The Effects of Sugar on the Brain

According to this article: Junk food can junk your memory in a week, suggests new study

VIDEO: Dr Jeff Volek about Low-Carb Diet

This is a video about going from a high-carbohydrate to a low-carbohydrate diet. Here are a few notes:

"Sweden has become the first Western nation to develop national dietary guidelines that reject the popular low-fat diet dogma in favor of low-carb high-fat nutrition advice."

A Few Simple Recipes

When people ask me what I eat, I always say: the same as before, but without refined grains and sugar. It looks something like this (see picture).

1. Pumpkin and cauliflower. 
Very easy to prepare, just boil these vegetables, add a bit of butter and salt at the end.

2. Pork belly with eggplant. 
Slice fresh pork belly (not bacon) and eggplant. Fry in butter. When almost done, add garlic and fresh chili, salt and pepper.

3. Halibut with rosemary.
Fry halibut in butter, add rosemary and lemon when done. Season with salt and nutmeg.

4. Pork belly with local greens.
Thin slices of pork belly fried in butter. When almost done, season with salt and pepper.

5. Capers.
Bought at the store (no artificial ingredients, no sugar) to season plate number 6.

6. Fried tomato and bell pepper.
Cut tomato and bell pepper, fry in butter or ghee (clarified butter). When almost done, add garlic, green onion, salt and pepper to taste.

This, of course, does not mean that everybody should eat like this. The most important is to reduce refined carbohydrates and sugar which unfortunately became an important part of our modern diet.

About Cholesterol

I received a lot of requests recently about high cholesterol levels and their implication in heart disease. I made a few graphs to make it easy to understand.

The Effects of Fructose

I recently received a little present from Hungary: a chocolate bar. I was very surprised to read on the packaging: “Suitable for diabetics”. I checked the ingredients behind, it listed 35% fructose!

Dietary Fat as Brain Fuel

Interesting article: The Fat-Fueled Brain: Unnatural or Advantageous? Are we better adapted to a ketogenic diet, where we use the energy from dietary fat rather than from glucose (carbohydrates)? I already gave details about how our body adapts when carbohydrates are lacking from our diet: Do We Need Carbohydrates in our Diet? Apparently, this kind of diet was not a problem for the Inuit, Aborigines and many native tribes of Africa. They did not develop the diseases of the modern world.

Dr Oz on Alzheimer's

Finally, we can see some changes on television. Here is a very recent episode (aired on 10th October 2013 in the U.S.) of Dr Oz featuring David Perlmutter, MD, the author of Grain Brain.

VIDEO: Do Carbs Cause Alzheimer's?
Don't forget to watch part 2 after the "unavoidable" commercial.

For more information, here is an interview with Dr Perlmutter:
Your “Healthy” Diet Could Be Quietly Killing Your Brain

So, eat your butter! Bon Appetit!

The Case of Vitamin C

According to popular belief, we need to consume a certain amount of fruits and vegetables high in vitamin C (or take vitamin C supplements), to be healthy and to prevent chronic diseases. After a bit of research, I think that our need for vitamin C does not depend on the amount of fruits and vegetables we consume, but on the sugar and carbohydrates content of our diet.

Alzheimer's Prevention

Very excited to read articles like this on the web: You Can Prevent Alzheimer's.

(I already mentioned the harmful effects of sugar on the brain and how it really works: Brain - Cancer and Alzheimer's.)

"[...] in diabetics having the highest level of various diabetes associated factors, things like vascular issues or leg ulcers, the risk of becoming demented was increased an astounding 37 fold."

Burger King Fries With Less Calories?... Misleading!

From this article:

"Fast-food giant Burger King has introduced lower-fat, fewer-calories french fries to united States patrons, allowing customers to order a side of 'Satisfries' with their meal."

Sugar and Other Stuff In Our Coffee

Sweetener
Ingredients: Sucrose Syrup (Cane), Water, Flavour, Preservatives (211, 202), Food Acid (330).

Do We Need Supplements?

It is a bit of a paradox that in this world of plenty, most of us are deficient in vitamins and minerals. The question is why we became deficient and what to eat or take in order to overcome these deficiencies. Many people has the mistaken belief that a bad diet will be rebalanced by taking supplements.

Dietary Fat and Health - Medical Review

An important review by NCBI (National Center for Biotechnology Information):

Dietary fats and health: dietary recommendations in the context of scientific evidence.

"[...] the evidence of dietary saturated fats increasing CAD [Coronary Artery Disease] or causing premature death was weak."

