Brain Health: "a fine line between moderate and binge drinking"

A study published in the November 8 issue of Neuroscience looked at the effects of drinking alcohol on the brain of rats. According to the study abstract, the rats “drinking regime resulted in an average blood alcohol concentration of approximately 0.08%,” the legal driving limit in the U.S. According to ScienceDaily:

The researchers discovered that at this level of intoxication in rats -- comparable to about 3-4 drinks for women and five drinks for men -- the number of nerve cells in the hippocampus of the brain were reduced by nearly 40 percent compared to those in the abstinent group of rodents. The hippocampus is a part of the brain where the new neurons are made and is also known to be necessary for some types of new learning.

First author M. L. Anderson commented to ScienceDaily:

Moderate drinking can become binge drinking without the person realizing it. In the short term there may not be any noticeable motor skills or overall functioning problems, but in the long term this type of behavior could have an adverse effect on learning and memory.

The study was conducted by researchers working in Behavioral and Systems Neuroscience in the Department of Psychology at Rutgers University and at the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland.

Brain Health: Put down that puzzle and go for a walk

Today’s issue of Neurology includes a research study on the relationship between physical activity and brain protection during aging. The amount of self-reported physical activity in 638 persons was correlated to brain health as visualized on MRI. The brains of those with a greater amount of physical activity showed less brain aging as measured by less atrophy (shrinkage), less loss of grey and white brain matter, and fewer hits (tiny holes) in white matter. While these hits, called hyperintensities on MRI, are often viewed as a normal part of aging, they most likely have underlying causes such as hypertension or neuroinflammation. This study provides evidence that they are occur less frequently in people who are active.

Also, the commonly held belief that performing crossword puzzles keeps older people sharp was not supported in this study. As the BBC reports:

Exercise did not have to be strenuous - going for a walk several times a week sufficed, the journal Neurology says.

But giving the mind a workout by doing a tricky crossword had little impact.

The study found no real brain-size benefit from mentally challenging activities, such as reading a book, or other pastimes such as socialising with friends and family.

Take home: In the elderly, exercise beats puzzles for brain health.   

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Success Story: No more bloating and brain fog

In the first few months as a vegetarian, I started to develop major digestion problems (mostly pain and bloating). I let this go on, along with my diet that consisted of mostly fruit and whole grains, second to eggs and veggies, for around one year…

After thinking about it for months (and reading The Paleo Solution) ... (I) began to follow the Paleo diet.… The changes I have noticed in my health, performance and body are incredible. The digestion problems I had been suffering with for over a year (and after half a dozen visits to the ER, my doctor, and a gastrointestinal specialist) were completely gone. My energy levels are consistent throughout the day, and the brain fog is gone!

RobbWolf.com

Paleo Magazine: Oct/Nov issue at newsstands

The latest issue of Paleo Magazine is now available in newsstands and contains articles on the recent Ancestral Health Symposium held at Harvard Law School, irritable bowel syndrome and its treatment, MovNat with Paleo fitness in the playground and plenty of Paleo recipes. In a Q&A section with Paleo dietitian Amy Kubal, MS, RD, LN you'll find the following nugget on bacon:

Bacon - it's the stuff dreams are made of; it makes everything better. There is quite a controversy surrounding the 'fatty strips of goodness' we call bacon. The one thing that everyone agrees though, is that it's delicious. But all bacon is not created equal and quality does matter if bacon is more than an occasional visitor in your diet. "Regular" store bought bacon is questionable for several reasons. Many brands of traditional bacon contain additives like sugar, honey, nitrates/nitrites, and/or other ingredients. Additionally, if Oscar Mayer, Hormel, Tyson, or Store Brand X labels are on the package, it is likely that the pork is a product of a factory farms and has been pumped full of antibiotics, fed a less than optima diet and has endured awful living conditions. It is important to note that what the animal ate before being butchered has a major effect on the nutritional value and fatty acid composition of the finished product. Also, bacon is fatty and antibiotic/pesticide residues are stored in fat, which make the "regular" stuff even more worrisome. Organic, pastured bacon is well worth the extra dollars, especially if you are consuming it on a regular basis. Quality DOES matter.

Learn more at Paleo Magazine

Urban farms bloom

On a rooftop farm in Brooklyn one sunny afternoon, dozens of tomato plants heavy with fruit swayed in the wind, a farmer stooped over rows of dandelion greens and the customers kept coming. They climbed through the door to the 65,000-sq.-foot roof of the Brooklyn Grange Farm, in the city’s navy yards, across the water from Manhattan, and without fail they exclaimed with delight. “I love it. This is beautiful!” said Giovanni Cipolla, a grey-haired man who bought a bunch of dandelion and remarked that the only other place he could buy greens this fresh was Italy.

The farm on top of the city

Increase happiness by subtraction

Jeff Hadden, writing for the Business Insider, describes 10 things to get rid of in order to increase your happiness at work. These are the top five:

1. Blaming.

2. Impressing.

3. Clinging.

4. Interrupting.

5. Whining.

Learm more here.

Type 1 diabetes resolves in child following removal of gluten from diet. One more reason to avoid grains.

Researchers at the Copenhagen University Hospital in Herlev, Denmark report on a 6-year old boy diagnosed with Type I diabetes who was placed on a gluten free diet. Although gluten-free is not full Paleo, it's certainly a step in the right direction. Twenty months later, the child does still does not require insulin. This is a very important result in this otherwise serious and lifetime disorder. Further studies are recommended.

