Max Lugavere Can Fix Your Brain! Genius Foods For High Performance and Happiness #163

What if Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases are preventable? What if our choices at the grocery store cash register, and the decisions we make when we’re craving a snack, are contributing to or causing dementia? Those are the questions that drove Max Lugavere – health and science journalist, brain food expert, and the co-author of the New York Times bestseller Genius Foods – to create his upcoming documentary Bread Head, a first-of-its-kind film about taking back the fate of our defining human characteristic: Our brains. Bread Head is also an incredibly personal story for Max because it documents his mother’s battle with a neurodegenerative disease. Unfortunately, there aren’t many viable interventions once symptoms start to appear. You’re just prescribed glorified biochemical band-aids and sent on your merry way. Max found that experience unsettling, and it drove him to pursue real answers. To Max, our current dementia epidemic didn't make sense. The human body and mind can’t be designed to fall apart so dramatically as we get older. He’s determined to reverse the commonly held belief that getting older means eventually losing your mental capacities and becoming dependent on the medical care system. Or has he sometimes calls it- the sick care system. Through Max’s tireless research he’s making some very promising discoveries about how our diet and lifestyle choices shape the future of our brain’s health. This episode will teach you the real truth about how lifestyle and diet affect our health. It turns out that changes in the brain begin decades before symptoms develop, so the absolute best way we can move the needle on neurodegenerative disease is by minimizing risk when we have the chance. And every day, we make choices that move the needle one way or another. So what choices are you going to make today? You can start by diving into this thought-provoking conversation, then share it with someone you know who wants to keep their mind young and nimble. Topics Discussed In This Episode: How we trick our brains into believing that carbs and sugar are our friends Max’s extremely personal relationship with degenerative brain disease Searching for the links between Alzheimer’s and other chronic diseases Why the low fat craze was one of the worst things to happen to the American diet The average American consumes a mind-boggling 300g of carbohydrates per day How salt + butter + carbs pushes your brain to a bliss point that renders self-control futile The oils that you should definitely avoid or remove from your diet How to identify the best olive to purchase, and how to avoid fakes Why you should be thinking about the nutrient density of your diet The correlation between grains, gluten, and your cognitive ability The fact that there is no biological requirement for grains in our diet whatsoever Why saunas and cold therapy have so many health benefits Shopping Bread Head around at festivals Becoming truth-seekers who question authority Being skeptical, but never cynical More about this episode. 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