Brain - Cancer and Alzheimer's

Article Number 1:

When it Comes to Brain Cancer, Let's Look Beyond Chemo

In cancer research, it is very important to understand how cancer cells work, what they need to thrive and multiply, in other words their metabolism. As I've mentioned before, sugar (glucose) is an important "food" for cancer cells, as they generate energy by fermentation (Sugar and Cancer and Starving Cancer Cells). They are unable to survive in an oxygen rich environment and without sugar.

Nuts, Seeds and Grains

The kind of bread we are consuming today is a far cry from the bread consumed by ancient populations. This sentence can be applied to any kind of nuts, seeds and grains.

My Shopping Cart

To give you an idea of what kind of food I buy every day, please check out my shopping cart for today:

My Food

Many people ask me what I eat if I don't eat carbohydrates like bread, pasta, rice, potatoes etc. Well, I eat pretty much the same food without the mentioned starchy foods.

Do We Need Carbohydrates in our Diet?

This is the inspiration for my post today: Mute Girl Can Finally Talk on a LCHF Diet 

(LCHF = Low-Carbohydrate, High-Fat)

Fertility Problems

More and more women today suffer from PCOS (Polycystic ovary syndrome), a condition associated with infertility, and usually requiring medical intervention in the form of hormonal therapy. It is indeed an endocrine disorder (hormonal problem).

Fats versus Oils

The animal fat versus vegetable oils is going on. For more information, please watch this presentation by Dr Miller (Professor of Surgery, Cardiothoracic Division, University of Washington). I think this video makes it clear that saturated fat is the winner.

Path to Diabetes

The stage preceding diabetes is called metabolic syndrome, a term coined by Gerald Reaven. He discovered that the symptoms are common to:

• obesity
• diabetes
• heart disease

Fat Head - The Documentary

Very clear explanation on why we get fat and the accompanying conditions such as heart disease and clogging of the arteries. Today, there are ZERO studies showing that a high-fat diet is responsible for heart disease. It is rather the high amounts of carbohydrates, sugar and alcohol we consume that are to blame for these conditions.

Washing Hair with Ash

As many of you may know, besides diet I am also very interested in traditional lifestyles. How did people live without all the conveniences we have today? So, this post is not about diet, but about hair care before the advent of shampoo.

Colon Cancer

Colon (bowel) and rectal cancers - as other cancers - are increasing in the developed world. Peter Cleave, in his book The Saccharine Disease (available online for free) suggested that it was the refinement of carbohydrates and the addition of sugar to the diet that caused these diseases.

Starving Cancer Cells

In the 1920s, Otto Warburg won the Nobel-prize for demonstrating that cancer cells multiply by fermentation, a process requiring sugar, rather than respiration, where oxygen is needed (the case of normal cells). I quote Wikipedia:

Weight Loss Camp

What I Eat - Peter Menzel, Faith D'Aluisio

Yesterday, I was reading this book with my children, and I was saddened by the ordeal teenagers have to go through in order to lose weight.

About Protein...

Parsley

Vegetarians and vegans are often asked where they get their protein from. For vegetarians the answer is a bit easier as they consume dairy products and eggs. In vegans case, it is a bit harder to understand that even vegetable sources contain proteins, and here is an example from Young and Raw: Everything you need to know about protein.

Hungry Planet - Cuba

The Costa family, living in Havana, Cuba, and their one week's worth of food (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio).

Cancer and Low-Fat Diets

In the early 1970s, tests were performed on laboratory animals. These tests were not meant to compare low-fat versus high-fat diet, but rather to verify the beneficial effect of vegetable oils. So, saturated fat was replaced by polyunsaturates. The outcome was quite surprising, it suggested that vegetable oils can cause cancer.

Hungry Planet - Mongolia

The Batsuuri family, living in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia, and their one week's worth of food (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio).

Low HDL Cholesterol and Breast Cancer

Article by David Evans from HEALTHY DIETS AND SCIENCE:

High levels of HDL cholesterol associated with a decreased risk of breast cancer

Hungry Planet - Kuwait

The Al Haggan family (and 2 servants from Nepal, on the left) living in Kuwait City, Kuwait, and their one week's worth of food (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio).

Weight Loss - 2 Videos

Here are two videos by Dr Dan Pompa, giving a very clear explanation about the hormonal implications of obesity. Worth watching!

Hypertension

Effects of a high-carbohydrate diet on blood pressure:

Hungry Planet - Greenland

The Madsen family (Inuit), living in Cap Hope, Greenland, and their one week worth of food (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio).

Hungry Planet - Summary

I would like to add a few thoughts to the Hungry Planet series:

I did this series in order to understand certain eating patterns of different countries . However, it does not mean that everybody in that particular country adheres to these habits. There are many different ways of eating within the same country.

Hungry Planet - Guatemala

The Mendoza family living in Todos Santos Cuchumatan, Guatemala, and their one week worth of food (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio).

