My Unremarkable Brain

Doctors have known since the 1920s that a  ketogenic diet is effective in treating epilepsy .  What they still don’t know is how .   Ketogenic diet therapy is really pretty simple. You cut carbs, forcing your body to burn fat for fuel; your body turns that fat into ketones, which run through the bloodstream; and when there are more ketones in your blood, your brain works more efficiently.  This might explain why the diet is being explored for many other neurological problems, like autism, Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, MS, and more .  That the diet is effective for many (though not all) people is well-known.  But again, the mechanisms by which it works are still a mystery.  Like the Totally Awesome Roller Racer , everyone wants to know, "How's it go?"  But two new studies have come out suggesting that the path leading from bacon in the belly to benefits in the brain might run straight through the gut. The gut microbiome is the wild and wonderful world of tri

Last week I attended my college’s Employee Recognition reception.  At this somewhat cheesy annual event, the VPs get up and announce the folks in their divisions who have stuck around for 5 years, 10 years, 15 years, and so on.   It was a record-setting year: a colleague in my division celebrated his 50 th year at the college. An entire career — an entire adult life, in fact — spent at one job, at one institution.  Inconceivable!  I know people who quit jobs like it’s a bodily function, and whose resumes are thick as a phone book.   But that’s not even the impressive part.  You’d think that after being at one place for so long, still grinding away in his seventies, he’d be burned out — phoning it in, cruising along, collecting a paycheck.  You’d be wrong.  In fact, he’s the most dedicated, most passionate, hardest-working guy in my division.  When I compare myself to him, I have to blush at how I fall short. How is this possible?  It’s not supposed to be that way.  Or is

Well, it’s here: America’s pig-outingest holiday .  And I'm a man who loves to eat.  Unfortunately, for the past nine months, I’ve been staying in dietary ketosis by following a low-carb diet called NSNG (No Sugar, No Grains).  What’s a big guy to do?  After all, what’s game day without pizza, nachos, wings and beer?   It ain’t always easy.  Especially when you’re as lazy as I am.  But in the words of baseball great Jimmy Dugan, “the hard is what makes it good.”  So here’s the low-effort, low-carb game day grub that helped me spin-maneuver my way through a glorious undefeated season (and brutal post-season) by my alma mater. Guacamole: Avocados are a keto dieter’s favorite fruit.  Buttery-licious, nutritious, and easy to eat.  When it comes to guac, it’s best to make your own, since packaged brands have tons of preservatives.  This recipe from goop  requires only 4 ingredients and almost no prep.  But how can you have guac without chips?  Somehow, you need to transport all

“Can you donate blood?”  The question catches me off-guard.  I’m in the office of my new family doctor, reviewing the results of my recent blood tests.   So far, no big surprises.  My cholesterol is okay, I’m low on omega-3s, my insulin sensitivity is so-so, my genetics are generally good…  This new doc is a bit unconventional, but very thorough.  When she orders blood tests, she orders BLOOD TESTS. The report is 5 pages long and has a dizzying list of letters and numbers that, for me, might as well be hieroglyphics (or a quarterly 401k statement).  But she flies through the report, decoding the numbers and offering me helpful lifestyle tips, like eating less sugar and more fish. All good, until we get to the blood-donation thing.  “Um, well… I haven’t donated blood,” I admit, sheepishly.   “Okay, but I mean, will they allow you to?  The reason I ask is that your ferritin levels are quite high.” “Ferritin?” I say, reaching back for a scrap of knowledge from high schoo

“People don’t get fat from overeating.”  This bold statement by Robert Cywes, MD, PhD snaps me out of the lull of my morning commute.  “People get fat,” he goes on to say, “because they are addicted to a drug called carbohydrates.”   In the course of  three episodes of the Diet & Health Today podcast , author and researcher Zoë Harcombe, Ph.D., interviews Cywes on his great success in getting patients thin and healthy.   Cywes is a bariatric surgeon, so for his patients, losing weight is the easy part.  Bariatric surgery has a very high success rate in the short term.  The problem is, the long-term results are  not so hot .  Many people regain the weight after a few years, as they slip right back into old habits.  Cywes’s solution: follow up the surgery with ongoing support in what he calls “AA for fat people.”  (As a former obese person himself, he feels comfortable using the very un-PC term “fat person.”) Cywes explains that food gives us two things: nutrition (that

Now that ketogenic diets have become “#keto,” the biggest diet trend of the year, I want to look a little more closely at this thing that has people all atwitter. As I mentioned  in an earlier post , a ketogenic diet is one that generates ketones; that is, the body burns fat and produces these chemicals as a  by-product.   Doctors are exploring ketogenic diets to treat epilepsy and other brain disorders  because those ketones are terrific fuel for the brain, and do a great job at providing the brain steady, lasting energy. Other folks use ketogenic diets as a weight-loss strategy.  This is where all the commodification and fad-ification and hashtag-ification has come in.  Instagram photos of suddenly skinny people with piles of bacon.  Keto bars, shakes, powders and potions.  But looking past all that: does it work? Here’s the thing: there are two types of fat. (Actually, there are lots of different types, including  some that you need to live , but never mind all that

A friend of mine recently joined Weight Watchers and lost 4 pounds in the first week.  Daaaaang! I thought.  Maybe I should…. But no.  Nope, nope, no. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing since I started this journey, jumping from raft to raft, trying to find the one that would effortlessly take me upstream, to the magical land of milk and honey (or of bacon and weenies, as the case may be).   I’ve committed to a year of low-carb, high-fat, and I’m stickin’ to it.  (Aren’t I?) I’ve goofed on Weight Watchers in the past , but for some people, it seems to work, so they’ve gotta be doing something right.  Yesterday when I was listening to my first audiobook of the year, James Clear’s Atomic Habits , I realized what that was.   If you haven’t read him, Clear has some really interesting insights on the power of habits.  I first discovered him when my friend Ed shared a few quotes, like “Every action you take is a vote for the type of person you wish to become.” I lo

Last week , I talked about the worst diet of 2018 (which happens to be the one that I’m currently on).  This week, I thought I’d go back to the US News list and take a look at their  #1 diet of the year , the Mediterranean Diet.    If you’ve read anything about health and diet over the past ten years, you've probably heard of the Mediterranean Diet.  Though the definition is a bit of a moving target , it’s described in the article as “eating fruits, veggies, whole grains, beans, nuts, legumes, olive oil, and flavorful herbs and spices; fish and seafood at least a couple of times a week; and poultry, eggs, cheese and yogurt in moderation, while saving sweets and red meat for special occasions.” Nothing shocking here.  What’s more interesting is the history of the Mediterranean Diet.  For that, I turn once again to the amazing Nina Teicholz and her mind-blowing book The Big Fat Surprise , which devotes an entire chapter to the Diet (50 pages, with more than 150 footnotes) .