RE: You Are What You Eat: How Food Affects Our Mood & Brain Health!

[kiwideb]

Hmm, informative post on the whole. Anything that encourages people to eat real food is a good thing.
But a couple of things I would take issue with.
Firstly, the lumping together of saturated fats and trans fats as harmful. They are totally different things with different effects on the body. There has never been any proof that saturated fats are harmful. Our ancestors had large amounts of saturated fats with no ill effects, and the sat fat myth has been well and truly debunked. In fact our brains contain a lot of saturated fat and cholesterol. I believe that one of the contributors to the high number of elders with Alzheimers and dementia is chronic deficiency of saturated fat.
Not saying that your omega 3 & 6 are not important. But they are needed in much smaller amounts than sat fats.
Next the GI index. This was a popular diet fad twenty years ago. But now we know that what's a lot more important is the GL - glycemic load. This takes into account everything you eat in the meal, not just the carbs. For eg, if you eat a meal with a pile of "healthy" low GI carbs, if you're not balancing it with protein and fat, it could be a higher GL than a meal with smaller amounts of a higher GI food, that has been balanced with protein & fat.

Comments

[keik]

"I believe that one of the contributors to the high number of elders with Alzheimers and dementia is chronic deficiency of saturated fat."

As much as I hate to, I have to agree w/ you on that... LoL~
In fact, it's Sugar, in terms of Carbs, and not just sugar the sweetener...

The connection between sugar and Alzheimer’s was first broached in 2005, when the disease was tentatively dubbed "type 3 diabetes.” At that time researchers discovered that your brain produces insulin necessary for the survival of your brain cells.
A toxic protein called ADDL removes insulin receptors from nerve cells, thereby rendering those neurons insulin resistant, and as ADDLs accumulate, your memory begins to deteriorate.
Previous research has also shown diabetics have a doubled risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Source Article By Dr. Mercola here

[kiwideb]

I actually think lack of saturated fat, and too much sugar/carbs are two quite different contributors. They're related as they often go together in the diet, but the actions are different. There are many other contributors as well of course.

[keik]

I'm a coco-nuts~
=P