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Low-protein high-carb diet shows promise for healthy brain aging
- fsloth 8y agoThis is really cool. I know it's just mice but I find it really valuable more research is poured into how people can affect their health through simple choices like diet. So, given this study is valid for humans... Atkins to lose weight, then dial back to carbs to stay healthy?
- emdowling 8y agoUnfortunately, diet is often not a simple choice. The price of calories has gone down significantly for mass-produced, less-healthy food, whereas healthy food (like fresh fruit and vegetables) are nowhere near as cheap. Look at fast food restaurant menus and the processed/frozen food section of your supermarket and it is 50% cheaper to feed a family of four that way (and perceived to be faster) than it is to use fresh, healthy ingredients. Then factor in less-developed countries, where access to food is a major issue (today, it was announced that ~85,000 have died in Yemen due to starvation) and it becomes clear - for a very large portion of the world, diet is not a simple choice.
- fsloth 8y agoUm, a discussion about nutritional science went suddenly really political. Should I say next time that I cherish every living being, and wish that everyone could be well and happy, and that I'm grateful for my capacity to make life choices including my diet, and that I wish that everyone would have this capacity, while recognizing that the world is full of suffering and evil, that I strive with my every breath to increase the happiness of others and promote good? It gets really repetetive, really fast. I don't see how it promotes an interesting discussion.
- hobo_mark 8y ago"However, the majority of people have a hard time restricting calories, especially in Western societies where food is so freely available." Sorry what? Nobody is force feeding you. (FWIW, I've been eating once a day, except on weekends, for at least a year now).
- AllegedAlec 8y ago> I've been eating once a day, Completely irrelevant when talking about caloric intake. For all we know, you're gorging on deep fried butter once a day.
- hobo_mark 8y agoSure, but the quoted part still does not make sense, I mean the claim for "the majority of people".
- falcolas 8y agoSure it does. For most people, food improves their mood and removes discomfort. Sweets even go beyond improving mood and into creating something of a high. A relatively inexpensive and broadly available product that makes you feel better and that your body naturally craves? It takes restraint to not consume it in excess.
- wild_preference 8y agoWhy don't you do 1000 squats and pushups each day? It's not hard, you just do it. As easy as writing this comment. Reminds me of that Bill Burr joke where he compares "you ever try to get a six pack?" to "you ever try to get fat? of course not!" My guess is that you don't have a six pack and you know exactly why staying trim is hard. But acting surprised let you plug your irrelevant lifestyle. But if you're serious, then you must have a very hard time understanding people and the modern world if you live in such a bubble so opaque you can't even understand why people get fat. My first step would be to understand it, not trivialize it.
- hobo_mark 8y agoWho said anything about getting fat (projecting?), the article is about dementia. > Why don't you do 1000 squats and pushups each day? It's not hard, you just do it. As easy as writing this comment. Come on now.
- geronb 8y agoDoes this mean a low carb diet like keto is bad for brain aging?
- adrianN 8y agoIt's nutrition science so it probably means nothing without large scale replication in humans.
- deathcakes 8y agos/probably//
- falcolas 8y agoIt probably means, like in most complex systems, that extremes are bad and the proper answer is somewhere in the middle.
- thrower123 8y agoA high-carb low-protein diet probably is a good recipe for having a healthy brain when you tip over - you'll die of diabetes or heart disease well before you get a chance to get squishy.
- 7j 8y agoHight-carb here refers to carb-protein ratio, not high-calorie diet.
- thrower123 8y agoStatistically no one can stay on a high carb diet that isn't also high calorie.
- arandr0x 8y agoI would like to see the statistics. I eat a high carb low protein low calorie diet because I like to fit my grocery bill in $15 a week. I would wager the opposite is true actually; if you're eating 1000 to 1400 calories a day and they're not mostly carbs, you're probably feeling terrible hunger pangs. Most vegetables are carbs, milk and yogourt have tons of carbs (in the form of lactose), lentils are carbs, beans? still carbs, etc. I'm not sure how you can have a cheap low-carb diet (lots of eggs and ham? dissolving multivitamin and whey protein into avocado puree?).
- thrower123 8y agoEat two eggs and three slices of bacon for breakfast, and I can go all day until supper without thinking about eating. Eat a big bowl of cereal or bagel, and I'm ready to murder somebody for a snack by 10 am. That's the reality of most people's high-carb diets.
- jarjar12 8y agoThis:). I lost 25 pounds on Keto in over 9 months. Then relaxed my diet to gain about 7-9 pounds back. I went back to Keto Two weeks ago and down from 165 to 161. I eat less than 20 carbs a day. With 200 grams of protein and about 150 grams of fat. I feel great. Can go without food cravings all day. My CrossFit has improved and I have set 2 PRs in two weeks on weights. I believe in low carb diets. And have seen them work for many folks at my CrossFit box. Ymmv
- DailyHN 8y agoWhat's the glycemic index of the carbs? The article says > complex carbohydrates derived from starch, and casein protein "Complex" probably means a pretty low glycemic index. But what does that mean to me at the grocery store? It's sad how we don't make glycemic index easier for people via nutrition facts. For example, eating 100g of cauliflower carbs is a lot better than 100g of refined sugar. But, by looking at the nutrition facts I see "both are 100g of carbs." Edit: fix high to low as pointed out by child comment.
