
August 15, 2019
Brain-Boosting Foods and Supplements, Keto, and Exercise for Stress Relief | Max Lugavere -The Genius Life
Check out The Genius Life Episode Page & Show Notes
Key Takeaways
- The ketogenic diet may be useful for improving cognition in patients with Alzheimer’s disease or any sort of cogitative impairment
- “I think being chronically out of ketosis makes just as little sense as being chronically in ketosis”
- Instead – aim to enter a state of ketosis intermittently by eating a diet low in carbs and exercising frequently
- 90% of Americans are deficient in at least one essential nutrient
- Eat more carotenoids, examples:
- Lutein and zeaxanthin (found in kale and avocados)
- Astaxanthin (found in wild salmon)
- Eat more choline (found in egg yolks)
- Only 10% of adults get adequate choline in their diets
- “For most people, even an incremental improvement in their diets, like eating a little less ultra-processed food, will result in a huge improvement, not only in the way they feel but also in their cognitive performance”
- There are MANY benefits to incorporating some form of resistance training into your routine
- With one night of poor sleep, you become metabolically obese the next day (in terms of how insulin resistant you are)
- “You don’t get a more nutrient-dense food than grass-fed beef or wild salmon”
- One of the best things you can do for yourself is to eat a large salad daily
- Every now and them, take a week off and just drink decaf coffee
Products Mentioned
- What does Max supplement with?
- *No specific brands mentioned*
- B complex vitamin
- Vitamin D (intermittently)
- Fish oil (intermittently)
- Magnesium glycinate
- Lion’s mane extract has been found to improve cognition and boost nerve growth factor
- If someone you’re close to has Alzheimer’s disease, their cognitive impairment may slightly improve by having them supplement with MCT oil (it provides the brain with ketones)
Books Mentioned
- Max read The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle McDonald in high school which led him to start experimenting with the diet
Intro
- This is an interview Max (@maxlugavere) did in front of a live audience in NYC
- Max is the author of Genius Foods and has a new book coming out early next year, The Genius Life
Max’s Career 360
- “Growing up in high school, I was an introverted and computer-obsessed nerd”
- “I gravitated to science and nutrition because I saw exercise and fitness as a way of transcending my not so super impressive self”
- In the latter part of high school, Max began working out and taking a few supplements (high senior thesis was actually written on creatine)
- Around this time, he read The Ketogenic Diet by Lyle McDonald and started experimenting
- Max then went on to the University of Miami to major in biology
- But after taking a film course, he was seduced and decided to switch his major to film (with a double major in psychology)
- After graduating, Max got a job hosting and producing content for a TV network Al Gore had co-founded out in LA
- Max called it his “dream job” – he mainly covered and produced stories on the topics of science. tech, and health
- “One of the real things I learned was how to communicate delicate topics”
- Max called it his “dream job” – he mainly covered and produced stories on the topics of science. tech, and health
- But then… Max’s mom was diagnosed with dementia at the young age of 58
- This came out of the blue – there was no family history of any sort of neurodegenerative disease
- “After the trauma subsided, I rolled up my sleeves and started to consider myself an independent investigator into why this would have happened to my mom and ultimately what I could do to protect it from happening to myself”
- “That journey is something that continues to this day and it’s something that will continue for the rest of my life, but at a certain point I realized I had amassed enough information where I could put together a care manual for the human brain. This led to the writing of Genius Foods.”
- As background – Alzheimer’s disease is the most common form of dementia
- Dementia is more of a category
The Benefits of a Ketogenic Diet
- For more on the science behind the ketogenic diet, check out these Podcast Notes
- Doctors have been utilizing the diet for decades now to treat treatment-resistant epilepsy
- Ketones (made from either stored or dietary fat) can fuel your brain (and body) in the absence of carbohydrates
- A brain with Alzheimer’s disease struggles to create energy from glucose
- But it’s ability to create energy from ketones is unaffected – for this reason, the ketogenic diet is being researched as a method to “keep the lights on” in a brain with cognitive impairment
- (A recent study found the ketogenic diet improved cognition by ~15% in patients with mild cognitive impairment)
- But it’s ability to create energy from ketones is unaffected – for this reason, the ketogenic diet is being researched as a method to “keep the lights on” in a brain with cognitive impairment
- The one type of cancer that seems to respond the best to eating a ketogenic diet is glioblastoma (brain cancer) (in terms of reduction in size/pause in growth)
Chase Nutrients, Not Ketones
- “The more I learn, the less focused I become on chasing ketones as an end point. The diet I recommend in Genius Foods… to me it’s a diet that’s going to allow for ketosis on an intermittent basis and maybe even a seasonal basis.”
- Instead – chase nutrients
- Most of the foods that knock you out of ketosis are starchy grains (very energy dense yet very nutrient poor)
- “I think being chronically out of ketosis makes just as little sense as being chronically in ketosis”
- The average American consumes between 200-300 carbs/day
- A diet low in carbs combined with frequent exercise will get you into ketosis intermittently
- Instead – chase nutrients
- 90% of Americans are deficient in at least one essential nutrient
- Our produce is less nutrient-dense than it’s ever been in history
- “The most nutrient-dense foods in the supermarket tend to be lower on the carbohydrate spectrum”
What is brain hacking?
- It’s more about hacking your environment, not the brain (AKA make the environment one in which the brain is designed to thrive)
- “Our environments have become mutated and I think in many ways it’s causing our brains to suffer
- 1/7 people between the ages of 18-34 struggle with memory problems
- 1/6 adults is on some type of psychiatric drug
- If you make it to the age of 85, you have a 50% chance of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease
- 2/3 adults are overweight or obese
- 1/2 adults are diabetic or pre-diabetic
- “Our environments have become mutated and I think in many ways it’s causing our brains to suffer
- “We’re under a constant state of assault… Your brain is like this unwitting combatant being attacked form all angles.”
