Episode #26: Better Brain Health? Prevent Dementia with the MIND Diet

Hello friends!

Today, we will discuss what started in 2015 as a blend of the Mediterranean and DASH diets: two of the most heart healthy diets in the United States.

The MIND diet, which stands for Mediterranean-DASH Intervention for Neurodegenerative Delay, is a blend of the above two diets. It is showing high promise to help with brain degeneration and prevention of dementia.

On today's podcast, Frank discusses:

• What is the MIND Diet?
• What are the foods to eat on the MIND Diet
• What are the foods to avoid/reduce?
• What are the sciences behind the MIND Diet?
• How to get more information...

Please share this podcast and consider giving us a 5-star rating, so this podcast can reach as many people to possible to help change lives! We ALL deserve better health!

Here are the show notes for today's podcast:

Frank: (00:00)
Do you have a loved one or a friend who unfortunately is suffering from Alzheimer's or any other type of dementia? Well then stay tuned to this next podcast where we're going to talk about a diet that could possibly be very beneficial for your friend or loved one to be able to help prevent dementia. Stay tuned is unconventional on us. Radio comes to you with this wonderful fresh new prod cast. Hey everyone, and welcome to unconventional on this radio is a powerful and inspiring podcast set to revolutionize and disrupt healthcare. It's trying to put you in the driver's seat and be the force of change necessary for the lifestyle you've always wanted. Welcome to unconventional wellness radio. I am frank and I am your host for all things holistic wellness. And we are going to talk about bringing a dive into the pillar of nutrition today. 

Frank: (00:57)
And, uh, one of my more popular podcasts, if you haven't looked at it in the past, uh, but if you look at our previous episodes, if you're listening to us through iTunes or Spotify or whatever means that you are, uh, one of the more popular ones is the one where I talk about the Mediterranean and dash diets. These are the two of the more popular diets to have more, uh, of the diets that are actually more well known, more researched, and very much, uh, successful at, uh, promoting heart healthiness. And so I wanted to get on here too. First of all, thank you guys for the reviews. Thank you for the ratings. If you have a chance to jump on there and give me a rating and review, I really appreciate it because that is the measure at which the different podcasts hosting machines, if you will, their algorithms, I need five star ratings. 

Frank: (01:53)
And so if you actually would be willing to hop on there, give me a five star rating. I can't be a one, it can't be a four. Um, those are unfortunately ineffective. They gotta be fives. And the reason why we do that is because that puts me higher up in the list, uh, in order to be able to have this, be able to reach everything, uh, that people need, you know, when it comes to nutrition or movement or getting better sleep or reducing their stress or, uh, you know, removing toxins from their life. I want to help people with that. And so I need your help to do that. So please leave me a rating and a review. Please also, um, try to, uh, hop on there and, uh, give it a share. All of those things would be very, very beneficial. Okay. I promise I will stop with the cheesiness right there. 

Frank: (02:40)
Uh, let's move on. And so one of the most popular, uh, ones that I've ever talked about in terms of a podcast for our episodes is this one on the Mediterranean dash diets. Well, I wanted to take it one step further today and talk about a blend of those two diets. And so the Mediterranean diets both have extremely beneficial portions, if you will, of those particular diet plans. While the mind diet was developed by researchers to specifically attack brain function, a support and also to prevent dementia. And that's actually what the researchers of the mind diet are setting out to do. So the mind diet has not been around for a very long time. It's a mixture of the Mediterranean Dashlane cause I've said it's actually stands for Mediterranean Dash intervention for neuro degenerative delays. Say that three times fast. But I love how these acronyms usually correspond to some way in telling people about what they are specifically designed to help do. 

