Eating some foods can actually damage your brain over time and impair
learning ability and impair memory. I find it ironic that in public
school lunches dangerous ingredients and foods are served to our
children and passed off as “healthy”. Food such as salad dressings,
fries, juices, ketchup, and especially any food that contains fructose
or high fructose corn syrup.
In a 2012 UCLA study published in the Journal of Physiology, researchers
found that a diet high in fructose over time can damage memory and
learning ability. Beyond harm to your brain, it’s well known that high
fructose diets can cause insulin resistance. Again, over time, this can
lead to type-2 diabetes, extra body fat and extra belly fat. A high
fructose diet detrimentally affects your triglyceride levels in your
blood as well as small dense LDL particles that cause plaque in your
arteries. Here comes increased heart disease.
It’s time to toss away the cans of soda pop, energy drinks, bowls of
corn syrup sweetened ice cream, sweetened juice drinks, orange juice,
processed junk foods as well as HFS that’s added to store-bought salad
dressings, breads, cereals, and condiments like ketchup, salad
dressings, cakes, candy, ice cream and yogurt.
Sports drinks even though marketed as healthy can have large amounts of
corn syrup or crystalline fructose as their main sweetener. Don’t be
fooled by pictures showing pro athletes guzzling this stuff. It comes
down to money not health.
Did you know that agave syrup and agave nectar are one of the most
concentrated forms of processed fructose sweeteners?
Natural whole fruits do contain fructose but in smaller quantities than
what you would find in soft drinks, sweetened junk foods or in sweetned
juices. Fruit can contain phytonutrients, antioxidants, and fiber which
helps counteract negative effects of fructose. However, It is still a
good idea to keep consumption of fruit to 1 to 2 pieces a day and eat
more vegetables.
Trans fats are strong inflammatory agents. They damage cell membranes
throughout your body. Hydrogenated oils in processed foods and deep
fried foods are popular sources. How often is a serving of French Fries
used as a vegetable source in school lunches?
Mercury comes from fish that are high on the food chain such as tuna,
shark, and swordfish. Limit these types of fish and focus more on
salmon (not farm fed), trout, cod, and halibut. Avoid breaded fish.
Wheat-based foods—Dr. William Davis in his book “Wheat Belly”, states
that wheat is addictive. This is why people have a difficult time
giving up breads, cereals, pasta, muffins, etc. Wheat contains
compounds termed “exorphins” that have an effect in your brain similar
to opiate drugs. Brain mapping done by Dr. Amen shows damage to the
Frontal Lobes of the brain from eating bread and wheat products. He
tributes the damage seen in his brain mapping from exorphins, gluten,
and other ingredients such as wide spread allergies. He says that
eating gluten free does not solve the problem of brain damage. The
foods must be eliminated from the diet.
What is the solution? A change of mind set about food. Consider
packing your children’s school lunch and your own. You can control
the choices of food, and the ingredients in those food choices. It
requires time, energy, and thought, but then isn’t the health of our
children and the health of your brain worth it?