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Geila
7-27-12, 5:55pm
Hi All,
I'm hoping to get some help in identifying good sources of brain food. I follow a lower-carb paleo diet and for the most part it has worked wonderfully for me. However, I just finished up a grueling math summer class and I've had a setback. I got sick in the middle of the 6-week course and I missed a whole week of class. I got way behind in the course (it was a Mon-Thurs class) and I had to do some serious cramming and LOTS of work to get caught up and finish the class. During the cramming and last 2 weeks of class I reverted to carby sugary foods to get me thru. I know about half of that was mental/biological, because a) the brain knows that sugar is the quickest energy, and b) I find sugar & carbs comforting so it lessened my anxiety. But I also noticed that all the mental work made me REALLY hungry. So I think that in addition to the sugar rush, my brain was also needing additional fuel than what I was providing.

And my question is, what's the best fuel for a hard-working brain? I'm mostly back to my healthy eating but I know that the fall semester is going to be challenging and I'd like to start preparing and educating myself on how to stay healthy even when the stress hits. I really hope some of the nutrition and science gurus on the boards can help me out.

Currently, I get my protein from good-quality animal protein (beef, wild salmon, chicken, some pork, a bit of eggs). I definitely notice a difference when I don't get enough beef, I think I must be low on the B vitamins. I also find that when I'm on my regular workout schedule I need more protein. The bulk of my carbs comes from leafy greens, mostly kale and broccoli, and a bit of fruit. My fat comes from the protein (especially the beef and dark-meat chicken w/ skin) and I usually drizzle a bit of olive oil on my greens. When I'm working out hard (physically or mentally) I notice that the most satisfying and satiating meals are those in which I increase the fat by sauteing my greens in lard or olive oil (although I prefer the lard! :)). I get an excellent lard from a wonderful Hispanic market that makes their own.

So.... I think that what I need to increase is the protein and fat in order to feed my brain. But I'm not sure if that's right, and if it is, by how much. Maybe just the fat? I've read that too much protein might be detrimental. Lots of paleo folks swear by coconut oil, but it feels weird to just eat oil. And it also seems weird to cook with it. I don't know that I want my chicken tasting like coconut! But if it's what I have to do.... I'm sure that would be better for me than sugar. I hope I don't need to increase the carbs though. My body does not do well on too many carbs.

I'm also wondering if exercise is beneficial for the brain when it's taxed. And if so, what type of exercise. I had to scale back my strength training during the course because I was getting too tired by the afternoon, which was when I needed to be working on my homework. I also reintroduced coffee, and I'd like to get rid of that again.

Sorry this is so long! Thanks in advance.

JaneV2.0
7-27-12, 7:27pm
I have to say that chicken dredged in egg and seasoned coconut meal and sauteed in coconut oil is divine, especially with a dipping sauce...

Your intake sounds good, but you might tweak and track (I like Fitday PC, but I haven't tried newer programs) to see if anything jumps out at you. Your body should be able to make enough glucose from protein to fuel your brain, but we're all special snowflakes http://www.kolobok.us/smiles/big_standart/blum1.gif and it's important to determine what works best for you. At this point in my life, a ketogenic plan leaves me feeling like a zombie. Maybe more carbohydrates are in order.

During the most stressful times in my life I lived on protein and fat for a couple of days, then had a carb-heavy meal (Asian food, rice), then started over.

I'm the farthest thing from an exercise expert, but my guess is that something gentle (yoga, tai chi, a walk in nature) would be helpful to clear your head and promote circulation. A lot of paleo sites recommend short bursts of activity and a few reps of heavy lifting along with walking. Over-exercise seems to be falling out of favor.

Geila
7-27-12, 10:03pm
Your body should be able to make enough glucose from protein to fuel your brain....

Thanks for the reply Jane. This really caught my attention. I thought about how just a few months ago I was working out for a solid 20 minutes in the morning, putting in a full 8 hours of work, walking for 30 minutes at lunch and then again after dinner and I felt great. I was already on my paleo diet and it gave me plenty of energy. Actually, I was still eating processed foods like sausage then so not as good. So why the difference now?

Aha! When I reintroduced sugar, I remember now that I started to eat less real food. I became "full" much earlier because I wanted to save room for the pastries and cupcakes that I was going to have later. And sometimes I would skip meals in favor of snacking. In reality, my protein and veggie consumption went way down. The reason I was hungry was because I wasn't eating enough nutritious food. I wasn't giving my brain enough protein to produce the glucose. Not such a big mystery after all! :)

THANK YOU for helping me to see that!!!:thankyou:

p.s. your coconut chicken does sound delicious. Maybe I need to give coconut a chance. I love it fresh and I just bought some today but I haven't ventured into cooking with it. Time to try something new!

