Perlmuter: Mediteranean Diets Reduced Risk of Alzheimers
 

This was in my mailbox this morning from Dr Perlmuter

Mediteranean Diet

So, if the Mediterranean Diet reduces risk of Alzheimer's, why am I eating low carb?

I was skeptical when I read "Mediterranean Diet" (there isn't one) and stopped reading at

I think we all know Mediterranean diet is a relatively recently coined diet term having possibly little to do with the eating patterns in real seaside countries of that area, basically the prior popularized low fat diet drizzled in olive oil now that they can't just keep denying fat is okay. They have to keep denying saturated fat is healthy even though real people of that area likely eat lots of it because what big organizations want to say, hey guys, we were wrong about all that stuff, sorry it put your health at risk or maybe killed some of you, oops. So while mainstream medicine still can't really come out with saying a high saturated fat low carb etc. diet is even better for your brain or other health, at least it's now okay to say a "Mediterranean" (add some of the fat back, please) diet is healthy and not lose your funding or reputation as a researcher or doctor. My personal opinion on the subject, anyway. I personally am gambling that high saturated fat/animal foods/stuff people may have eaten for zillions of years, is even better than an olive oil coated food pyramid/my plate or whatever, but that remains to be seen and I'm just my own n=1 experiment on that. But I've got to give these guys credit for trying to figure out what's good for brain health and their spreading the word that what you put into your body/brain (food) matters and can make a real difference in the risk of serious disease.

I'm right there with you. And "olive oil coated food pyramid" made me :lol: :lol: :lol:

Another thought: if "olive oil coated food pyramid" does reduce Alzheimer's, I'm betting my own life that it's another filtered/non-filtered cigarette distinction: eating low carb and allowing sat fat is even BETTER.

The "Mediterranean Diet" is an over-hyped, overly promoted diet. I've been to a few countries on the Mediterranean Sea and nobody eats like that. They eat plenty of meat along with the fish (lamb, beef, pork, fowl) and a lot of starch (macaroni, bread, etc.)

Saying the people in the Blue Zones eat that fictional Med. Diet is false. How in hell do the people in Japan eat a Mediterranean diet?

If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it (Joseph Goebbels)

Furthermore, if there was one diet that is best for everyone, there would only need to be one diet book.

(End of minor rant) :)

Bob

The Mediterranean Diet was an invention of Dr. Ancel Keys.

I have a problem with the name.

Open any Italian, French, Spanish or Greek cookbook and you will see a variety of meats, scores of different cheeses, and plenty of breads and other wheat starch foods.

Add Lebanon, Syria, Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Iran, Cyprus, and Turkey and you get even more variety, certainly expanding on Dr. Keys' misnomer

Nothing could be less Mediterranean than that diet. And to say that the people in the Blue Zones live longer lives because they are eating Dr. Keys' "Mediterranean" diet is simply a lie.

Call it the Keys diet or anything else, and don't BS me that the people in the Mediterranean eat the Keys diet.

Sorry for the rant, but disinformation with the intent so sell me something just bugs me.

Bob

Don't worry, Bob. I like it when you rant.

I suspect a few factors are missing.

Lots of walking, aka exercise.
Discrete meals, not noshing all day.
Real whole foods.
Low herbicide and pesticide residue.


Never the less, the brain likes ketones for fuel.

I suspect you are correct, Ms Arielle

My grandparents were all born in Italy. It doesn't get much more Mediterranean than that. Lot's of sausage, a macaroni side with every meal, crusty Italian bread with lots of butter, lamb, beef, veal, pork, and wonderful, wonderful cheese; Pecorino Romano, Parmigiano-Reggiano, Mozzarella Di Bufala, whole milk Ricotta, Asiago, Mascarpone, Morello, and more.

My grandmother used to make Ravioli , Cavatelli, and Gnocchi by hand, and there would always be some thick chewy parts of the macaroni. My mom made the best Lasagna in the world.

Ah but those days are gone, and I'm extremely low carb now. I'll still take everything but the starch. And Netrition has some low carb macaroni https://pool.netrition.com/great_lc_bread_pasta.html that almost tastes like the real thing and only 7g carbs per serving. It's an every-once-in-a-while thing for us.

I visited my cousins in Italy some time ago, and the diet was pretty much the same as my grandparents took from the old-a country.

Bob

When I lived and worked in the NYC metro area, I had Italian friends, and Grandma didn't serve a giant bowl of pasta. Indeed, it is a side dish.

Much like my childhood years visiting my grandparents on their farm, meat was always the centerpiece of the meal. Along with a stack of white bread next to the butter dish :lol:

But it took the low fat craze, with its demonization of meat, to turn "healthy food" into what birds eat.

Just the No Processed Food rule, if actually followed, would knock out grains long before we got to yogurt.

What people need to realize, is most diets are not about making people healthy, they are marketing -- selling something -- profiteering.

The same people who I used to hear say "No ultra processed foods" are now buying "impossible" extremely ultra processed soy burgers. Why? Because the salesperson in their living rooms (TV or anti-social media) told them to.

Fats are demonized by the American Heart Association. Why? The tests were designed and administered by the grain people, the biased results were given to the AHA along with millions of dollars 'charity' per year to the AHA (sounds like a tacit bribe to me).

The grain farmer and processers make zillions of dollars, the AHA makes a tidy sum of that profit, and everybody is happy except the people clogging their arteries with sugar/starch and not knowing it would be better to eat fats.

In capitalism, everything is for sale, including your heath.

We have to use critical thinking and and look at everything with an eye towards "cui bono" (who benefits by this).

Whether it's selling a Mediterranean Diet Book that has nothing to do with how the Mediterranean people eat, or selling foods that are not really good for us, somebody is making money, and if you follow the money, you can often figure out what the motive is.

And you can tweak statistics to say anything.

Mark Twain: "There are 3 kinds of lies; Lies, Damn Lies, and Statistics."

I try things out, monitor my body, and do full panel blood tests yearly. I also research peer-reviewed papers on the National Institute of Health's pubmed site. When you put your paper up for other scientists to verify or negate, you have confidence in your tests.

I'm 75, on zero medications, have a circulatory system of a 50 year old and a spine that is surprisingly good for a person of my age. I've been on keto since Bob Atkins was still alive, so it obviously works for me.

I tried other plans, monitored the results, and ditched them before I found the one that works for me. The Keys diet is similar to what I tried before keto and didn't work.

One more thing. If one diet plan worked for everybody, there would only be a need for one diet book.

Bob