Change Your Brain Every Day - Calories & Your Brain: The Hard Truth

Episode Date: October 31, 2017

The subject of part 11 in the Memory Rescue series is diabesity. Studies have shown that as your weight goes up, the size and function of your brain goes down. Dr. Daniel Amen and Tana Amen tell you how to check your BMI and blood sugar levels, and how you can lose weight and feel great without the feelings of deprivation.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. Here we teach you how to win the fight for your brain to defeat anxiety, depression, memory loss, ADHD, and addictions. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we've transformed lives for three decades using brain spec imaging to better target treatment and natural ways to heal the brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceutical products to support the health of your brain and body. For more information, visit brainmdhealth.com. Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. We are back with Bright Minds for Memory Rescue. We have gone through all of Bright. We are on Minds and in fact, we are on D for Diabesity. So why don't you introduce what we have or review what we've talked about and then we'll go into diabesity. Well thank you so much for staying with us in our memory rescue series and as you talked about in order to keep your

brain healthy or get it back if it's headed for trouble. You have to attack all of the risk factors that steal your mind. And we have grouped them into 11 categories and developed the mnemonic bright minds. B is for blood flow, R retirement and aging, I is for inflammation, G is for genetics, H is for head trauma, T is for toxins, M is mental health, The second I is immunity and

infections. We just finished with N, which is neurohormone deficiencies. And D is a big deal. D is for diabetes. So that's like this combination of diabetes and obesity, both of which are just devastating for brain function. And rampant. Right. Brand new article just out this morning, a scientific article that said 40% of cancer is associated to excessive weight on your body. And it feels like every year, the percentage of Americans that are obese goes up.

I feel like it was just a couple years ago it was 30%, and now it's higher, isn't it? Well, overweight or obese is 70%. That's insane. And for females, obesity is about 40%. That's just insane. So how do you know if you're overweight or obese? There's something called BMI or body mass index.

And, you know, there are pros and cons with that. But that's what most people use. And between 18.5 and 25 is healthy. So being super skinny is not good for your brain. No. In fact, you die earlier if you're too skinny because you're frail. Well, especially as you age. And it disrupts your hormones. But being super skinny at any age is not good for your brain.

But being between 25 and 30 is overweight. And you have a smaller brain. So Cyrus Raji is a friend of ours. He's a superstar scientist at University of California, San Francisco. And he published the first study that showed as your weight goes up the actual physical size and function of your brain goes down which we always say should scare the fat off anyone and in fact did me when I read that study I lost about 30 pounds because there's no way I'm gonna be a dinosaur you, you know, big body, little brain.

You're going to become extinct. And so if you're overweight, 25 to 30, you have 4% less brain volume. That's crazy. And eight, your brain looks eight years older than people who are at a healthy weight. If you're obese, your BMI is over 30, you have 8% less volume and your brain looks 16 years older than the general population or people who are the healthy weight, not the general population because the general population, 70% are overweight. They're not healthy. Well, and I want to address something here because every time we talk about this, we hurt somebody's feelings. This is not a judgment, but we have to look at why this

is happening. And that's why we called it diabetes. We wrapped that into one because, yes, we need to do better as a society of being more aware, being more conscious, being, as we would say, a warrior for your health. But there's the other side of it. There are things like what we call obesogens in the environment and in our food, things that disrupt hormones that cause your body to not process. So this problem is not just caused by excessive calories. Right. Although excessive calories are one of the causes, but as you were referring to,

when you and I interviewed Joe Pizzorno for our podcast, The Toxin Solution, his book, The Toxin Solution. He actually has graphs in that showing the obesity epidemic actually correlates really well with the increase in toxins in our food, in our personal products. Well, and that's a fact because if you look at the Mississippi River, okay, where they have historically dumped, lots of companies, you know, and industry have dumped a lot of toxic materials into the river. People who live along the river all through, you know, different states where it goes through, they have much higher rates not only of obesity, diabetes, and other diseases. So like Mississippi, Louisiana.

Yes. States that are considered part of the Bible Belt. Right. And we often say the Bible Belt is widening. But here's what's interesting. They did studies where they tested their blood. They tested the water. They tested their blood.

They found those same chemicals in the blood of the people they tested. So if you're struggling with your weight, understanding toxins is really important and supporting the organs of detoxification. And as we talked about in the toxin chapter or section of this course, it's avoid anything that's toxic and support the organs of detoxification. Diabetes is a problem. Even pre-diabetes, there are studies that show as your blood sugar goes up, blood flow to the brain goes down, that the hippocampus actually starts to shrink. It gets smaller with higher blood sugar levels. Apparently, your brain likes healthy fat. We keep hearing it over and over.