Frank: (03:46)
Okay, so this is evidence based. Again, we're going to be able to back this up with true science and be able to actually explain how the mind diet is showing really great promise in order to be able to help prevent dementia and be able to actually support the delay of neurodegeneration, which is unfortunately happening. So with that being alone, if you've got somebody who is battling with dementia or battling with some form of neurodegenerative delay and maybe like sort of like pre dimensional symptoms, then please share this podcast with them. We want to make sure that this information gets out. This could be a diet that could be extremely beneficial for them. And so just as a quick reminder on how the Mediterranean dash diets work, it's very important to break those two down, uh, because if you didn't listen to a previous podcast, which I hope then and urge you to please go check that out. 

Frank: (04:41)
But if you haven't done so, the Mediterranean diet is a very well known diet. It's actually ranked number one according to the u s news as a, as the number one diet of 2018 and it is mainly more so a plant forward. Actually most of the diets that we will discuss are all going to be like more plant forward. Um, there is definitely proteins that are consumed. There's olive oil that's consumed on the Mediterranean diet and it is really one of the only diets that are, is out there that, uh, promotes the use of the occasional glass of wine, which is kind of cool about the Mediterranean diet as well. But the overall arching really awesome thing that I love about the Mediterranean diet is that it's also social in nature, meaning that you are supposed to be sharing great meals with good friends and that's what I really love about the Mediterranean diet is that it has that massive social aspect as well. 

Frank: (05:36)
Now Dash Diet on the other hand is a more well known diet as well. It is something that if you have unfortunately been struck with high blood pressure, it's something that may be one of your medical providers has spoken to you about a, it stands for the dietary approaches to stop hypertension. That is the actual acronym of dash broken down. And really the way that I help remember it and the way that I explained it to my patients was that the dash diet really looks at salt and so when you think about salt, the way that you describe it when you talk about food as a dash of salt. So I really like that acronym as well as that's how I keep that in mind. And so it as a lower sodium diet, there are some specifics. You can do a normal dash diet and then you can do an even more restrictive dash diet and a, and both of those look at the amount of sodium that you are going to consume in a daily period. 

Frank: (06:29)
Just to give you an example about how detrimental salt can actually be, two blood pressure is usually if you were to go consume one fast food meal, there is more sodium in one fast food meal, then usually your entire recommended daily allowance for the entire day. Um, it usually will hop beyond that and when you add in the fries and you add in a soda, if you're getting one of those types of fast food meals, then you are really consuming a lot of sodium. And if you do that over the course of a period of time, your body will retain all of that water. And by retaining all that water because it's supposed to be excreted through the kidneys, that puts extra strain on the closed system of your cardiovascular system. And it puts more and more pressure on the heart. And unfortunately, high blood pressure can lead to cardiovascular problems later on down the road. 

Frank: (07:23)
It's known as sort of like being one of the hypertension is one of the silent killers of our, of our generations because, um, it really just wears out the pump. And unfortunately over time it can lead to a lot of cardiovascular disease. And so both the Mediterranean dash diets have actually shown benefit to brain health. And so that's the reason why researchers wanted to figure out a way that we might be able to take the best of both worlds and put it into a way that we can actually focus on the new, the correct type of nutrition to help support those that could be struggling with dementia. Okay. And so the Mediterranean dash diets, they talk about eating lots of fruit, eating lots of vegetables. Um, fruit intake hasn't necessarily helped with improved brain function, but surprisingly enough, eating berries has, um, we, we know that berries and grapes are full of really wonderful antioxidants and those are fantastic at being able to help prevent against something called radical, a radical or a free radical degeneration. 

Frank: (08:28)
And so free radical degeneration, I always say it's not a, it's not a band of the 1980s. It's not known as the free radicals. Uh, but what these little monsters are is they are produced not only during regular metabolism in our body, but there are different ways that we can be exposed to them. And then there's different things that we can consume that will increase the amount of free radicals that are happening inside of our bodies. And these free radicals are essentially just a molecule that is unhappy and doesn't have a full array of, uh, electrons a on it's on, it's a composition and it goes around and it looks like it looks for just one electron. And these little microscopic, ultra microscopic, uh, entities are consumed like little pacman. And they go around and they grab one off of a tissue and then that tissue becomes unstable itself. 

