Food Police

A recent article pertaining to diet and cognitive problems in the elderly, ages 70-89 (and let me point out, "elderly" is a relative term)in a study involving more than 1200 people.

This article (if you want to read it is: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/251760.php  )
talked about carbs and the relationship to Altzheimer-like problems. In a nutshell here is part of the article:
By year 4 of the study, 200 of the 940 started to show signs of mild cognitive impairment, with deficits in language, memory, thinking and judgment.

The researchers found that:

• The highest carbohydrate eaters had a 1.9 times higher risk of mild cognitive impairment than the participants who ate the fewest carbs.


• The highest sugar consumers had a 1.5 times higher risk of cognitive impairment compared to the lowest consumers.


• The participants with the highest fat intake had a 42% lower risk of developing cognitive impairment compared to the lowest fat eaters.


• The highest protein consumers had a 21% lower chance of developing dementia compared to the lowest consumers of protein.


• When taking into account fat and protein intake, the highest carb eaters had a 3.6 times higher chance of developing mild cognitive impairment.

Now my thought is this: Where are the studies of younger people and carb related problems? (I'm sure if I dug I would find them) I used to work for a well-known weight-loss program. I had lost a lot of weight with them and so after reaching my goal, I went to work for them. I loved working for them for a variety of reasons. One thing I remember clearly is when people would ask me about low-carb diets,we were instructed to say "We don't count carbs per se, and we feel that low-carb diets are a fad and not particularly healthy as you need a balance."
 It is true, we did not count carbs, but we did place  a lot of emphasis on "good" carbs vs "bad" carbs i.e. an apple vs a slice of white bread. The emphasis was more on fiber so the theory was the more items you ate with fiber the more satisfied you would feel and by the very nature of fiber, you would be choosing more complex carbs vs say potato chips (which I daresay would contain little or no fiber) However, the company's huge push was that you could eat whatever you wanted as long as you counted it. I'm sure this resulted in people binging on, say Oreos, counting them, then starving the rest of the day. So back to the study above. It goes against everything I believed about nutrition.
Fat? BAD.
Protein? While not BAD, we tended to emphasize good carbs instead of meaty dishes. I personally have been eating vegan-ist for more than a year and what did I get? Pre-diabetes, anemia, low Vitamin D levels (We have no sun here to speak of and I don't drink milk) . In a more comprehensive  article, it mentioned that nut/oil eaters did better than their carb eating compatriots. According to the nutritionist we saw for DH after his stroke, that would be blasphemy! He was told to AVOID nuts/oil/carbs of the processed flour/sugar variety meaning pastas,breads,cookies, etc. Of course we know that too much protein is also bad for you: kidney problems, gall bladder problems, etc
I have always felt that our problems in our quest for diet nirvana was not that we lacked protein, but that we lacked fiber. How much should we get?
Adult women: 46 grams of protein per day, Men about 56 grams. This sounds like a LOT, but in reality it would look like this for a woman:3 oz of meat, a cup of dried beans, a glass of milk a day.
Fiber: Different lists vary, but it seems as if 25-30 grams of fiber a day is a good thing to strive for. Veggies, fruits, whole grains blah blah, you know the drill! There is no fiber in meat, not even the toughest steak.
Added sugars i.e. sugars that don't appear naturally, for example high fructose corn syrups, honey, table sugar should be no more than 100 calories a day (Ha, I could eat that in one bite...)
And FAT, the big bad elephant in the room: stick to about 65 grams a day, find this in nuts, good oils, avocados, fish...not those yummy Oreos. And here's a little tip: If it says Trans-Fats=0, by law, you can have less than .5 grams per serving and still be considered trans-fat free, making CRISCO in that category! Wahoo! Now that doesn't mean you can eat a whole can of Crisco and be fat-free, so don't run out and buy a can... DO YOU FEEL CRAZY WITH INFO YET?