Change Your Brain Every Day - Foods that Reverse Brain Damage

Episode Date: November 21, 2016

In this episode, we discuss the foods that hurt your brain and foods that work like medicine to help heal the brain.

Hi, I'm Donnie Osmond, and welcome to The Brain Warrior's Way, hosted by my friends Daniel and Tana Amon. Now, in this podcast, you're going to learn that the war for your health is one between your ears. That's right. If you're ready to be sharper and have better memory, mood, energy, and focus, well, then stay with us. Here are Daniel and Tana Amon.

Hey, everybody. Today, we're going to talk about a really important topic that actually got more views when I did a live Facebook chat on this than any other thing. It got over a half a million views when we talked about foods that reverse brain damage. So did you actually know that foods could reverse brain damage? But the flip is also true. There are foods that can actually be damaging to your brain, because if they're damaging other organs, they're damaging your brain. So let's dig into this. So it's not like sort of being whacked by a big bunch of carrots that cause brain damage. There's a study out of UCLA where they took rats and they gave them a head injury. So that was not very nice. And before they gave them the head injury, they all knew how to run a certain maze. And after the head injury, they gave one group of rats their typical healthy diet and another group of rats their typical healthy

diet plus fructose, which is fruit sugar. And after three weeks, the rats who had the healthy diet could run the maze just fine. They were healing. The group that got fructose were confused and could not run the maze. And I read that study and I think about all the kids who are playing contact sports, whether it's football or hockey or soccer. And when they get a head injury, you know, at the end of the games, when one team wins, they take the big bucket of Gatorade and put it over the coach's head. If you're drinking that stuff, your concussions are not going to get better.

In fact, they're going to get worse. So foods can accelerate brain damage or they can decelerate brain damage. And speaking to that, let's talk for one second about the studies out of Holland, the two studies out of Holland, where kids with ADD, they put kids with ADD on an elimination diet. And in two different studies, 70% of the kids, their symptoms got better with a simple elimination diet by getting rid of things like sugar and food dyes and gluten and corn. Corn and soy. So basically what we promote.

But 70% of the kids improve their symptoms of ADD with just doing that. So let's talk about why. So sugar is pro-inflammatory. It increases erotic brain cell firing. It's addictive. It's the inflammation that's the trouble because inflammation is associated with damaging virtually every organ in your body. So that's why we think it's really important to limit or eliminate as much sugar as possible. And then we also want you to eliminate high glycemic, low fiber foods because we've actually discovered that certain forms of bread, for example, actually turn to sugar in your body faster than if you're eating table sugar. They actually call some of them super carbohydrates. So things like potato starch

and certain types of starch, tapioca starch, they call them, which are in a lot of those foods, especially gluten-free foods, they call them super carbohydrates. Wait, you're causing trouble now. I am. So when it says on the box, gluten-free. Doesn't mean it's necessarily healthy.

Wow. Read the food label. Read the food label. Read the food label, read the food label. Right. So it'd be a little mantra in your head, teach your children to read food labels as well. And then artificial dyes and sweeteners. I've actually seen kids become aggressive, not only kids, adults. And I had someone visit from the Midwest. We scanned him and his brain was not healthy. He said, I want you to do one more scan on MSG. And I'm like, well, why? He said, whenever I get MSG. And in my mind, I'm thinking, well, he'll just want to hold the MSG. He said, you have to give me the medicine. And I'm like, why? He said, because you don't always know what MSG is in. No, it's hidden.

It's hidden. And they don't have to label it. Unless it is an individual ingredient that's added, if it's part of something like, say, soy protein isolate, if it's like part of something like, say, soy protein isolate. If it's part of another ingredient, they don't have to list it. Right. And whenever you see natural flavors, that actually can mean MSG. We've talked about trans fats before, but one of the ones that always surprises people is corn. And I often say that's how the Indians got us back, by introducing us to corn. Why is it a problem? So corn actually has the worst fatty acid profile of any grain. It's a

grain, not a vegetable. It has the worst fatty acid profile. It's changed over the years. We have bred it to be very different. It is sprayed mostly with Roundup, so it's very little of it. About 90% of it is genetically modified and sprayed with Roundup, which is horrible. That's a hormone disruptor. So the pesticides. The pesticides are terrible. And when it dies. Yeah, when corn dies, unlike any other plant, when corn dies and goes into the soil, when it drops into the soil, other plants act as fertilizers for other plants and act as a fertilizer as they decompose. Corn actually kills other plants. And the pollen from corn, like the pollen as it's blown in the wind, actually kills monarch butterflies.

Very interesting. But there's also over 21 mycotoxins in corn, and it's been shown to cause the same type of lesions, very similar type lesions in the gut that gluten causes in many people. So there's a type of protein on corn that can be very, very damaging to a lot of people's gut. So I'm feeling bad for the butterflies. Right, exactly. I'm having a moment here where morning monarchs. Right. So I want to back up for one second when you touched on the sweeteners and a lot of people don't know this so when it comes to artificial sweeteners when it comes to brain health this is a really important point dr russell blaylock has actually

written a lot of books on this because he's a retired neurosurgeon and start he dedicated the rest of his career to sort of terrorizing the artificial sweetener industry because of all the damage he saw from artificial sweeteners. And one thing that I learned was, I believe it's about almost 80%, over 75% of complaints to the FDA are made about aspartame. And it's the reactions to the aspartame. So most of those complaints are made about aspartame type reactions, but things like MS type symptoms, migraines, people having the inability to focus, having neurological dysfunction, because he says that they are completely neurotoxic.