Related Post 

SUCCESS STORY: CHILD WITH REMISSION OF DIABETES ON THE PALEO DIET 

Vertical farming taking root in cities

Dickson Despommier, a microbiology professor at Columbia University who developed the idea of vertical farming with students in 1999, thinks vertical farming will become more and more attractive as climate change drives up the cost of conventional farming and technological advances make greenhouse farming cheaper. In fact, he hopes the world will be able to produce half of its food in vertical farms in 50 years.

The Wall Street Journal

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Chocolate and the Nobel Prize

The New England Journal of Medicine recently published a brief but interesting study in their OCCASIONAL NOTES section called Chocolate Consumption, Cognitive Function, and Nobel Laureates. Franz H. Messerli, M.D. studied whether there was a relantionship between the number of Nobel prizes a country has won and the consumption of chocolate! The study revealed “a close, significant linear correlation (r=0.791, P<0.0001) between chocolate consumption per capita and the number of Nobel laureates per 10 million persons in a total of 23 countries.”

Nobel Prize winner Eric Cornell, when interviewed about the study by Fox News, commented, apparently with tongue-in-cheek:

"I attribute essentially all my success to the very large amount of chocolate that I consume," said Eric Cornell, an American physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in 2001.

"Personally I feel that milk chocolate makes you stupid. Now dark chocolate is the way to go. It's one thing if you want like a medicine or chemistry Nobel Prize, OK, but if you want a physics Nobel Prize it pretty much has got to be dark chocolate."

On a more serious note, Dr. Messerli concludes:

The principal finding of this study is a surprisingly powerful correlation between chocolate intake per capita and the number of Nobel laureates in various countries. Of course, a correlation between X and Y does not prove causation but indicates that either X influences Y, Y influences X, or X and Y are influenced by a common underlying mechanism. However, since chocolate consumption has been documented to improve cognitive function, it seems most likely that in a dose-dependent way, chocolate intake provides the abundant fertile ground needed for the sprouting of Nobel laureates. Obviously, these findings are hypothesis-generating only and will have to be tested in a prospective, randomized trial.

Root vegetables, brussel sprouts and chuck roast

Submitted by Pat from North Carolina

Turnips, rutabagas, onions, carrots, and brussel sprouts with olive oil and herbes de provence along with a beef roast rubbed with Mt Evans Butcher Rub. Slow cooked in oven at 325 for about 2 1/2 hours. Yummmmmm. It was a huge hit with the whole family.

Send your Paleo recipes to paleoterran@gmail.com

Success Story: Child with remission of diabetes on the Paleo diet

On September 10, 2009, I took my six-year-old daughter to the pediatrician for what I thought was a urinary tract infection. She had been very thirsty and going to the bathroom excessively. Little did I know these were the symptoms of hyperglycemia. Her blood glucose was tested at 542 in the doctor’s office, and she spent two days in the hospital. During that time she was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes…

We decided that all of us needed to clean up our diets. Since we worked out in a CrossFit gym, the diet that came to mind was the Paleo Diet.

What happened next was amazing! My daughters insulin needs plummeted. During the next week, we made numenours calls to the endocrinologist to adjust her dosage downward. After two weeks, she was completely off insulin…

A few months later

We now have a solid six months of total remission under our belts.

JoAnne
The Paleo Answer 

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Are "flavorists" or "food scientist" creating false foods?

Image: Tiia MontoCan you resist these M&Ms? If so, you may be at least partly Paleo. Many in our modern world are pulled by this and similar “foods.” Why? First let’s consider the strength of the drive leading some to consume the contents of this package. David A. Kessler, MD, former FDA commissioner writes In The End of Overeating:

My conversation with a journalist, a forty-year-old man I’ll call Andrew, reminded me that the struggle respects neither gender, nor socioeconomic class, nor age. Andrew, who is about five feet nine inches tall and weighs about 245 pounds, has written fearlessly from many of the world’s battlegrounds. He has spent time with jihadists, suicide bombers, and war-hardened soldiers, and he hasn’t flinched. But when I placed M&M’s on the table before him, Andrew felt barely able to cope.

Andrew reflects:

“I wake up in the morning knowing that food is my enemy and that I am my own enemy. It’s uncontrollable.”

In a recent story in "CBS This Morning: Saturday" psychologist Daniel Amen, argues that modern food manipulation is in the hands of "flavorists." They often design processed foods to stimulate our cravings:

"They know how to put together certain combinations of fat, sugar and salt to actually work on the heroin or morphine centers of your brain and they can be totally addictive if you are not careful."

“To battle these cravings, Amen suggests getting at least seven hours of sleep to avoid making bad food decisions; start the day with a breakfast with protein to help balance your blood sugar through the day; and avoid sugar and artificial sweeteners.”

(Sounds Paleo doesn’t it?)

However, what Amen calls "flavorists," Kessler calls "food scientists." In his book, Kessler describes how processed food is often designed to trigger the reward centers in the brain. Quoting an industry “insider,” the fast food industry is “the manipulator of the consumers’ minds and desires.”

Now, what if you block the chemical hook and leave the flavor unchanged? In a study mentioned by Kessler animals ate less chocolate following treatment with naltrexone, an opioid antagonist. “Presumably because blocking the opioid signals took away the reward value.” Thus, there is science to processed food design. Science that may make processed food better, but also science to make processed food “hedonistic.”

OK, so the fast food industry designs food to stimulate the brain’s reward centers; the greater the reward, the more we consume and purchase. Is this a satisfying answer? Why do the strong cravings overrule the conscious mind, such as in Andrew’s case, even though it is aware these foods eventually undermine our health? Amen’s suggests designer foods stimulate the same regions of our brains associated with yearning for family or friends. Discussing this with my son John Michael, he wondered if we are replacing a loss:

It is almost as though junk food is taking the place of community.