High-Carb Diet May Increase Risk of Dementia

If you're interested in protecting your brain health and preventing dementia, including Alzheimer's disease, the research is pouring in support of a key strategy...namely, avoiding sugar and carbohydrates together, including gluten.

By Dr. Mercola
Last year, I interviewed Dr. David Perlmutter-probably the leading natural medicine neurologist in the US, from my perspective-whose NY Timesbest-selling book, Grain Brain, has brought this issue to the forefront of medicine.  He recently expanded on this topic in an interview in Alternative and Complementary Therapies, where he cites even more research showing a high-carb diet may be detrimental to your brain.

Higher Blood Sugar Levels Are Bad for Your Brain

According to recent research published in Neurology, chronically higher blood sugar levels have a profoundly negative influence on cognition, which the researchers believe is "possibly mediated by structural changes in learning-relevant brain areas."  One of the most important aspects of the study, however, was that these negative effects occurred even in people without type-2 diabetes, which suggests even if you're "healthy", keeping your blood sugar levels lower than what is typically considered "normal" is probably still best for your brain health. 

It's becoming increasingly clear that the same pathological process that leads to insulin resistance and type-2 diabetes may also hold true for your brain. As you over-indulge on sugar and grains, your brain becomes overwhelmed by the consistently high levels of insulin and eventually shuts down its insulin signaling, leading to impairments in your thinking and memory abilities and eventually causing permanent brain damage. 

Personally, I have always been a pusher/influencer of higher fats over higher carbohydrates for both my male and female clients wanting to control weight/weight-loss, and I also found that studies show higher carbohydrate diets increase dementia risk by 89 percent; diets higher in fat, the risk decreased by 44 percent. Dr. Perlmutter says: "Carbohydrate calories, which elevate blood glucose, are dramatically more detrimental to human physiology, and specifically to human health, than are the calories derived from healthful sources of fat.  The diet I recommend-high in fat and low in carbohydrates-has simply been what we have eaten for a million years, so it has a bit of a track record.  The diet people are now consuming, diets dreadfully high in carbohydrates and low in fat, as our governmental institutions are recommending, is the biggest challenge to human physiology that we have ever experienced, and this is very, very worrisome."

For the individual interested in increasing energy, weight-loss, weight maintenance, and more, a proper nutritional plan is vital for success and balance within the body.  This balance is what gives the body what it needs to be successful. 

I wanted to share this study on carbohydrates and how it relates to dementia to show how unbalanced nutritional plans can be linked to health risks.  Be safe in your diet and in your exercise; every decision counts.

Zeke Samples, IFA, CSN, CPR, IDEA

NPC Physique Competitior

Surreal Body Solutions, LLC

803.322.7649

www.SurrealBodySolutions.com 

& contributing health and exercise author

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