- Brain hacking =
- Giving the brain the essential nutrients it needs so it’s able to defend itself against the many insults waged against it in the modern world
- Optimizing sleep
- Being active in a world that compels us to be more sedentary
A Recent Obsessions of Max’s – Allostatic Load
- The premise:
- Our body works hard maintain a state of balance – the series of steps our body takes to regain that sense of balance is called “allostasis”
- We each have a limited allostatic load
- Think of it like a cup – when you’re functioning in a balanced/relaxed state and allowing yourself to adequately recover, the cup is empty so you can then throw in things like intense exercise or fasting (mild, yet beneficial stressors)
- “But the problem is many of us are functioning from a state of allostatic overload. We’re chronically stressed out.”
Practical Nutrition Advice
- Eat more carotenoids – examples:
- Lutein and zeaxanthin (found in kale and avocados)
- A recent study found lutein may play a significant role in warding off cognitive decline
- Max recalls a study which concluded that by supplementing with both of these compounds, a young/healthy population could achieve a 20% improvement in their visual processing speed
- Astaxanthin (found in wild salmon)
- One of the biggest benefits of carotenoids – cell membrane protection
- Why is this important? – If a cell doesn’t have access to the outside signals it’s meant to receive or the fuel needed to create ATP, you’ll be at a loss
- Lutein and zeaxanthin (found in kale and avocados)
- Choline is a molecule than facilitates neurotransmitter production (it also serves as the backbone to acetylcholine, an important neurotransmitter involved in learning and memory)
- Only 10% of adults get adequate choline in their diets
- Choline is found in egg yolks (egg yolks also have high amounts of lutein)
- In general – Aim to get most of your nutrients from food rather than supplements
What does Max supplement with?
- *No specific brands mentioned*
- B complex vitamin
- Vitamin D (intermittently)
- Fish oil (intermittently)
- Magnesium glycinate
- “It’s mind blowing the degree to which magnesium is utilized in the body” (it’s most commonly used for energy creation and DNA repair)
- Max adds – “There is no one-size-fits-all supplementation regimen”
- Get a micronutrient panel to which supplements you really need to be taking
- General advice – stick with the brand names
- “You don’t want a supermarket brand”
What about nootropics?
- “For most people, even an incremental improvement in their diets, like eating a little less ultra-processed food, will result in a huge improvement, not only in the way they feel but also in their cognitive performance”
- Get the basics right first:
- Get to the gym
- Cut out processed foods (as best you can)
- Eat right
- “Food has a really powerful ability to boost cognitive function”
Exercise
- “Very recently, exercise was made a treatment guideline for patients with mild cognitive impairment by the American Academy of Neurology”
- It potentially staves off further cognitive decline
- Max preferred exercise? – Lifting weights
- “Nowadays I do it mostly for the mental health benefits”
- Resistance training has been proven to have a significant effect on reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety
- In a way, lifting weights turns your muscles into a sponge, allowing them to better suck glucose out of the blood
- “Nowadays I do it mostly for the mental health benefits”
- “If you go to the gym and make fitness a priority, you can be so much more in this life”
- Aerobic exercises has been proven to boost brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) the most
Max’s Top 4 Pieces of Advice to Boost Healthspan
- Get adequate sleep
- With one night of poor sleep, you become metabolically obese the next day (in terms of how insulin resistant you are)
- During deep sleep, your brain cleans out a variety of proteins/plaques that can build up and lead to Alzheimer’s disease
- With one night of poor sleep, levels of amyloid (as measured in cerebral spinal fluid) increase by 30% and levels of tau protein increase by 50% (these are the two hallmark proteins linked to Alzheimer’s disease)
- Exercise
- Hit the gym, move, do whatever you can
- Focus on stress mitigation
- Meditate if you’re able to
- Lock in your nutrition
- There are many important pieces, but one HUGE thing to remember is to focus on protein
- “Protein gets a bad rap. There are really no consistent human studies which show us any benefit to a low-protein diet unless you have existing kidney disease.”
- Protein is the most satiating of the macronutrients
- “Whether you’re trying to bulk up or lose weight, protein is a very powerful tool”
- Grass-fed beef provides a large amount of bioavailable micronutrients
- “You don’t get a more nutrient-dense food than grass-fed beef or wild salmon”
- And of course, protein is important for muscle synthesis – this is critically important as you age
- Eat more dark/leafy greens
- One of the best things you can do for yourself is to eat a large salad daily
- There are many important pieces, but one HUGE thing to remember is to focus on protein
Audience Questions
On Prolonged and Intermittent Fasting
- Max has never done a prolonged fat
- You really want to avoid eating within the window of 2-3 hours before bed
What does Max think of veganism?
- “I’m not a fan”
- ‘There’s a very vocal minority of vegans who conflate their ethics-driven agenda with health science and that’s where I get pissed off”
- “There’s no good evidence to show veganism is good for the brain”
- All the best evidence we have for optimal brain health includes a diet with fish
- “There’s no good evidence to show veganism is good for the brain”
How to Kill the 2 PM Lull
- Paradoxically, limit your coffee consumption – perhaps your adenosine receptors are out of whack
- Every now and them, take a week off and just drink decaf
What’s the best thing you can do to help someone who has Alzheimer’s disease?
- It depends on the stage
- In general – make sure they’re exercising/staying active
- Secondly, consider having them supplement with MCT oil (it provides the brain with ketones)
What does Max thing about utilizing ancient Chinese medicine?
- Lion’s mane extract has been found to improve cognition and boost nerve growth factor