MIND diet in the news, and in the blog here

I was speaking with the doctor before we went on vacation, and he said that the MIND diet would be helpful for me, given my family history.  I'm all for staying lucid, so I'm looking at it.  After all the reading and experimenting I've done to find out which foods might/could/do work for me, so again--here I am looking into another set of ideas.  This one seems simple though, so I'm including it here, as best I can piece together from news and medical sites (I mostly wanted to verify that the same list of foods was present in each...).  Of course, when it says whole grains- I choose the gluten free ones, as well as ones that are non-GMO (keeping in mind the mitochondria that sparked Dr. Terry Wahls research and writing about nutritionally beating back MS).

From webmd.com http://www.webmd.com/alzheimers/features/mind-diet-alzheimers-disease
Brain-Friendly Foods

• Green leafy vegetables (like spinach and salad greens): At least six servings a week

• Other vegetables: At least one a day

• Nuts: Five servings a week

• Berries: Two or more servings a week

• Beans: At least three servings a week

• Whole grains: Three or more servings a day

• Fish: Once a week

• Poultry (like chicken or turkey): Two times a week

• Olive oil: Use it as your main cooking oil.

• Wine: One glass a day

• Red meat: Less than four servings a week

• Butter and margarine: Less than a tablespoon daily

• Cheese: Less than one serving a week

• Pastries and sweets: Less than five servings a week

• Fried or fast food: Less than one serving a week

The BenefitsShould You Follow the MIND Diet?

MIND stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay. It’s similar to two other healthy meal plans: the DASH diet and the Mediterranean diet. 

But the MIND approach “specifically includes foods and nutrients that medical literature and data show to be good for the brain, such as berries,” says Martha Clare Morris, ScD, director of nutrition and nutritional epidemiology at Rush University Medical Center.

You eat things from these 10 food groups:

You avoid:

One study showed that people who stuck to the MIND diet lowered their risk of Alzheimer’s disease by 54%. That’s big. But maybe even more importantly, researchers found that adults who followed the diet only part of the time still cut their risk of the disease by about 35%. 

On the other hand, people who followed the DASH and Mediterranean diets “moderately” had almost no drop in their Alzheimer’s risk, Morris says.

Scientists need to do more research on the MIND approach, “but it’s a very promising start. It shows that what you eat can make an impact on whether you develop late-onset Alzheimer’s,” which is the most common form of the disease, says Cecilia Rokusek, a registered dietitian at Nova Southeastern University.

Even if you don’t have a family history of Alzheimer’s disease or other risk factors, you may still want to try this eating plan. It focuses on nutritious whole foods, so “it’s not just good for your brain. It’s good your heart and overall health, too,” says Majid Fotuhi, MD, PhD. He is the chairman and CEO of the Memosyn Neurology Institute.

One of the best things about the plan is that you don’t have to stick to it perfectly to see benefits, Rokusek says. “That makes it more likely you’ll follow it for a long time,” she says. And the longer people eat the MIND way, the lower their risk of getting Alzheimer’s disease, Morris says.

If you do decide to make your diet more MIND-like, Rokusek recommends you take a few extra steps. “Keep your portions in check, and be careful about how food is prepared. Sauces, breading, and oils can add extra calories and hidden ingredients like sugar,” she says. “Make a point to drink several glasses of water a day, too.”

Last, understand that even though diet plays a big role, “it’s only one aspect of Alzheimer’s disease,” Fotuhi says. So get regular exercise and manage your stress to lower your risk even more, he says.

The article on the MIND diet on CBSnews.com agreed with the list, and provides a short discussion for each slide, but it's slides, which I find irksome, so I'm skipping that one for the benefit of anyone reading this! (Full version here if you feel like clicking and learning more about the benefits of each food on the dos and don'ts lists.) The discussions did remind me of a few things the doctor has told me: use coconut oil for cooking, because the high temps destroy the benefits of olive oil--save the olive oil for last minute cold additions to salads and soups. Limit red meats to once per week, and to grass-fed for me in particular, as the meat concentrates the compounds in wheat that I'm trying to avoid.  And lastly, regarding fish, for me to eat only the wild ones-which I've done anyway, thanks to the oceanwise.ca learning over the years and the Vancouver Aquarium...but I digress a bit, so I'll reel it back in...the farmed fish are fed grain, so same logic as with the grass-fed beef- I should avoid because the compounds in the grains are concentrated in the fish.  

As for the list of foods themselves, it all looks edible and delicious to me, with no real changes; so the only reason I'm even putting the discussion here is to verify, reinforce, confirm that eating healthy, mostly whole, mostly unprocessed, non-GMO foods seems like an important part of keeping myself healthy.  And the kids...I'd like to keep them healthy too.  

There's no way to verify that the elimination diet to determine whether Middle Man has the "slow-action" food allergies or sensitivities is related-but he's grown like a weed the entire time he's been on it...maybe he was due, maybe he's just feeling better? Regardless, he's grown about 5cm in six weeks.  He stands taller, and there's been no more stomach aching...so now the next challenge is to figure out what's making him itch and scratch. Meanwhile, I'm glad that it's shorts season because I'm saving a bundle on pants!

Cheers and chao!