- It's something that begins in the brain
far earlier than the presentation of symptoms
and that's why I really think
that you're never too young or too old for that matter
to begin thinking about prevention.
How's it going, everybody?
My name is Max Lugavere.
I'm the author of the New York Times bestselling book
Genius Foods
which is all about how to optimize your cognition,
your brain health, your brain function with food
and today what we're gonna talk about
are the top 10 foods that you can use
to potentially help prevent dementia.
I became obsessed with this topic when about eight years ago
my own mother started to show the very earliest symptoms
of a very rare form of dementia
and it sent me down the rabbit hole.
I became obsessed with trying to understand
to the best of my ability the kinds of foods
and lifestyle modifications
that I might be able to integrate into my life
to help minimize my risk
of every developing any kind of dementia.
So what I did was I stumbled upon 10 foods
that essentially give your brain
not only the building blocks
that it requires to create healthy new brain cells
for the entirety of your life
but also give your brain the tools that it can use
to fend off against everyday stresses
that can accelerate aging and potentially instigate
or exacerbate neurological conditions
one of which being Alzheimer's.
Dementia is a category of memory disorders
that include Alzheimer's disease
which is the most common of them
and is also the most common neurodegenerative condition
but then there are other types of dementia
like Parkinson's disease dementia, vascular dementia,
Lewy body dementia.
So it's an umbrella term but at the end of the day
all dementias are memory disorders
and they affect people at all different ages
although mostly you'll find dementia
striking at the older end of the age spectrum.
Generally speaking, Alzheimer's disease
which is the most common form of dementia
affects your working memory,
it affects your processing speed
and it affects your executive function
which include your ability to focus,
to pay attention, to tune out distractions
and every case of dementia is different.
Once you've seen one case of dementia,
you've seen one case of dementia.
Alzheimer's disease does not have a cure
and the treatments that are available
are minimally effective.
I mean, one shocking thing about Alzheimer's disease
is that drug trials to find viable treatments
for the condition have a 99.6% failure rate
and so that's why I firmly believe
that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Many people around the world have dementia.
In the United State alone, about five million people
are estimated to have Alzheimer's disease
and that number is expected to explode by the year 2050
when about 15 million people
are projected to have Alzheimer's disease.
One in three people today over the age of 85
have Alzheimer's disease and in the future
if you make it to the age of 85,
your risk might go up to one in two.
It's something that begins in the brain
far earlier than the presentation of symptoms
and that's why I really think that you're never too young
or too old for that matter
to begin thinking about prevention.
If you exercise regularly,
if you get good quality sleep every night,
if you find a way of managing your stress,
you then have a pretty good shot
according to the best available evidence.
There are even some foods that we can eat
that can help protect your brain as it ages.
So these are all the foods
that I've uncovered in my research
that give the brain what it needs,
what it requires, what it yearns for.
Over here we can start with almonds.
Now, really all nuts are healthy
but almonds in particular I've highlighted
because they are a top source of dietary magnesium.
Almonds also are a very rich source of vitamin E.
There is a good relationship between vitamin E consumption
and lower risk for developing Alzheimer's disease.
When you eat almonds, you wanna make sure
that they are either raw or dry roasted.
Raw almonds are what's up.
Here we have blueberries.
Blueberries are tremendous.
They are rich in anthocyanins
which gives them their beautiful blue color
and anthocyanins can also be found in blue corn,
purple potatoes and red onions
but these compounds have been validated
in human observational studies
to help protect the brain as it ages.
Everybody tends to rejoice when I mention dark chocolate.
Dark chocolate, it's a sweet treat
but it also packs a powerful health wallop
and that is because dark chocolate again
is a very good source of dietary magnesium
and it also is full of what are called cocoa flavanols
which have been shown to benefit cardiovascular health.
What you really wanna make sure to do
is to buy dark chocolate 85% or higher.
Over here we have broccoli.
So I'm a big fan of cruciferous vegetables.
Cruciferous vegetables are important for a number of reasons
but for one they give your body
the compounds that it requires to create its own endogenous
meaning created in the body antioxidant
and detoxification compounds.
The other thing that cruciferous vegetables do
is aside from giving your body
the ingredients that it requires
to create those detox compounds is it stimulates them.
It actually contains chemicals
that stimulate your body's own detoxification machinery.
Up next, we have avocado.
