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”
• 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)
• 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
• 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
• “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
• 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
• “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

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

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