Frank: (09:20)
And then it leads to a decay of tissue and then the whole cascade of inflammation can happen. And that's where we can get a lot of disease, chronic illness, pain, stuff like that. And so what we need is we need a diet that is definitely full of antioxidants in order to be able to make all of those very unhappy, free radicals happy by giving them electrons. And that's why antioxidants are so wonderful in protecting our, uh, not just our cardiovascular system but other systems inside of our body as well. Okay. So there is a lot of different types of foods and vegetables that are considered very beneficial on the mind diet. Um, once again, I told you that the mind diet and is very plant forward. I think that the vast majority of good health begins with a plant forward style of diet or a diet plan. 

Frank: (10:12)
Excuse me. Because uh, by doing so we are making sure that we are chalking full, our diet have lots of beneficial minerals, lots of beneficial vitamins, um, fantastically healthy dietary fiber. And so one of the very first foods that be, you should be considering on the mind diet is going to be green leafy vegetables. We're looking for at least some research says a at least six to seven servings per week. Quite honestly, I love the whole four or five per day. Um, that is definitely something that I love to look for. Now, granted I'm cocky about both fruits and vegetables, but, uh, in spa in in particular, I love enjoying my day or starting off my day with some sort of vegetable. And so, uh, there's a lot of people that are doing like celery smoothies if you will in the morning. Um, there's a lot of people who do super food smoothies in the morning. 

Frank: (11:04)
People just simply do, you know, Kale smoothies or spinach smoothies or something like that. I didn't as a very good way to get, uh, you know, two or like one to two different, uh, actual servings in a morning, uh, when it comes to your green leafy vegetables. And so I really love it. I love to start my day off that way. Um, that way I know that I'm stepping off on the right foot in the morning. Um, other vegetables, uh, you can eat non starchy vegetables. Uh, so this is going to be like any of your other types of actual non-green leafy vegetables. I'm really, really good to have also on the mind diet. And it says that you want to have at least some sort of a, uh, another vegetable per day. Okay. So like at least one serving per day. Okay. Berries, you should be eating those at least 20, or, excuse me, I apologize. 

Frank: (11:53)
Uh, it'd be eating those at least twice a week. Uh, you can, you know, you can eat strawberries, but blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, very good for the antioxidant properties that we spoke about earlier. Okay. Uh, five or more servings of nuts in a week. Um, there's not really, the researchers don't necessarily discuss exactly what type of nuts to consume, so it's really good to go ahead and use a variety. So, you know, anything like almonds or pistachios or wall nuts, totally find pecans. Uh, or you say P, can I say Pecan? Uh, whichever way you want to say it. Uh, those are very, very good, but, you know, variety is the spice of life. So, uh, definitely like to mix it up. Okay. Olive oil, just like in the Mediterranean diet, should be your main cooking oil. Make sure that you, uh, you know, understand how to prepare foods with olive oil. 

Frank: (12:45)
Uh, it is good. It's one of those oils that you just gotta be careful with. Just make sure that you get the full benefit out of it and stuff like that. But really olive oil is really a fantastic oil to be using. Uh, there is whole grains on the Diet. Uh, unlike, you know, discussions through the Paleo Diet or the Quito genic diet or something like that. There is grains. These do need to be hold. These need to be non processed, non enriched grains. Okay, so think whole wheat pasta, Kean Wa, uh, oatmeal, brown rice, even whole wheat bread is something that you should be eating. Uh, researchers say that you can be doing at least three servings of those per day. You should be eating fish, uh, at least once a week. You want to choose those fatty fishes as always, like salmon and sardine or tuna and trout. 

