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The smart way to diet will spare your brain

The latest from Dr. Cate is really interesting:

Quote:

Can Diet Really Increase Your IQ?

In his mid 20’s, Silicon Valley wiz-kid and entrepenur Dave Asprey had accomplished everything he’d set out to achieve, but his success had cost him his health.

When the scale hit 300, he realized it time to take better care of himself. Ditching mainstream diet advice that had gotten him nowhere, he adapted a healthy, low-carb, natural-fat diet and lost 100 pounds. To his surprise, he discovered he’d also gained some serious brain power–initially somewhere around 15 IQ points.

So low carb can help you keep those brain cells as you lose weight!

Quote:

Studies show that most people losing weight following the typical low-fat, calorie restriction, frequent small meal program actually lose brain mass, along with all the excess fat. While on a population wide scale brain mass does not correlate with IQ very tightly (Einstein’s brain was famously small when he died at age 76), in a individual a shrinking brain is associated with worsening memory and even dementia.

This ties in with my hunch that my fatigue and cranky issues were a matter of lacking essential vital brain chemicals: the neurotransmitters which make everything happen in our brains. Turns out, good nutrition means plentiful neurotransmitters; and things perking along as they should.

Because as I have learned, when our brains aren't working, a lot of other things aren't working, either.

Quote:

On the heels of this and other discoveries linking blood flow to cognitive function, in 2014, a collaboration of scientists led by researchers at the California Institute of Technology hypothesized that the feeling of brain fatigue you can get from trying to learn something new or thinking too hard about the same subject for too long may simply be a failure of your brain to deliver those raw materials on demand—literally, the food for thought. “We present a model of cognitive cost based on the novel idea that the brain senses and plans for longer-term allocation of metabolic resources by purposively conserving brain activity.“ In other words, if there’s no fuel, there’s no thought. They continue: “We suggest that an individual’s decision of whether or not to incur cognitive costs in a given situation can be fruitfully understood as one of decision–making strategy: an agent will only commit limited resources in cases where the payoff is worth it.” In other words, reduced bloodflow to the brain reduces motivation for learning.

Healthy blood vessels pay off in more than dodging cardiac issues; it's brain issues too. B vitamins and good protein and chelated magnesium have all been beneficial to me.

And now I know why.

Oily fish too! Sardines, mackerel, herring. I always feel brainier when I get my daily serving of small, oily fish.

Agreed! Not just the oil, the fish itself is full of micronutrients.

We can certainly see the opposite with disease and behavior, where the disease affects the brain in some way. For example, scurvy and the accompanying cynicism. It's only reasonable to expect improved health to be accompanied by improved brain function. It's happened to me for sure when I first went low-carb. It wasn't just intellectual abilities, but also overall behavior that improved for me.

The late Seth Roberts did a few experiments with fat and found an effect on his mental abilities.

There's one experiment I've been looking for for a while now, it's a high school where they changed the students' diet in some way, can't remember what exactly. The point is the students' academic performance improved as a result.

To play devil's advocate for the premise, i.e. increased IQ. I prefer to think that we're restoring IQ rather than improving it, in the same way we're restoring health rather than improving it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by M Levac

The late Seth Roberts did a few experiments with fat and found an effect on his mental abilities.

IIRC, he said that he could solve math problems faster when eating butter. But he DIED...at 60, of coronary artery disease, while hiking. Makes me worry.

(Edited to add: I tried his "Shangri-La Diet" about 10 years ago. It worked really well, but for some reason the oil made me feel very dizzy and I had to stop.)

Quote:

Originally Posted by M Levac

To play devil's advocate for the premise, i.e. increased IQ. I prefer to think that we're restoring IQ rather than improving it, in the same way we're restoring health rather than improving it.

I can see that, certainly. A return to optimum.