Health Habits

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Posts Tagged ‘carbohydrates’

Is Your Diet Making You Stoopid?

January 5th, 2009

New research shows that type 2 diabetics suffer from impaired cognition.

More specifically, type 2 diabetics show significant impairment in the areas of:

Executive Functioning, and
Speed

Executive Functioning

Executive function refers to the business of making decisions and carrying them out, as when one is deliberately trying to solve a problem.

Executive functions include identifying problems, making decisions, planning, staying focused on a task, adapting flexibly to changing situations, controlling impulses, and regulating emotions and behavior.

Executive functions are important for moment-to-moment activities, and for activities that take place over longer periods.

Example:

Let’s say a typically overweight type 2 diabetic reads about this study and decides that he/she had better do something about their condition.

So, they decide to change their diet and get back into shape.

In order to solve this weight loss / health problem, they need the “executive function” part of their mind to co-ordinate all of steps required for a successful transformation.

Identify Problems – Their diet has resulted in diabetes and impaired brain function.
Making Decisions – Do they want to change?
Planning – What do they need to do to cure their type 2 diabetes? Research & plan implementation
Staying focused on a task – Most New Year’s Resolutions have already been broken.
Adapting to changing situations – What happens when weight loss stops?
Controlling impulses – Can you resist your sugar cravings?
Regulating emotions and behavior – Sugar withdrawal is not a pretty sight. Think “temper tantrum”

Speed

Speed refers to, well…speed.

How…fast…can..you…think?

Conclusions

According to the researchers: “Speed and executive functioning are thought to be among the major components of cognitive health.”

With Type 2 diabetes a growing concern among adults of all ages, but especially those above age 30, lead researcher Roger Dixon recommends that we:

Check the cognitive status of people with more advanced or severe cases
Ensure that diet and medications are effectively employed in all early diagnosed cases; and
Enact possible cognitive monitoring or training programs for people with diabetes.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, new cases of diabetes nearly doubled in the past decade, with nearly one new case for every 100 adults between the years 2005 and 2007.

And if that wasn’t bad enough…

Diabetes is a known risk factor for late-life neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s.

Although the deficits detected in the current sample were not clinically significant, they appear (according to subsequent research by the authors) to foreshadow additional deficits. Only further study would reveal whether it’s possible to “connect the dots” between mild early deficits in speed and executive function, and later signs of a progressive cognitive impairment.

My Recommendations

Stop eating processed carbs
Stop drinking processed carbs
Eat real food

For more specific tips, take a look at the links below.

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Is Your Diet Giving You Alzheimer's Disease?

September 29th, 2008

For the past 20 years, scientists have wondered whether Alzheimer’s Disease might be a neuro-endocrine disorder, like diabetes.

In 2005, Dr. Suzanne de la Monte had a breakthrough.

During her research, she made two discoveries:

the brain makes its own insulin, and

Alzheimer’s disease depletes insulin

Based on these discoveries, Dr. de la Monte went beyond theorizing that there is a connection between Diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

She actually identified the Alzheimer’s Disease process as Type 3 Diabetes.

What Is Type 3 Diabetes?

To understand Type 3 diabetes, you have to understand Types 1 and 2. So, bear with me for a minute while I give you a refresher course on Diabetes.

Type 1 Diabetes.

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease. An autoimmune disease results when the body’s system for fighting infection (the immune system) turns against a part of the body. In diabetes, the immune system attacks and destroys the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. The pancreas then produces little or no insulin. A person who has type 1 diabetes must take insulin daily to live.

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Type 2 Diabetes

.Type 2 diabetes is the most common form of diabetes. About 90 to 95 percent of people with diabetes have type 2. This form of diabetes is most often associated with older age, obesity, family history of diabetes, previous history of gestational diabetes, physical inactivity, and certain ethnicities. About 80 percent of people with type 2 diabetes are overweight.

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Type 3 Diabetes

.Insulin has numerous functions within your body.

The most well known function is that it helps convert food into energy.

What you may not know is that insulin is also active in your brain.

It helps us to learn and to make new memories.

Here’s how it works:

In the spaces across which brain cells communicate (called Synapses) and where memories are conceived, neurons reserve special parking spots just for insulin.

When the hormone pulls in, a connection is made that enables new memories to form.

Since new memory formation is one of the first things to go awry in people with early stages of Alzheimer’s Disease, this insulin-initiated process has been a popular research topic for neuro-scientists for the past 20 years.

In August, a team of scientists at Northwestern University were the first to show why the brain’s “memory function” fails in the face of an insulin shortage.

Earlier research had already identified the culprit: toxic proteins called amyloid beta-derived diffusible ligands (ADDL), which are known to pile up in the brains of people with Alzheimer’s.

Scientists also knew that Alzheimer’s patients’ brains have lower levels of insulin and are insulin resistant.

But what the Northwestern team discovered is the molecular mechanism behind that resistance: when ADDLs bind to neurons at synapses, they obliterate the receptors that are normally reserved for insulin.

Without those parking spaces on the brain cells’ surface, insulin has no place to connect, and memory fails.

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So Where Do The ADDLs Come From?

The ADDLs are a side effect of inflammation in the brain.

So Where Does The Brain Inflammation Come From?

The brain inflammation is a result of high insulin levels.