- orloffm 8y agoThe US-style marking would have "Sugar: 1.9g" for cauliflower.
- erdewit 8y agoProbably at least as important is that the starch is broken down to 100% glucose, with no fructose.
- nradov 8y agoWhy is that important?
- adrianN 8y agoFructose is metabolized on a different pathway, in the liver. Some people believe that large amounts of fructose are unhealthy for this reason.
- nradov 8y agoIs there any reliable scientific evidence for negative health effects in humans?
- biggusdickus 8y agoYes.
- nefasti 8y agoI love mice
- Numberwang 8y agobig surprise..... known since the 90s #plantpowered.
- bantersaurus 8y agoProbably carbs from veg and beans... Not wotsits
- choot 8y agoNative American ate 65-70% animal protein in their diet. What was their life expectancy and brain health? Checkout diet of diffent tribes: https://thepaleodiet.com/north-american-plains-indians-tall-and-robust-meat-eaters-but-not-a-milk-drinker-among-them/ https://thepaleodiet.com/north-american-plains-indians-tall-...
- choot 8y agoDownvotes explain what's wrong with my statement?
- consp 8y agoMy guess is it is impossible to say, mostly since this requires lots of older people and the main cause of death in those cases (as in non modern medicine cases) is generally not old-age related. Might also have to do with the limited set of data available.
- 0xcde4c3db 8y agoI didn't downvote, but I'll make a guess: Native Americans comprise a broad range of cultures that developed in a variety of geographies and climates. Making sweeping generalizations about their traditional lifestyles is both flagrantly poor anthropology and a known practice among peddlers of diet pseudoscience.
- choot 8y agoThis lists different tribes and their diet https://thepaleodiet.com/north-american-plains-indians-tall-and-robust-meat-eaters-but-not-a-milk-drinker-among-them/ https://thepaleodiet.com/north-american-plains-indians-tall-...
- kavalec 8y agoDeath or insanity, diabetics. Choose!
- choot 8y agoDoes that mean, taller people suffer more brain damage? Tall = high protein generation after generation At least that's what we find from Native American diet consisting of 65-75% animal protein and they were tallest at the time. Genetically, they were Asians who moved out of Siberia into North America but Asians were and are still short. The difference between them was their diet, environment not genes. Genes might have changed later.
- johnday 8y agoWhy on earth would eating more protein make your children taller? That's the weirdest reading of evolution I've ever heard.
- tekproxy 8y agoEpigenetics? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905637/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3905637/ http://www.pnas.org/content/107/39/16757.full http://www.pnas.org/content/107/39/16757.full https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-much-of-human-height/ https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-much-of-human...
- choot 8y agoCheckout: https://thepaleodiet.com/north-american-plains-indians-tall-and-robust-meat-eaters-but-not-a-milk-drinker-among-them/ https://thepaleodiet.com/north-american-plains-indians-tall-... Europeans are also taller than South Asians and their diet also contain more protein.
- smileysteve 8y agoBetter muscle to support a growing skeleton? Better bone (marrow) growth? Or more iron, calcium, and vitamin b, d support immune and metabolism systems?
- jimmaswell 8y agoI've heard the complete opposite, so as usual, it's impossible to know what to actually believe outside of a few basics when it comes to nutrition. I figure I might as well just stick to believing higher fat and protein is good for you since you can find other articles saying so and it aligns more with what I like to eat and carbs seem to make me tired.
- h2onock 8y agoSo basically, you can be overweight with great brain function or ripped and risk losing your marbles. You sort of can't win either way really can you!
- Real_S 8y agoThis reminds me of the calorie restriction research done in fruit flies (e.g. [1]). They found that protein was toxic to fruit-flies, and then journalists foolishly extrapolated that to humans. Apparently, feeding fruit-flies yeast extract gives them a short life-span. Who would have thought?! Now in mice, who primarily eat grains, researchers find that feeding them milk is bad for their brain health. How is this research even funded?! Extrapolating this to humans in any way is entirely foolish. [1] https://phys.org/news/2017-11-protein-diet-early-life-lifespan.html https://phys.org/news/2017-11-protein-diet-early-life-lifesp...
- tmarice 8y agoAs already discussed on Joe Rogan's show (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eefgRVi7Ko https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-eefgRVi7Ko - 25 minute summary), most of these studies are epidemiological studies and are not suitable for the field of nutrition.
- hirundo 8y agoThis study isn't epidemiological, it's randomly controlled. But it's on mice, and there's no reason to think that the macro nutrient ratios required by mice are the same as for humans.
- nabla9 8y agoFrom public health perspective these studies work only for people who are able to control their eating long term. That's minority of adults. Put mice in high stress environment, let them choose when and how much they eat. Allow them to choose from large variety of diets. Then find out foods that are both healthy and something that mice choose to eat without becoming fat. My guess is that oatmeal with trace amounts of cocaine would be close to optimal.