self-awareness and monitoring of what you eat through journaling, and most important, finding a like-minded tribe of experienced healing diet eaters able to support your learning thereby establishing Blue Zones within families, to friends, to communities. =&1=& An emphasis on frequent, structured exercise and physical activity are also common themes.
With awareness of the many tenets of healing type diets and lifestyle impact on the microbiome, small diet and lifestyle changes result in big health improvement without the perceived rigidity of following a traditional diet plan, and these changes motivate you to your NEXT. – much is an excerpt from my post, What’s in a Practical Whole Foods PALEO, SCD, GAPS Healing Fridge?
Replicate the MODEL that WORKS for people successfully implementing diet change:
Experienced Eaters TEACH ‘Need to Know’ =&2=&
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Preserve & Restore Loss of Microbiome Diversity is Aggressive Preventative Medicine
SUMMARY: Aggressive Preventative Medicine means preserving the microbiome you have and restoring any loss incurred. See how far that thought goes with your doctor! Diet really does work to alter the microbiome and can help to restore loss of microbiome; for example, fermented kimchi actually positively impacted metabolic syndrome factors including systolic and diastolic blood pressures, percent body fat, fasting glucose, and total cholesterol.
⇒⇒ This post teaches how to reduce the loss of microbiome diversity and restore such – crowding out concept.