
Calorie restriction and intermittent fasting can help regenerate brain matter - nreece
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/09/reboot-your-brain-science-says-its-possible-a-galaxy-classic.html
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rarrrrrr
I've seen calorie restriction articles posted a few times on here. Why the
fascination? It's a rather challenging approach to longevity, and for most
people there are easier ways to improve long term health. Specifically:

Avoid all foods with hydrogenated oils (promotes heart disease.)

Avoid homogenized milk (promotes blood vessel plaque, heart disease.)

Eliminate excess sugar and high fructose corn syrup. Substitute with agave
nectar which is just as yummy and very low glycemic. (promotes diabetes and
creates inconsistent blood glucose levels which promote obesity.)

Avoid refined carbohydrates, substituting whole grains, vegetables, sweet
potatoes, nuts, legumes, berries, greens, etc. Substitute wheat for quinoa and
teff. Substitute white rice for brown rice. (Refined carbs deplete B vitamins
and promote glucose instability.)

Avoid all meat packed with sodium nitrate (promotes colon cancer). Look for
"uncured" meats.

Avoid artificial sugars, flavors, colors. (Nearly all of them have unfortunate
side effects.)

Try to get 90% of your protein from plant sources. (excess animal protein is
associated with disease)

Go outside! (Sunshine promotes vitamin D which is critical for immune
function, and vitamin D strongly prevents cancer.) While you're there,
exercise! :)

Read: The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Cancer-Gate by Dr. Samuel
Epstein

~~~
jongraehl
I don't mind a little sun, but there are less carcinogenic ways of getting
Vitamin D.

As for the whole list, it's just a list of plausible theories to me;
unfortunately, it would take quite a bit of tedious research to approach
figuring out what's quackery. Could you recommend some high quality research
(or surveys of it) for any/all of the above?

~~~
rarrrrrr
Yeah, there's a lot of disinformation about health running around. I've been
researching nutrition informally for about 10 years. The only really useful
pattern is that most of the disinformation is profitable to someone. It's
frustrating how much that disinformation prevents people I know and care about
from making even basic improvements to their diet.

As for sun and cancer, sunlight is actually more helpful than harmful, and
policy recommendations suggestion avoiding the sun are causing problems.
<http://www.news-medical.net/news/2005/03/23/8666.aspx> You can get Vitamin D
from supplements though.

For the rest of the things on the list, The China Study is where I suggest
starting if your just getting into health and nutrition, and prepare to be
blown away.

I don't think anything I mentioned is particularly disputed or hard to confirm
with some Googling. There's opposition though. The dairy industry certainly
won't tell you that homogenizing milk puts plaque in your blood vessels, for
example. The meat industry doesn't want you to know about sodium nitrate, etc.

My argument is just that, for most people, there's something basic they're
already doing routinely to sabotage their health, so trying calorie
restriction without fixing those first is bad optimization.

~~~
jongraehl
Thanks for the replies, both of you.

My organic milk (I only buy it because I prefer the taste) is more homo. than
cheap milk. I wonder if it's therefore worse in any meaningful way.

~~~
rarrrrrr
Organic avoids the heavy hormones and antibiotics from regular milk. You can
definitely get non-homogenized organic milk though. You just have to shake it
before drinking. Avoid Horizon brands (see the Organic Consumers Association
reports on them for details.) HTH.

------
tomjen2
>But again, additional research suggests that not all exercise is equal.
Interestingly, some researchers found that exercise considered drudgery was
not beneficial in neuronal regeneration, but physical activity that was
engaged in purely for fun, even if equal time was spent and equal calories
were burned, resulted in neuronal regeneration.

D'oh.

~~~
radu_floricica
D'oh or not, many people consider exercise a chore and treat it like one.
Might be a good idea to variate a bit.