So Where Do The High Insulin Levels Come From?

High Insulin levels are produced when we eat a diet high in carbohydrates.

More specifically, a diet that consists of meal after meal of high glycemic load foods results in:

high blood sugar,
high insulin levels,
Metabolic Syndrome,
Type 2 Diabetes, and now, thanks to the wonders of science,

Type 3 Diabetes / Alzheimer’s Disease.

And if you don’t believe that high insulin levels are the culprit behind those nasty little ADDLs

The Research

University of Washington researcher Dr. Suzanne Craft and her research team signed up 16 very brave volunteers to test this hypothesis.

These men and women, ranging in age from 55 to 81, let research doctors give them two-hour infusions of both insulin and sugar. This kept their blood sugar at normal levels while creating the same kind of high insulin levels seen in people with insulin resistance.

Insulin resistance is a common symptom of people who eat the typical American diet. Though to be fair, it is not just Americans who eat this way. Like many other cultural contributions, the Golden Arches et al have spread across the globe. Even the French are buying into the American diet.

Back to the study.

The volunteers then let the researchers give them a spinal tap so they could analyze their spinal fluid.

OUCH

Just this brief rise in insulin levels had what Craft calls “striking” effects:

It set off inflammation in the brain.

The spinal fluid had increased levels of a compound called F2-isoprostane. Alzheimer’s patients have unusually high brain levels of F2-isoprostane.

Brain levels of beta-amyloid increased.

Except for the spinal tap, many Americans already are undergoing the same experiment as the study volunteers did. And they are doing it for a lot longer than two hours.

Conclusion

According to Samuel Gandy, MD, PhD. Gandy, chairman of the Alzheimer’s Association’s medical and scientific advisory committee, director of the Farber neuroscience institute at Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia and all around good guy:

“I think this reinforces the idea that it’s wise to maintain your brain. Controlling blood sugar and body weight…all those things we know are good for your heart health are also really good at preventing Alzheimer’s disease. So there are more and more reasons not to be slouchy about getting these things under control.”

Craft and colleagues reported their findings in the October issue of Archives of Neurology.

My Two Cents

For all of you people that don’t think that eating a diet based on processed foods is a big deal, listen up:

This is your BRAIN

This is your BRAIN on Big Macs, pizza, Coke, Twinkies, Slurpees, Chalupas, Crispy Cremes and all you can eat chinese buffets

Your choice...Alzheimer's BRAIN or Healthy BRAIN

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Posted in Diet/Nutrition, health

Tags: alzheimers carbohydrates carbs diabetes diet fitness health insulin nutrition weight loss

New Research – Low Glycemic Diet Reduces Risk of Diabetes

May 26th, 2008

A 20 year study that looked at the association between a low glycemic load diet and the risk of acquiring Type 2 diabetes (T2DM) concluded that a low glycemic load diet decreased the risk of type2 diabetes in women.

This study not only concluded that eating a low glycemic load diet has long term positive health benefits, but that a higherdietary glycemic load was strongly associated with an increasedrisk of T2DM.

Surprise, surprise

So what do you do with this information?

This is not going to sound original, but:

Eat more fruits and vegetables
Eat less bread, pasta, rice, fruit juice, beer, wine, candy, cake, pie…
Eat more protein – healthy protein, not chicken fingers, bacon and hot dogs
Eat more ‘non-animal’ based oils like coconut, olive, walnut, flax, and hemp. Fats from game animals are acceptable for all of you hunters out there. Fish oils (high in Omega 3 fatty acids) have also been shown to have a positive effect on blood sugar.
Eliminate most processed foods in general

If you can’t/won’t eliminate the high glycemic load foods, at least try to start each meal with the veggies. At least that way, you may get full before you get to the high glycemic load foods. Start with a big salad or some grilled veggies or a big bowl of soup.

So what is Glycemic Load?

Glycemic load (GL) is a measurement and ranking system for the carbohydrate content in different foods, based on their glycemic index (GI) and the portion size.

Glycemic Index (GI) is a measurement of how quickly a fixed portion (usually 50g) of the carbohydrates in different foods breaks down into sugar.

So what the *&%#@ does that mean?

Carrots have a high glycemic index. That’s bad. That means that the carbohydrates in carrots are quickly digested into sugar. Oooh, scary. That is why some nutritionists actually advise their clients to avoid baby carrots as a snack food.

But, since carrots are loaded with water and fiber, the glycemic load is reduced to a low level.

Yay carrots.

Here is an abridged GI and GL list of foods:

Keep in Mind that a Glycemic Index of 55 is low and a Glycemic Load of 10 is low.

List of foods and their glycemic load, per 100g serving

Food	Glycemic index	Glycemic Load
Baguette, white, plain (France)	~95	~48
Banana, Mean of 10 studies	~52	~10
Carrots, Mean of 4 studies	~47	~3.5
Corn tortilla (Mexican)	~52	~25
Potato, Mean of 5 studies	~50	~9.3
Rice, boiled white, mean of 12 studies	~64	~15.4
Watermelon	~72	~3.6

For more info on this subject, check out David Mendosa’s site.

Or if you are really geeky on this subject, look no further than the queen bee of all things glycemic, Dr. Jennie Brand-Miller here or here.

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