It is never too late to start eating in a way that will give you the best chance of staving off dementia as you get older.
I am a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and author of "This Is Your Brain on Food." I study how our gutbacteria can cause inflammation in the brain and impact memory. Studies show that avoiding certain foods may help reduce the risk of dementia by decreasing the amount of food in our gut.
I try to avoid certain foods to fight inflammation and promote brain health.
The photo was taken by Berntsen.
The brain uses energy in the form of sugar to fuel cellular activities. A high-sugar diet can lead to excess glucose in the brain, which can cause memory impairments and less plasticity of the hippocampus, the part of the brain controlling memory.
Consuming processed foods like baked goods and soda that are high in sugars can cause a problem with the brain.
The American Heart Association recommends that women consume no more than 25 grams of added sugar per day, and men consume no more than 36 grams of added sugar per day. The Nutrition Facts panel has a "added sugars" line that you can check to figure out if a packaged food has added sugars.
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Chicken-fried steak, french fries, samosas, fish and chips, and samosas are some of the items on the menu. Is your mouth watering? I understand.
Reducing the amount of fried foods you eat is important for brain health. One study found that a diet high in fried foods was linked to lower scores in learning and memory. The inflammation caused by these guilty pleasures can damage the blood vessels in the brain.
A study looked at 715 people and measured their levels of depression and mental resilience. They documented their fried food consumption. Researchers found that people who consumed more fried foods were more likely to develop depression.
If you eat fried foods daily, you should switch to weekly. Try to enjoy them once a month if it is a weekly habit. If you don't eat fried foods, you will be on your way to happier times.
Twenty20 photo by Rita Savenkova.
Even if you don't like the taste of bread, pasta, or anything else made from refined flour, your body still processes them in the same way it does with sugar.
They can raise your risk for depression. Don't worry, I'm not going to suggest you eliminate carbs from your diet completely. The quality of the food you eat affects it.
Researchers wanted to evaluate which particular carbohydrates had an association with depression. They asked 15,546 people about their quality of food.
Whole grains, high in fiber, and low on the GI were considered to be better-quality carbohydrates. The GI is a measure of how quickly a food can convert to sugar in the body.
People who had the highest score on the index were 30% less likely to develop depression than people who had the lowest score.
Potato, white bread and white rice are high-GI. Medium-GI foods include honey, orange juice and whole-meal breads. Green vegetables, most fruits, raw carrots, and chickpeas are low-GI foods.
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People in my practice are often stressed out. Heavy drinking on weekends is a way to relieve stress because of the "work hard, play hard" mindset. When they wake up jittery with brain fog after drinking, they pay for it the next morning.
Archana Singh-Manoux, a professor and director at the French Institute of Health and Medical Research, and her colleagues followed 9,087 people over 23 years to see how alcohol related to the incidence of dementia.
In the British Medical Journal, it was reported that people who had abstained from alcohol completely or who drank more than 14 drinks per week had a higher risk of dementia.
Heavy drinkers include men who consume more than 14 drinks per week or more than four drinks in a single day at least once a month, as well as women who drink more than seven drinks per week or three drinks per day. Different people respond differently to alcohol abuse.
When I work with anxious patients who drink, I always ask them to consider the contexts in which they might be using alcohol in an unhealthy way, and to consider the amount of alcohol they drink.
The photo is from Twenty20.
nitrates can be used as aPreservative and to enhance color in deli slices and cured meats.
A recent study suggests that nitrates can change gutbacteria in a way that can lead to a disorder.
If you can't live without sausages and salami, you should look for those that contain buckwheat flour. Some of the negative health effects of these meats can be mitigated by the use of Buckwheat flour.
Dr. Naidoo is a faculty member at Harvard Medical School. She is the author of the best-selling book "This Is Your Brain on Food: An Indispensible Guide to the Surprising Foods that Fight Depression, Anxiety, OCD,PTSD, and More." She can be followed on the social networking site, "DrUmaNaidoo".
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