Hungry Planet - United States

A family from the United States, the Revis, living in Raleigh, North Carolina, and their one week worth of food (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio).

Hungry Planet - Great Britain

An average British family, the Baintons, living in Collingbourne Ducis, Wiltshire, Great Britain, and their one week worth of food (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio).

Steve Jobs and Pancreatic Cancer

Steve Jobs was vegan, on a high-fruit (fructose or fruit sugar) diet. He died of pancreatic cancer on 5th October 2011.

Ashton Kutcher playing the Apple co-founder in the movie "Jobs", went on a high-fruit diet, and ended up in hospital with inflamed pancreas.

What the World Eats

In their new book, What I Eat, photographer Peter Menzel and writer Faith D'Aluisio present thought-provoking portraits of individuals around the globe and the food that fuels them over the course of a single day.

Hungry Planet - Chad

This is the Mustapha family (9 members) living in the village of Dar Es Sallam with 210 inhabitants (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio).

Hungry Planet - Australia

Let's compare the eating habits of these two families living in Australia (from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio). I truly admire the courage of all these families, willing to pose for a picture with the food they eat, and all my respect to the authors for the work they are doing.

Gluten and Gastrointestinal Symptoms

Article by David Evans from HEALTHY DIETS AND SCIENCE

Diets containing gluten cause gastrointestinal symptoms in non-celiacs
This study was published in the American Journal of Gastroenterology 2011 Mar;106(3):508-14; quiz 515

Hungry Planet - Turkey

Here is a family from Istanbul, Turkey and their food for a week, from the book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio.

Hungry Planet - China (Traditional and Modern)

Two wonderful families from China, one living in a village near Beijing, on a more traditional diet. The other family lives in the city (Beijing) with consequences on their diet.

Hungry Planet - Germany

Another wonderful family, this time from German family who was willing to share their one week worth of food (from Hungry Planet).

Comments and Respect

I started this blog in order to share my experience and information about diet. Whenever I can, I support what I say with articles and opinions of experts. I am not selling or promoting anything, I am simply sharing information. It is up to the readers to decide what is right for them, I am not telling anyone what to do.

Hungry Planet - Mali

For us, living in the civilized world, this is a bit of an extreme example of a diet. Here is the Natomo family, from the book Hungry Planet.

Hungry Planet - Mexico

Here is an average family from Mexico, the Casales, with their weekly food consumption (from the book: Hungry Planet).

Hungry Planet - Bhutan

For today's detailed diet study I chose this Bhutanese family from Hungry Planet.

Hungry Planet - India

This is an example of a typical Indian vegetarian diet of a family living in Ujjain (Central India), from the book Hungry Planet. (My previous post about Japan.)

Hungry Planet - Japan

These two pictures are from the book Hungry Planet - What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio. This is really a wonderful book where you can see the type and amount of food consumed by families in different countries of the world.

My Meeting with an Expert in Biochemistry and Nutrition

On 5th March 2013, I had a meeting at the Singapore Bioimaging Consortium (SBIC) with a wonderful man, Professor Kishore Bhakoo, PhD, Head of Translational Molecular Imaging Group, he is also Lead for Biological Chemistry, Metabolism and Nutrition at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine (NTU), Singapore.

Nutrient Density

This presentation by Mathieu Lalonde, PhD gives an insight into the nutrient density of different food groups. The conclusion is very surprising:

Traditional Diets and Dental Health (Switzerland)

After reading this article about the relative absence of tooth decay in hunter-gatherers, I immediately thought of the work of  Weston Price about dental health.

Does Calorie Counting Work?

Here is an interesting blog post by Dr Andreas Eenfeldt: Why Calorie Counters are Confused?

Vegetarians and Hunter-Gatherers

I would like to add a few things to my earlier posts about vegetarians and India.

Diseases of Civilization - A Few Important Names

The observation that western diseases appeared shortly after sugar and refined carbohydrates became part of a diet, is quite common. If it was an isolated case, I would say "OK, there must be something else going on". But it seems to be true all around the world.

Diseases of Civilization - Japan

Japan is often cited as a proof that a high carbohydrate diet is the solution to avoid chronic diseases. I think it is a misguided belief.

In the 1950s, Ancel Keys considered his hypothesis (dietary fat causes heart disease) confirmed by the example of Japan, where people ate a low-fat diet, had low cholesterol levels, and had very little incidence of heart disease. It is true. It is also true, that at that time, sugar consumption was also very low and carbohydrates (brown rice, millet, buckwheat, etc) were not processed. So, we could also say that the low incidence of heart disease was a result of the lack of sugar and refined carbohydrates in their diet. Of course, Keys paid no attention to sugar consumption.