Frank: (13:33)
Uh, because they have lots and lots of really good omega three fatty acids. You should be eating beans. You can be eating beans and lentils. Um, four meals per week is what researchers recommend. Poultry, chicken or Turkey should be at least twice a week. Of course don't eat fried chicken cause that's a bunch of really added stuff that you don't want. So preferably roasted chicken, baked chicken, something like that. Maybe even just chicken lightly sauteed in olive oil is totally fine as well. Okay. Um, do what we do. We actually purchased an airfryer and I tell you what, you won't miss. In my opinion, we don't Miss Fried Chicken because we can do a really fabulous mockup of a fried chicken, um, and just do it in the air fryer and we're not even actually getting any of those oils or any of that stuff, uh, with our chicken. 

Frank: (14:22)
And we still get that wonderful crisp enough so you can actually like take like, you know, Chenwa or even whole wheat bread sort of toasted. That way it becomes crispy. Um, use an egg. You can coat the chicken in an egg and then you can actually put it in the air fryer after you coat the breading on or the breadcrumbs, a few other that you've made from the whole wheat bread and your herbs and stuff like that on the chicken. It's a fantastic, uh, change from fried chicken. Um, and it's still just as juicy and tender and everything. So a wine is still also on the wine or me as on the mind diet. Uh, no more than one glass daily. Red and white wine can benefit the brain. Uh, but red wine is the one that was more focused on by researchers because it actually has something called reserve a trawl, which is a really fantastic, uh, component, uh, supplement or really just a constituent of whole wine. 

Frank: (15:11)
Paul, excuse me, red wine, which is really beneficial for being able to actually help protect against Alzheimer's disease. So, um, you know, you don't necessarily have to focus on the mind diet in particular. Researchers are showed that even if you have a moderate following of the mind diet, uh, it actually is still, uh, associated with a reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease. Okay. Uh, and so it just really is a wonderful blend of staying low salt and consuming all of these good whole foods, uh, in order to be able to, uh, affectively be able to help protect your, your brain against the possibility of dementia. Then there's some foods of course that we should avoid while we're on the mind diet as well. We've got the, uh, the issues of red meats. We don't want to be consuming more than three servings in a week. And so that would be anything, beef, pork, lamb, anything like that or any of those products that are made from those meats as well. 

Frank: (16:10)
Um, you should, this is, this is a tough one, but it's, it's still very good to consider is trying to reduce your cheese to even less than one time in a week now might be a difficult stretch for some folks because I know that we have some cheese heads that are probably listening to this podcast. I myself, I enjoy consuming cheese. And so, um, it's one of those ones that you just watch yourself, maybe work yourself down in baby steps. Maybe if you're eating, you know, four or five servings in a week of cheese and try to see if you can reduce yourself to three and then possibly two and then get yourself on down to one. Um, why'd you offer any type of, uh, processed butters if you will, like process butters, process, margarine. Um, butter is, is totally okay. Uh, you want to be able to eat less than a tablespoon because you're using olive oil predominantly more so as a cooking style of fat. 

Frank: (17:04)
All right? Um, and it really will give you a wonderful amount of flavors if you simply take that olive oil and put parsley or Oregano or a or Bazell or maybe all three inside of the olive oil. And you know, you can make a quick little infusion by taking the herbs, sticking them in the oil and letting them sit on the countertop. Uh, those, those herbs will continue to leach out, if you will, all of their wonderful flavor into the oil. And then you got yourself an olive oil on infusion that you can use as quick snack with some bread or you can put it over some vegetables or something like that. Make it, make it into a dressing, even, uh, even cook with it. And it's a really great way to limit the amount of butter and margarine, margarine that you have. Watch your fried foods. 