Most of the anti-aging doctors really want your fasting blood sugar around 85, not 90, 95, or 100. So it can actually be considered normal, but clearly not optimal. And so getting your blood sugar and your weight under control is absolutely essential. And how you do that is you measure your BMI. You can't lie to yourself. Now, if you're an athlete, BMI is not as good because you have a lot of muscle on your body. And then what we use is the waist-to-height ratio. So your waist should be half your height or less.

And that's actually an easier way to check and be more accurate. But you can go to bmicalculator.com. And I want to tell this story because I just had lunch with Mark, my friend. So four years ago, I was speaking at the American Association of Christian Counselors. It's a great conference. There are 8,000 people in Nashville every year. And four years ago, I was having dinner with Mark. And I've loved Mark for a long time.

He's one of my friends. And he's had type 1 diabetes for a very long time. And I saw him inject himself with insulin at the table. And I didn't think much about it until I then saw him order chicken fried steak, mashed potatoes with gravy, cornbread, and a souffle for dessert. And internally, I am screaming at him, what is the matter with you? I think some of it actually got out. Well, let me tell the story. Let me tell the story.

You may not have realized it. So I was truly very cool. And I just looked at him. I said, hey, Mark, how tall are you? He said, six feet. I said, how much do you weigh? He said, 244 pounds. And on my phone, I calculated his BMI.

So we have a BMI calculator on BrainFit Life. You can also just Google BMI calculator. So I calculated his BMI calculator on BrainFit Life. You can also just, you know, Google BMI calculator. So I calculated his BMI, and it was 33, which is obese. And I looked at him, and I said, dude, you're obese. And I showed him my phone, and he said, Daniel, you're so cold. And I said, not nearly as cold as you're going to be when you're six feet under. And so the word six feet under and obese really got his attention. And the next month he told me he lost 10 pounds and I was so proud. He didn't eat anything at the dinner that night. And, uh, but then two years

later, I met him at the same conference and he didn't even look like the same person. He had dropped 53 pounds, had cut his insulin dosage in half. And he's there with his wife, Debbie, you know, who we also love. And they're talking about their sex life. I know. So that's always the double-edged sword with this stuff, knowing us. People tell you it's like TMI. TMI, it's just. But it's not.

For me, it's not. I know. Because he just said that, you know, his erections were better. Okay. And their sex life in their mid sixties was phenomenal. But how many of our friends do this with us? I'm like, and so I asked him if getting healthy was hard and he said, the erections are hard. Getting healthy was easy. We had to go there, but we had to to because there's a very specific point with this.

What did we talk about? Blood flow is the number one brain imaging predictor of Alzheimer's disease. And when you reverse this trend, even in your mid-60s, if you've had diabetes for a long time and you get healthy, it increases blood flow. Blood flow is also the number one. Okay, let's get back on track. So what is your motivation to get well? And when I read this study, it said 40% of 40-year-olds have erectile dysfunction. 70% of 70-year-olds have, I'm like not okay with this.

It's not good for your marriage and it's not good for your mind. So know your BMI, your waist to height ratio, get your fasting blood sugar checked along with your fasting insulin level. We just talked about hormones and how important they are. But there's one test that's a really good test called hemoglobin A1c. It's a measure of blood sugar levels over about three months. It's actually more accurate. It's better because, I mean, you want to know the fasting blood sugar because there's some people who have a really high fasting blood sugar, but their blood sugar is more normal throughout the day, and that can be a sign of stress. So you want to know that for sure. Um, but the hemoglobin A1C is, is a better indicator of what's going on and you can't fool your doctor then. So, because

some people will like eat okay for a couple of days and they just want their fasting blood sugar done and you can kind of fool your doctor. You cannot fool anybody when you get a hemoglobin A1C because they can see a three-month snapshot. Right. So. All right. So the interventions, how you attack diabesity is, I just have a masterful food table in this. Tana has a great book, The Brain Warrior's Way.

Of all my books, cookbooks I've written, that is the easiest and the best. And so some simple rules. Don't drink your calories. 1980, people drank about 225 calories a day. Today, it's more like 450 calories a day. That extra just 225 calories a day over a year puts 23 pounds of fat on your body. So just don't drink your calories. We're sort of fans of losing weight slowly if you're overweight so that you can develop lifelong habits. You have to eat often enough to not let your blood sugar go really low. So, um, we like 12 hour fasts, uh, that, um, because that helps with, uh, uh, a process called autophagy where your brain consumes the track. Um, so when, you know, if you eat at six or seven at night, don't eat again until six or seven in the morning.