Well, I think I've learned the most, not from textbooks, but from my patients. And about 25 years ago, one of my patients told me she got rid of aspartame and lost her arthritis. And I was like 35 at the time and my joints hurt. I'd get on the floor with my kids. I'd have trouble getting up. And I'm like, huh. And I had drank diet soda like I was addicted. It was addicted. And so when I got rid of aspartame, my pain went away. And I'm like, wow. And I'm like, no, not really. And so I tried it again at lunch and had a diet soda.

Almost immediately, my hands started to hurt again. And so I'm like, okay, I'm smarter than this. I can learn and have literally avoided it ever since. It's notorious for joint pain. Because it's not good for you. You also have dairy in the list of foods to avoid. And it's just made the French so sad because of all the cheese that they have for dessert.

Why is dairy on the list of foods to avoid? Okay, so it doesn't affect everyone the same way. So we always tell people to eliminate it for a few weeks and see how it affects you and then add it back in and see what happens. Most people will notice they feel better without it. So dairy, there's a lot of reasons. First of all, about 65% of the population does not have the enzyme necessary to digest dairy properly. So they're lactose intolerant and they may not even realize it because the symptoms aren't always just severe digestive reactions. It can be things like brain fog, joint pain, all sorts of things. And it's not just the lactose. Sometimes it's the milk proteins. So the casein in it is actually, again, according to Russell Blalock, who writes a lot of papers on

this, they are excitotoxins in the brain. So casein actually can increase certain symptoms of other, you know, neurological problems in the brain. So that's one of the reasons it's not just the lactose. And, you know, that's why when we have people go off of dairy and a lot of times not only do their digestive issues clear up, their joint pain and their focus and energy will get better. Well, and one of the most common things I do for the autistic children that we see is get rid of gluten, get rid of dairy, and their word count often goes up. Their behavior often is improved. And so I've come to the conclusion that the only animals that really should be having dairy are baby cows. So one interesting fact, though, because a lot of people are like, no, can't do that. My cheese, I can't do without my cheese. And what about yogurt? Because yogurt has active enzymes,

right? So live cultures. So a couple of things, goat milk and goat cheese, like goat products, have not been shown to have exactly the same properties as cow milk and goat cheese, like goat products, have not been shown to have exactly the same properties as cow milk and cow cheese. Interestingly enough, some studies done on children who had severe milk allergies, it was like 84% of them could tolerate goat milk and goat cheese just fine. So not everyone reacts the same to both of those. And one of the reasons is the casein in, so the proteins, the casein in goat cheese and goat milk is actually the closest to human milk. So it's very, very close, unlike cow's milk. And so a lot of people are able to tolerate small amounts of goat products as opposed to cow products.

So you can try small amounts of goat cheese if you really want that. And alcohol is not a health food. It's just not. There's a direct correlation between the amount of alcohol and about a dozen different cancers. So not only does it decrease blood flow to the brain and make you less thoughtful, it also activates your appetite and is associated with cancer. So for a long time, I felt like I've been fighting the wine industry because many Americans think, well, I should have two glasses of red wine a day. And according to a study from Johns Hopkins, people who drink every day have

smaller brains. And when it comes to your brain size matters, you don't want a smaller brain. So the first thing people ask is, okay, so what is a safe amount to drink? Not a healthy amount. What's a safe amount to drink where I'm not going to be damaging my brain? Now, I know the first thing you're going to say is none, but if people are asking that question and they're at a social event or whatever, what is a safe amount that people can drink without really damaging their brain? So for me, I tell my patients two normal-sized glasses of alcohol. So that would be eight ounces of beer, six ounces of wine, one ounce of hard liquor a week. So two normal-sized glasses a week.

Probably you're not getting into any trouble. Right. So I'll have a glass of wine now and then. You don't drink at all. But we always want to know what is... Because I love my brain. See, I'm older than you. So I have less... That's wine now and then. You don't drink at all. But we always want to know what is... Because I love my brain. See, I'm older than you. So I have less...

That's why I married a geezer. I have less room for error. All right. So we've talked about foods that damage your brain. Let's talk about foods that reverse damage. And they're going to surprise some people because it's fat, fat, fat, and more fat. Now, we did say, we actually said, not optimize, we actually said help to reverse damage. So that's surprising to people.

That the food you eat clearly matters. It's medicine. And so healthy fats, salmon, healthy oils. So coconut oil, olive oil that don't cook. The medium chain triglycerides in coconut oil have been shown to actually help people with focus to actually act as like when they're having trouble metabolizing sugar in the brain, the fat actually, they can metabolize that fat, right? Avocados, nuts, seeds, and even the fat in some green leafy vegetables.