Frank: (17:47)
I think that that should be, uh, you know, really something that should be discouraged with any type of a diet plan. We understand the fried food, uh, is absolutely not perfect for our wellness whatsoever. And then a pastries and sweets trying to not have those more than four times in a week. And so, um, it's really good that, uh, you know, trans fats are what we're trying to essentially avoid. We want to eat good, healthy fats. Uh, you know, the, the issue with trans fats is they also wreak havoc inside of the body and that can actually, um, not only contribute to heart disease that can even contribute to the Alzheimer's. So we want to watch out for trans fats. Okay. Uh, lastly, you know what? We want to understand in terms of the research, if you will, about, uh, how the mind diet can help protect against dementia is essentially there is both anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects of the mind diet. 

Frank: (18:50)
Okay. And the reason why these particular foods we, uh, said to avoid is once our Bonnie sees those, it has a difficult time processing them inside of our body. And so it leads to increased amount of tissue damage. It can lead to increased inflammation, which can also lead to increased tissue damage because of the fact that chronic chronic illnesses and chronic disease can be, uh, you know, definitely affected because of chronic inflammation inside of the body. Okay. Um, one of the things about omega three fatty acids are they're fatigue. They're, they're very, very good at helping reduce inflammation even in the brain. Okay. Uh, the benefits of vitamin E, uh, because of like green leafy vegetables or olive oil or something like that, uh, also can be very, very beneficial against protecting against that oxidative stress that we discussed about. Okay. The a really particular thing that researchers are starting to understand is that there is this, uh, one type of protein. 

Frank: (19:49)
It's called Beta amyloid. So B e t a dash a m y Elo ID. These are like protein fragments that just so happened to be inside of the body. The issue is, is that with some sort of neurodegenerative issues that human beings can have is that these plaques can sort of collect, right? So like these proteins create plaques and these pirates can deposit themselves inside of the brain and that ends up being something that is very, very damaging to brain cells and it can actually lead to their death. And so, um, you know, one of these plaque formations is, is what a lot of researcher believe is one of the primary causes of Alzheimer's disease. And so, you know, if you want to have different types of antioxidants and vitamins by consuming these foods with the, with the mind dyed foods, it actually might in fact help prevent these, the formation of those Beta amyloid plaques. 

Frank: (20:45)
Okay. And so, uh, you know, the very first official paper just overall was, was written in 2015. Um, it's actually showing some really good promise. Uh, 35% on average, uh, are people who just moderately follow and it can get as high as 53%, uh, who follow the Diet pretty closely. Okay. So really, really good. I mean for 53% improvement, uh, in all of the studies that I've seen, most of them are around a thousand folks, especially from this paper that was published in, you know, 2015 that is a really great reduction, if you will. And it's a really good step. And showing that the mind diet has some really, really great promise. Okay. Cause it is founded on, uh, two of the very, very effective diets that are out there, um, that a lot of people follow and a lot of people are having a much more heart, healthy approach to their life. 

Frank: (21:43)
So therefore, why not have a healthy mind as well. Okay. Um, there is some really great, uh, websites that I came across that if you just simply were to Google, mind died, m I n d diet, uh, you will find some really good sample, uh, you know, Kinda like weekly and monthly meal plans that you can follow. Um, if you are interested, you can always email [email protected] and I will be very happy to lead you in the correct direction as to find more of those if you are interested. Uh, cause this is absolutely a diet that is showing really great promise, promise against Alzheimer's and dementia thing like and things like that. And so if you yourself have found value in this podcast, um, please, uh, you know, be happy to reach out to me. I just gave you my email if not, share this with somebody or share this with a friend who may have, uh, someone who, uh, has a family member or a friend that is suffering from Alzheimer's. 

Frank: (22:40)
And so, um, that's it. That's all I've got for today's podcast. I want to keep them short and sweet. And so if you've got questions, email me, uh, or uh, you know, share this podcast. Like I said, please give us a rating. That's always a fabulous thing and we will come to you again a very next week on something related to our diets or, or, or exercise or our movements or reducing toxins or anything to help you live an unconventional wellness lifestyle. So until then, have a wonderful week and we will talk to you again very soon. Bye. Bye now.