That will help with your weight. And then high quality food. It's the game Chloe and I played since she was two. Is this good for my brain or bad for it? So I have two things I want to add to that. You really do have to be a warrior because you are being bombarded by these messages all day long. You sit down to, you know, watch even the news or a sports event on television. And all of a sudden the commercials, you have to be paying attention. If you are just sort of

tuning out, they're tuning in. So you have to be aware. Well, and they're going after you. Hold on. Most people don't even know this there are laws against putting out messages to people against those commercials because they they say our government actually puts out laws against sort of bashing those commercials and those companies because they say well people should be smart enough to be able to know that you know to eat healthy or not eat healthy and make a choice but that's not true we've got little kids that, you know, to eat healthy or not eat healthy and make a choice. But that's not true. We've got little kids watching this, you know, or socioeconomic issues. So you have to be a warrior and an advocate for your own health. That's one.

And the other one is we talked about those obesogens that are in food, they're in water, they're in certain areas in the environment, those toxins. So tell them what blood tests they can get or what type of tests they can have done to see what toxins might be in their body so they can detoxify. I know we run them here. Dr. Philaday does them. Dr. Right. So we'll do hair sample tests to look for heavy metal screens.

There are other tests you can do to look at the level of PCBs, PPAs in your body. Right. And we can actually help you detox. Dr. But you and I have helped thousands of people lose weight and get their blood sugars under control. And we have done it primarily through better decision making. Absolutely. And it's don't drink your calories. But if it doesn't work, you want to look a little deeper.

Well, but I think the simple thing is, is well let's start with don't drink your calories i'm actually a fan if you're overweight and you're having trouble losing it you should count your calories and i think of calories they still need to be they need to be high quality calories i agree but they've got to be high quality well you have this saying i like that it's like exchange rates with money it's like exchange rates with money. It's like exchange rates with money. Some foods are worth more nutrient wise. And some are worth zip. If you go on a Twinkie diet of 800 calories a day of Twinkies only, you will lose weight initially, but you will also get sick as a dog. And then you will, your inflammation will go up and then you will begin to reverse and gain weight. Right. So that's why we're generally not a fan of a lot of the weight loss companies because you just have to read the labels.

And there's a lot of things in there that are pro-inflammatory, that are toxic. They're chemicals. And so on. You can't pronounce them. Yes. Magical. Calorie smart. High quality protein and healthy fat at every meal.

Brand new study that was just published. They looked at people on high carbohydrate diets, people on high fat diets, and the people on high carbohydrate diets, bread, pasta, potatoes, rice, sugar, they died early. I mean, it was a 28% increased risk of early death. People on a high-fat diet, even if it was saturated fat, so from steak or coconuts, they lived longer. That's just crazy. So it really settles this disruption. What should I be eating?

High-quality protein, high-quality fat, and carbohydrates that don't raise your blood sugar. But we don't want you eating lousy fat. So please no trans fat, no processed, cheap fats, cheap oils, inflammatory. Eat healthy fat. Right. Avocados, nuts, seeds. We want you to cook with brain healthy spices and memory rescue and the brain warriors way. There's a whole section on describing not only what they help with, but simple ways to incorporate them into your diet.

Right. So from a supplement standpoint, chromium, picolinate has been shown to help blood sugar, berberine, cinnamon, and alpha lipoic acid. The foods, we want you to just get these two terms in your head low glycemic how quickly does a food turn to sugar in your body and you want to get rid of the high glycemic foods so learn about that and learn about glycemic load. So low glycemic, high fiber. You want foods with lots of fiber because fiber is like medicine. Fiber is really prebiotics that help to feed the bugs in your gut. Protein and fat at every meal to stabilize your blood sugar and cravings. Cinnamon and nutmeg can help as well.

Fiber-rich foods, lentils, green peas, winter squash, cabbage, green beans. And so just to help you out to get you started on our website, on my website, tanaayman.com, and also the book, the cookbook, The Brain Warrior's Way cookbook, just hundreds of recipes to get you started that incorporate all of this. And on BrainFitLife. BrainFitLife. BrainFitLife.com. just hundreds of recipes to get you started that incorporate all of this and on brain fit life brainfitlife.com uh you want to avoid high glycemic low fiber foods white and wheat bread pasta white potatoes and rice and kill the sugar uh before the sugar kills you i had one woman once tell me she'd rather get Alzheimer's disease than give up sugar.

And subsequently, her mother developed Alzheimer's disease. That'll make you think about that. That was so stupid, which it was. All right, diabesity. You can get that better by getting rid of the toxins in your environment and eating in a brain smart way, which can taste awesome. Stay with us. We're going to come back and talk about sleep. Thank you for listening to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. Go to iTunes and leave a review and you'll automatically be entered into a drawing to get a free signed copy of the Brain Warriors Way and the Brain Warriors Way cookbook we give away every month.