Is It Okay to Cheat On A Brain-Healthy Diet?
It is truly incredible how much sharper you will feel when you eat a brain-healthy diet, as opposed to a junk food diet. You can read all the information there is, but it is really when you put it into practice that you will see the results.
But what about those times when you just really really want to eat a candy bar? Or what if you are very busy and do not have the time to prepare something, but there is a vending machine right there? Or if you are traveling, and you are waiting in an airport for a delayed flight and the only restaurant available doesn't serve "officially brain-approved Mediterranean diet Paleolithic diet organic food-free sugar-free whole food?"
As a general principle, for most people, I'd say go ahead and eat it.
Try to follow the principles of a healthy, brain-friendly diet 90% of the time. Make it a priority to have at least 5 to 9 servings of vegetables per day, to get your Omega 3's and your coconut oil and adequate protein. And the other 10% of the time, give yourself a break and don't stress yourself out over trying to make everything in your diet perfect.
If you indulge from time to time, indulge with a good, positive attitude.
Stress is incredibly bad for your body, and for your brain. Cortisol, the hormone your body produces when you are stressed, makes you fat, makes it difficult to build muscle, harms your immune system, and damages brain cells. In the book Brain Longevity, Dharma Singh Khalsa claims that high levels of stress over the course of a lifetime drastically increase a person's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
So don't stress yourself out so much about having an absolutely perfect diet that you undo all the good effects that you get from having a good diet. If you are really hungry and need food, don't starve yourself because the only thing available to you is nonorganic or has gluten in it. Don't become an orthorexic -- a new term for people who are crippled by an unhealthy fixation on having a diet that conforms 100% perfectly to very rigid rules.
How much should you adhere to a brain-healthy diet and how much cheating is allowed? I will leave that up to your own judgment based on your current level of physical and brain health, your lifestyle, and your goals. If you are already beginning to experience symptoms of dementia, I would argue that you should not consume sugar at all, you should be eating lots of vegetables, and you should be consuming a lot of coconut oil. It is more important to be strict about a brain-healthy diet if you are trying to reverse symptoms of dementia. If you are fairly young, healthy, and you have not experienced any problems with your thinking or memory, then there is a lot more leeway for you to have an occasional slice of birthday cake or other type of junk food.
You should make the occasional indulgence a treat, rather than an everyday part of your lifestyle. So enjoy it as a treat -- with an good attitude rather than with guilt, shame, and neuroticism.
It is truly incredible how much sharper you will feel when you eat a brain-healthy diet, as opposed to a junk food diet. You can read all the information there is, but it is really when you put it into practice that you will see the results.
But what about those times when you just really really want to eat a candy bar? Or what if you are very busy and do not have the time to prepare something, but there is a vending machine right there? Or if you are traveling, and you are waiting in an airport for a delayed flight and the only restaurant available doesn't serve "officially brain-approved Mediterranean diet Paleolithic diet organic food-free sugar-free whole food?"
As a general principle, for most people, I'd say go ahead and eat it.
Try to follow the principles of a healthy, brain-friendly diet 90% of the time. Make it a priority to have at least 5 to 9 servings of vegetables per day, to get your Omega 3's and your coconut oil and adequate protein. And the other 10% of the time, give yourself a break and don't stress yourself out over trying to make everything in your diet perfect.
If you indulge from time to time, indulge with a good, positive attitude.
Stress is incredibly bad for your body, and for your brain. Cortisol, the hormone your body produces when you are stressed, makes you fat, makes it difficult to build muscle, harms your immune system, and damages brain cells. In the book Brain Longevity, Dharma Singh Khalsa claims that high levels of stress over the course of a lifetime drastically increase a person's risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
So don't stress yourself out so much about having an absolutely perfect diet that you undo all the good effects that you get from having a good diet. If you are really hungry and need food, don't starve yourself because the only thing available to you is nonorganic or has gluten in it. Don't become an orthorexic -- a new term for people who are crippled by an unhealthy fixation on having a diet that conforms 100% perfectly to very rigid rules.
How much should you adhere to a brain-healthy diet and how much cheating is allowed? I will leave that up to your own judgment based on your current level of physical and brain health, your lifestyle, and your goals. If you are already beginning to experience symptoms of dementia, I would argue that you should not consume sugar at all, you should be eating lots of vegetables, and you should be consuming a lot of coconut oil. It is more important to be strict about a brain-healthy diet if you are trying to reverse symptoms of dementia. If you are fairly young, healthy, and you have not experienced any problems with your thinking or memory, then there is a lot more leeway for you to have an occasional slice of birthday cake or other type of junk food.
You should make the occasional indulgence a treat, rather than an everyday part of your lifestyle. So enjoy it as a treat -- with an good attitude rather than with guilt, shame, and neuroticism.