Now, people are confused about oils. Yeah. So what do you think is a good cooking oil? So there's a difference in the oils that you cook with and the oils that you eat. For example, olive oil is great when you put it on a salad, not so much when you cook with it. So it's about the smoking points. I have a whole section on cooking oils and oils to eat, like which ones are the best to eat and which ones are the best to cook with

and which ones you should avoid. In the brain warrior's way. In the brain warrior's way. There's a whole section in there. In the cookbook. In the cookbook. So to really make that simple, but things like walnut, avocado, macadamia nut oil

and coconut oil are great for cooking with. Probably the more common ones to find that are easier are like macadamia nut oil that doesn't have a strong flavor for cooking and coconut oil does have a little bit of a flavor or some ghee, like that would be like a clarified butter or even grass fed butter. So people get confused now because we just told them to avoid dairy, but you said clarified butter, which is from dairy. So let me just talk about really quickly, the one type of dairy in very small amounts, very small amounts that does have some health benefits is either ghee, which is clarified butter. If you are allergic to the milk proteins, some clarified butter where they've removed those,

most of those proteins can be okay. Or for people who aren't as sensitive, small amounts of like butter from grass-fed cows, they do have short chain fatty acids that can be healing to the gut and they are good for cooking with because of the high smoke point. So healthy fats, colorful vegetables because of the antioxidants. So one of the reasons I was not a fan of the Atkins diet, because it's all basically fat and protein, is it misses the phytomedicine. So the medicines that are found in plants, colorful plants especially. And so we think, take a plate, 70% of it should be plant-based foods, 30% high-quality protein with a lot of fat mixed in.

Protein at every meal because it helps stabilize your blood sugar. And when you're thinking of carbohydrates, low glycemic, high fiber carbohydrates, because fiber helps to stabilize your blood sugar. It's actually been shown to decrease the incidence of colon cancer. Right. It's actually a burn to your colon. And some types of fiber act as prebiotics, so food to the probiotics or the good bugs in your gut. And then the last thing to help reverse brain damage, my favorite thing, because my grandfather was a candy maker, is chocolate. Now, sugar-free, dairy-free chocolate that can be healing because it has a lot of something, has a lot of antioxidants. It has phenylethylamine in it that alerts your brainstem

that something fun is about to happen. And it has polyphenols that can help boost blood flow. So it's one of the reasons I put so many recipes in the new cookbook that have sugar-free, dairy-free chocolate, dark chocolate in it. And a bonus, isn't green tea really good? I'm drinking green tea right now, so it made me think of it. Isn't green tea really good for your brain as well? Green tea has many healing properties for your brain.

So foods that damage your brain, you want to avoid them if you love yourself and focus on foods that damage your brain, you want to avoid them if you love yourself and focus on foods that heal your brain because even aging is damaging to your brain. I hate that, right? When I turned 40, no big deal. 50, no big deal. But when I turned 60, it was sort of a big deal because I've seen so many older scans that just look awful. And so aging is clearly not your friend. So the older you are, the more serious you want to be about only putting things in your mouth that serve your health, not hurt your health. So I really want to quickly talk about,

put this into perspective and talk about Angie. So one of my favorite brain warrior stories is Angie, who was really sick. I mean, really sick. And she had migraines. She was overweight pretty much most of her life. Her mom put her in Jenny Craig when she was eight years old. She used to binge eat in the pantry. She would close herself into the kitchen pantry, close the door and binge eat bags and bags of food and felt shame. And she felt ridiculed most of her life, but her health suffered. So she was over a hundred pounds overweight. She had migraines. She had ovarian cysts, depression and anxiety ruled her life. And her social life was a disaster because she just had so much shame.

And when she did the program and she literally focused on the foods we just talked about for reversing, which is basically our program as we spell it out. So she avoided foods that hurt her, engaged in foods that helped her, never felt deprived. But here was the part that was the key. Angie had tried, in her words, every quick fix, pill, diet, everything she could try. She was in Jenny Craig from the time she was eight years old, and she was angry and bitter about it. And she... As she should have been. Right. And she wrote in and she said she couldn't believe it was this simple. She said she actually didn't believe it at first that it could be as simple. And she said, I couldn't believe it wasn't me. It was what the food I was eating was doing to me. So three years later, Angie is still down 103 pounds, does not have migraines. Her female problems have cleared up and she has learned how

to not only forgive herself, but other people. And she is now mentoring others. She's a brain warrior. That's what we want for you. She lost her addiction and her cravings, and she no longer is a captive. She's no longer a prisoner of war. She's a warrior. That's what we love. That's what we want for you. Stay with us. Thanks for listening to today's show, The Brain Warrior's Way. Why don't you head over to brainwarriorswaypodcast.com. That's brainwarriorswaypodcast.com where Daniel and Tana have a gift for you just for subscribing to the show.

And when you post your review on iTunes, you'll be entered into a drawing where you can win a VIP visit to one of the Amen Clinics. I'm Donnie Osmond, and I invite you to step up your brain game by joining us in the next episode.