Applies to polyunsaturated fats Nuts - dry roasted only - others may have fats oxidised

DHA VS EPA, BDNF

Executive function needs omega 3

ALA is omega 3 from plants - flaxseed, chia, walnuts. Needs to be converted to DHA and EPA, but the process is very inefficient, gets worse with age, and is better in pre menopausal women and African genes

Overall best strategy is to avoid omega 6 foods - seed oils such as corn, soy, canola, etc - and maximize fish, eggs, grass fed beef. ALA sources are great addition

Chemically stable

Avocado, macadamia nuts, extra virgin olive oil

Salmon and beef fats are about 50% mono

Low Carb high fat diet doesn't result in blood fat content.

On high Carb diet, liver generates fat, hence high levels in blood (lipogenesis)

“how a high - fat diet could damage your brain” was actually a diet with 20% sugar and 55% saturated fat

Natural are rare, found in milk and meat products of grass fed animals.

Otherwise they are industrial, processed fats.

They originate from polyunsaturated fats that are pumped with hydrogen.

On packages they're called “hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils”.

They are inflammatory, promote insulin resistance and heart disease. Raise cholesterol while lowering HDL.

Lead to earlier death and bad brain health.

Also avoid corn, canola and soy oils

P55 crystallized intelligence

P57

Some nutrients and vitamins need fat as catalyst to be absorbed

Carotenoids

Glycemic index

Glycemic load

Insulin load

Glycation = glucose exposure x time

AGE = advanced Glycation end products

Sugar

Elevated sugar levels speed up creation of cataracts

AGEs can form inside the body from rich Carb diet, or outside when roasting Meats. Can be balanced out with antioxidants, ie leafy greens with your roast chicken

Sugar

Fructose, unlike glucose, doesn't enter bloodstream but goes straight to the liver. There liver churns out fat. Significant cause of type 2 diabetes.

Agave syrup is 90% fructose

Fois gras

High blood sugar causes plaque on brain, shrinks hypocampus and causes Alzheimer's.

Berries are good - low fructose, lots of antioxidants

Glycation is sugar - protein bonding. Occurs to any protein in presence of sugar. Can happen to any Carb except fibre.

Most AGEs develop in body from high Carb diet.

Sugar interests with genes in brain

Some foods are hyper palatable, leading to hunger and overconsumption

Industry

Insulin

Healthy person produces about 25 units of insulin per day. Diabetic patients inject up to 100-150 units per day due to insulin resistance

Insulin turns on a tap in cells to promote fat absorption. That's why combining fat and carbs is worse than two separately.

Further, this tap is one way, so you can't burn fat if insulin is elevated(Lipolysis).

BDNF?

In can heavy diet body decides it doesn't need to repair cells because there's enough energy to just make more.

With no carbs body realizes its worth doing repairs.

FOX03 gene helps with that, as it helps maintain stem cell pool as we age.

HOMA-IR = homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance Blood test

Fasting glucose x Fasting insulin / 405

Lower is better. Under 1 is good. Over 2.75 is insulin resistant.

Ask doctor to do a test.

80% of people with Alzheimer's have insulin resistance

Alzheimer's is sometimes called type 3 diabetes

Blood test can predict Alzheimer's

IRS-1 protein is present in the blood. Higher levels of inactive and lower levels of active 100% predict Alzheimer's, sometimes 10 years before onset of the disease

Constant low insulin might not be optimal either. Once in a while carbs should be consumed. It is especially forgiving after workout, as your body pulls sugar from the blood to feed muscles.

Adding fat to a Carb meal lowers the sugar spike, but spreads its release over longer time. Also, insulin spikes even higher when fat is present by pancreatic over response, further adding to possible insulin resistance.

New metrics are starting to be used

Glycemic load : how much sugar the given food will cause to be released into blood

AUC(area under curve) : about of insulin the given food will stimulate

Lack of sleep will cause impaired insulin sensitivity the following day!

Chronic stress is another contributor. Living close to loud road increases chances of Alzheimer's (although I read a study somewhere that attributed this link to pollution - not noise - VK)

Gluten consumption caused higher won't gain in mice, and higher inflammation markers

Consuming refined gains and sugar can supress cortisol - the stress hormone - causing further addiction. Instead the causes of stress should be addressed

Stress and lack of sleep can also sabotage willpower when dropping carbs

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Dark chocolate

On ingredients look for cocoa, make sure its not processed with alkali (Dutch processing)

Ancel Keys - the guy to blame for incorrect nutritional knowledge. He incorrectly thought Mediterranean diet means seafood and didn't credit oil, always wanted to break down while foods into constituent ingredients.

He ran a very long study with thousands of mental patients. The result - lowering cholesterol was achieved - but led to no reduction of cardiovascular disease or death. Minnesota coronary survey.

Results were so inconvenient it took 16 years for them to be published - in 1989.

After the guy's death - documents were discovered, showed that there was 22% higher risk of death for every 30 mg/dl drop in serum cholesterol. Corn oil group had twice as many heart attacks over 5 year period. So lowering cholesterol led to worse outcomes

Framingham Heart Study

Multigenerational analysis of heart disease risk. Thousands. Showed that higher cholesterol - even in so called dangerous range - correlated to better scores on cognitive, reasoning, attention and concentration, verbal and executive abilities tests.

Another study showed that higher cholesterol levels (both kinds) correlated to better memory performance.

Maybe even helps against dimentia.