ApatheticNoMore
7-27-12, 10:08pm
The book I was reading says you need 500-600 calories from the combination of protein and carbs to be able to create enough glucose just to replenish mostly. They think most vegetables are so low carb that they really shouldn't even count as carbs, their carbs are mostly fiber and fiber actually burns as fat once it is converted by gut bacteria. That is unless we are talking potatos or sweet potatos or something which actually are carbs of course. I guess there may be some gray area for semi-starchy veggies, winter squash or something maybe, but lettuce isn't much of a carb at any rate. Now fruits actually are carbs (they contain a lot of carbs that aren't just fiber). 600 calories from mostly protein is a LOT of protein I think (but I haven't analyzed it by putting it in to a calculator), it's basically animal protein at every meal. The coconut oil I think is intended to produce ketosis since the coconut oil easily converts to ketones (with a lack of glucose of course), thus it reduces the need for glucose and reduces the need for the liver to manufacture glucose and ketones from protein. Coconut oil may have other benefits even on diet with carbs (thai food with rice?) but in a situation with inadequate glucose and protein I figure it is intended for ketosis.

A personal anecdote: Coconut oil was recommended for short term fasting, I tried it and ended up feeling sick to my stomach so I ate food. I ended up barfing up the food (hello tiolet bowl). This has happened before and not when I was fasting AT ALL!!! I added coconut oil to my food before and barfed it up (ended up throwing away the coconut oil then - pity might have been good for my skin applied externally). I think that stuff is in some way TOO INTENSE for me! And not just because my issue is ketosis alone (heck even fasting will acheive that) - although heavy ketosis can be rough so that may be part of it. I don't know what it is, just too intense, too many short chain fats, I don't know. I'm not allergic to coconuts as far as I know, I've eaten them before whole with no problems and coconut milk, and I eat quite a bit of other fats - I rather doubt olive oil would have had this effect even on an empty stomach, just coconut concentrated into pure fat form ... can ... not ... tolerate!!! Will try again in small portions but afraid .... Oh well that's just me. I'm sure someone out there tolerates it well, because if they all got as sick as me, noone would ever recommend it! :) Haha, not the first time I've made myself temporarily sick with diet experimentation, the heavy dairy, heavy coconut oil, and maybe heavy red meat stuff just does not work for me. Much else does. I eat high fat anyway, just more olive oil than coconut oil. I realize that all this time despite much guilt over a near daily banana I was actually eating fairly low carb (but I'd sneak carbs in the form of sweets and maybe even needed to since I wasn't eating protein at every meal - mostly just dinner, pretty silly might as well just eat a potato instead and embrace it :~))

Geila
7-27-12, 10:27pm
Sorry you got so sick ANM! I notice that sometimes my tummy has a hard time with the richness of avocado. I have to be careful with it. I've had wonderful results with coconut oil on my skin though. Maybe your body will appreciate it on the outside more than the inside. :)

JaneV2.0
7-27-12, 11:30pm
I've read that you can build up tolerance to coconut oil (or MCT, for that matter). MCT (medium chain triglyceride) is reported to be good for brain function, to the extent that at least one physician (Mary Newport) uses it therapeutically to keep her husband's dementia at bay.
http://alzheimersweekly.com/content/keto-dementia-diet

Rogar
7-28-12, 9:38am
I have chia seeds nearly every morning. They are supposed to slow down the absorption of sugars and starches to avoid sugar spikes and is also high in omega 3's. I can't tell much if it makes a big difference, but have read enough about it to convince me, plus it's easy and cheap.

For me, the best thing I have found top keep an alert and active thought process is aerobic excersize. The more I read and hear about it, this one of the best things a person can do for memory retention and to stave off things like dementia.

I try to balance protein and starch consumption especially at breakfast and think many people have too many carbs and too little protein to start the day that puts them in a slump that can last much of the day. I try to stick to a vegetarian diet, but when I'm especially active or when my diet gets out of whack it seems like a light goes on that says meat. I find chicken or fish easier to digest and beef in much quantity at all makes me feel full and sluggish.

Suzanne
7-28-12, 11:11am
Brain food: DHA and EPA omega-3 fats. Some people are better than others at converting ALA (Chia, flaxseeds, other plant sources) into the DHA and EPA, but manyof us manage less than 5%. Meat marrow is a good source of the ready-made stuff. Try making a good hearty broth with soup bones, or roast a marrow bone and scoop its innards over greens - or eat it with a spoon!

Geila
7-28-12, 2:38pm
That's interesting about coconut oil and ketosis. I hadn't heard of that. Probably because I haven't really been worried about getting into or staying in ketosis. I've been trying to find a permanent way of eating that makes me feel good and that I can sustain. But I might want to get into ketosis to undue the damage of the last 2 weeks. Hello, coconut oil! :)

Rogar - When I ate a high-carb diet I used to feel really full with beef too so I ate very little of it. Then I read that the body processes carbs and protein differently and since beef if so dense, it makes sense that your body feels sluggish on it.

Suzanne - Thanks for the info. I just made a big batch of bone broth a couple of days ago. And I did include a marrow bone but I gave the marrow to Dh. Next time I'll do two marrow bones! I love having the broth with broccoli. I cut the pieces very small and pour the boiling broth over it. Delicious! Now that I know that it's good for my brain, I'll make it a staple, especially when I'm in school. Interestingly enough, I have a hard time with peanuts and other nuts to some degree. My tummy starts cramping up when I eat peanuts and makes rumbling noises when I eat nuts. That's probably why my body especially likes animal fats and proteins. This stuff is so fascinating!