Avocado is an all in one brain food and the reason for that
is that it contains the highest concentration
of fat protecting antioxidants of any fruit or vegetable
and they're packed with carotenoids
which are essentially plant pigments.
The two that are found in avocados are lutein
and zeaxanthin which have been shown
actually in a University of Georgia study
to help boost processing speed in the brain
in young and healthy people by 20%.
So that's actually quite astonishing
because young and healthy people are already thought
to be at the peak of their cognitive prowess
so if you eat more avocados,
you might in turn develop a faster performing brain.
Up next, we've got wild salmon.
So wild salmon provides omega-3 fatty acids
that are already in their plug and play format.
So when you eat a piece of wild salmon,
they get sucked up into the brain
and your brain uses those compounds
to basically create healthy new brain cells
and there also seems to be a protective effect
for people that consume fatty fish like salmon regularly.
It seems to play a role in the mitigation
of risk for Alzheimer's disease
when part of a Mediterranean dietary pattern.
Now, grass-fed beef
is one of my more controversial recommendations
but I'm a big fan of grass-fed beef for a number of reasons.
Not only is it the most bioavailable source of iron
but it provides a nontrivial source of omega-3 fatty acids
which again the brain requires for good health
and it also contains a compound called creatine
which is very important for energy production in the brain.
It's also a very good source of vitamin E.
In fact, grass-fed beef has three times the vitamin E
of grain-fed beef.
When shopping for red meat,
you really wanna opt for grass-fed.
Not only is it the kinder option in terms of the animal,
it's definitely the more sustainable option
for the planet as well.
Moving on, we've got eggs.
So an egg yolk literally is designed by nature
to contain everything required to grow a healthy brain.
In fact, it's no wonder that many people refer to egg yolks
as nature's multivitamin.
Now, I'm a big fan of dark leafy greens in general
but here we have kale.
You can substitute kale for spinach, for arugula
but research out of Rush University
has found that people who eat a large bowl
of dark leafy greens every single day
have brains that tend to look younger by up to 11 years
on cognitive tests and scans.
Last but not least, we've got extra virgin olive oi.
Now, extra virgin olive oil
is a staple of the Mediterranean dietary pattern,
adherence to which is associated with a robust
risk reduction for Alzheimer's disease
by up to 65% according to Rush University research.
Now, many chronic diseases today
are characterized in part by having excessive,
chronic, low grade inflammation
and extra virgin olive oil has a compound in it
that's been shown to be as antiinflammatory
as low dose Ibuprofen.
So if you're a vegan or a vegetarian,
I mean, one of the most obvious things
that you should be doing is supplementing with vitamin B12
which is the only essential nutrient
that is found exclusively in animal product
but aside from vitamin B12
and generally I would say probably the strongest evidence
is in favor of supplementing with algal DHA from algae
which is a replacement for the preformed EPA and DHA fat
that you'll find in wild salmon or grass-fed beef
or even omega-3 enriched eggs for example.
Look to prioritizing choline in your diet
which is found in a number of different vegetables.
You just have to eat a lot of them
to get your adequate intake for choline
and I would also probably consider supplementing
with a little bit of creatine.
Those are the ways that I would probably try to compensate
if I were a vegan or vegetarian myself.
So Alzheimer's disease prevention
obviously is more than just eating an almond
or a blueberry here and there.
It's about really embracing the lifestyle
and that is optimizing your sleep, exercising more
and eating foods like what I have here in front of me.
Again, we're just at the very tip of the iceberg
in terms of understanding
what causes Alzheimer's disease for each person.
What we might find in the future
and what I expect to be the case
is that there might be a different cause
of Alzheimer's disease for each individual patient.
We each have different genes, different genders,
different fitness levels, different ages
and I think that as we go forward into this amazing
and important line of inquiry
we're gonna find answers to some of these questions
so I'm very excited
and if you'd like to support that process
more than just eating these foods which I hope you do,
click the link below
to support the Alzheimer's Prevention Clinic
and Alzheimer's Universe
and if you'd like to go even deeper
with more actionable tips that you can use
to optimize the way that your brain works today
and decades into the future,
don't forget to pick up my New York Times bestselling book
Genius Foods which is available everywhere books are sold.
I'm Max Lugavere for Goodful.
Protect your brain, it's worth it.
(calm music)