Geila
7-28-12, 3:08pm
For me, the best thing I have found top keep an alert and active thought process is aerobic excersize.
.

Rogar - what kind of aerobic exercise are you doing? I think you might be right. I found that the days when I did strength training before class were hard for me to concentrate. My body was trying to recuperate. And I found that when I was physically active (like cleaning house, etc), that I actually felt more energized. I'll have to experiment to see what kind of aerobics works to energize me without tiring me out. Something that I can do every day before school. I'll have to keep it simple and short.

ApatheticNoMore
7-30-12, 3:49pm
When I ate a high-carb diet I used to feel really full with beef too so I ate very little of it. Then I read that the body processes carbs and protein differently and since beef if so dense, it makes sense that your body feels sluggish on it.

I have the problem with red meat - seems hard to digest. I really only *prefer* it about once a week at most, and I solve the hard to digest problem by eating mostly ground beef which is already kinda pre-digested - at least that's how my body seems to interpret it (no it doesn't have pink slime, it's ground in store, it's organic, grass fed etc.). Many of the times I have run into problems with beef it was combining it in the diet with a lot of dairy (which I know doesn't agree with me), but even by itself it is sometimes a bit tough to digest, a pot roast basically solves the same problem of course (need a slow cooker ...). Long cooking or partly ground up meat is the solution.

Sometimes our tiredness has nothing to do with diet, sometimes we just need more sleep, and to reduce stress! :)

JaneV2.0
7-30-12, 4:36pm
Speaking of brain food, I came across a couple of links today at Tom Naughton's excellent Fat Head blog. One http://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/EJIM_PUBLISHED.pdf is an article in the European Journal of Medicine called Nutrition and Alzheimer's disease: the detrimental role of a high-carbohydrate diet. It's worth slogging through the organic chemistry to find pearls like the fact that high cholesterol levels are positively correlated with longevity in people over 85, and in some cases they have also been associated with reduced incidence of dementia. Old people with dementia, depression, and Parkinson's disease all have lower levels of serum cholesterol than healthy controls. Diets high in carbohydrates, especially fructose, cause cell damage that cripples the brain's abiity to protect itself.

The second link http://coconutoil.com/the-clue-to-why-low-fat-diet-and-statins-may-cause-alzheimers/ puts forth the theory thus: "Something in our current lifestyle is increasing the likelihood that we will succumb to Alzheimer’s. My belief is that two major contributors are our current obsession with low-fat diet, combined with the ever expanding use of statin drugs."

If the goal was to create a generation of brain-damaged big ticket health care consumers, we could hardly have created a more perfect plan than prescribing low fat/high carbohydrate diets and statins for all.

Geila
7-31-12, 2:37pm
Interesting stuff. I know for certain that I feel much better emotionally when I eat beef (within a low-carb diet). It's GREAT for my mood! And it doesn't have to be a large amount of beef either. One of the articles states that cognition is much improved with a high-fat, low-carb diet. So next time I feel mentally stressed I am going to change my strategy and up my fat instead of reaching for the sugar and carbs. This past relapse was the most aware that I've been and I'm hoping that next time I'll be able to avoid it altogether.

Thanks guys!

JaneV2.0
7-31-12, 4:08pm
My mother's standby remedy for peckishness was "Have a nice piece of steak, dear." As in so many other areas, I've come around to her way of thinking, though I prefer hamburger.

Geila
7-31-12, 4:45pm
My favorite beef dish right now is Mexican-style braised short ribs. I make a big batch once a week on the stovetop in my Staub pot and then we eat it poured over steamed kale. Actually, for my post-workout breakfast I scramble a couple of eggs and then put the kale and a small bit of the ribs with their yummy gravy over the whole thing. Deelicious! And every other weekend we have garlic-marinated tri tip.

I really like the convenience of hamburger, especially when I grind my own meat. It's great with an egg scramble or grilled burgers - yummy!

I think I'm hungry :). I better get some lunch.

JaneV2.0
7-31-12, 5:16pm
I keep meaning to grind some heart or other organ meat into hamburger. I've never got into the habit of eating offal, but it's a treasure trove of nutrients.

Geila
8-1-12, 3:01pm
I keep meaning to grind some heart or other organ meat into hamburger. I've never got into the habit of eating offal, but it's a treasure trove of nutrients.

Yeah, I keep meaning to eat more organ meats. Not very successful so far. Although, I found that my dog LOVES beef liver! He had surgery and is terrible about taking pills so I started feeding them to him wrapped in cooked liver (my leftovers) and he loved it. He's obviously smarter than I am :).

redfox
8-1-12, 3:46pm
Chocolate. Really, really good, dark chocolate. And red wine.

JaneV2.0
8-1-12, 4:23pm
I like red wine about as much as liver, so when I read an article on its benefits I called a local professor who was quoted and asked him if brandy would do as well. Unfortunately, he had no idea.