The natural response to this news is to say: okay, no problem. If spiking my blood sugar causes weight gain and dementia, then I’ll just switch to Diet Coke! While many Americans have taken this path in recent years, there’s plenty of evidence out there that shows sub-stituting artificial sweeteners is not an effective solution, particularly where your brain is concerned.
In a study of over 2,000 people, the diet-soda drinkers were more likely to be depressed than even the regular-soda or full-sugar-punch drinkers. Recent research sheds some light on this link: artificial sweet-eners, it turns out, can disrupt the levels of good bacteria in the gut.
This is relevant to your brain because maintaining healthy levels of bacteria in the gut has been linked to both mood and cognition. Re-member: the vast majority of the serotonin in your body is manufac-tured in your gut. So by disrupting your belly, you’re disrupting the chemicals in your brain, a cycle that can have seriously mood-altering consequences. If you really need a sweetener, do yourself a favor and switch from Splenda to natural stevia.
Carbohydrates: Highs and Lows
EXPERT’S TIP: If you prefer coffee or tea to these drinks, that’s fantastic—but watch what you add to these beverages.
If you’re in the habit of putting milk and some form of sweet-ener in your tea of coffee, you should be aware that milk itself is already a source of sugar, so by adding both, you are double spiking your blood sugar. For more on coffee and tea, see pages 68 to 69.
I can’t emphasize enough the importance of breaking your de-pendence on artificial sweeteners if you’re trying to fight brain fog.
They might save you a few calories, but they aren’t giving your brain the nutrients it requires for optimum performance. The real answer is a slow and steady supply of glucose, which we get from the car-bohydrates in our diet. Does that mean you need to eat potatoes at every meal? Absolutely not, because foods you probably don’t think of as “carbs” are already giving you carbs. Many foods you may think of as protein sources have carbs. Beans have carbs. And again, every time you drink milk, you’re getting some carbs in addition to protein and fat.
The key to regulating your brain chemistry—and to keeping de-mentia at bay—is to limit your intake of carbs, or to replace the high-GI carbohydrates that trigger blood-sugar spikes (and subsequent crashes) with more complex carbohydrates. The first step is to start cutting back on carbs in the form of flour and sugar, which the vast majority of Americans consume in excess.
These high-GI carbohydrates are everywhere, and they’ve made their way into even the most innocent-seeming foods: companies have added sugars to fats like salad dressing, and flour to meats in the form of breading and sugar-laden sauces, and sugar in tradi-tionally sugarless drinks like coffee. (Of course, it doesn’t help that processed carbohydrates are the most profitable for food compa-nies, which is one big reason they’re also the most readily available.) By cutting back dramatically on flour and sugar, you will not only reduce blood-sugar spikes, but you’ll also increase the amount of
34 THE BRAIN FOG FIX
anti-inflammatory foods in your diet as you replace them with more vegetables, beans, and fish.
Swapping flour- and sugar-loaded foods for healthier alternatives is easier than you might think. Try sprouted, flourless bread instead of your favorite white (or even whole-wheat) bread. Instead of white rice or pasta, try mixing your veggies with quinoa or sprouted barley.
Instead of regular white pasta, try zucchini noodles or shirataki noo-dles (see page 178). Instead of macaroni salad, try an organic egg or chickpea salad.
These “swaps” are better for two reasons. First, they significantly bring down the glycemic load of your food: white and even most whole-wheat breads have a glycemic index in the 70s, whereas sprouted bread has a glycemic index in the 30s. Instead of rice, try sprouted barley. With just one simple substitution, you’ll have re-duced your blood-sugar spikes by at least half—and you’ll also think and feel better in the process. Making these easy substitutions is also great for weight loss.
Second, slow-burning carbohydrates contain amino acids like tryptophan, which is a precursor to serotonin. These foods also allow tryptophan to “get in” the brain. The blood-brain barrier is the gate-keeper that allows nutrients you need in while keeping toxins out to protect your most precious organ. This process is facilitated by what’s known as transporters that recognize tryptophan and other amino acids. When tryptophan lingers—through the help of a slow-burning carb—more of this mood-boosting amino acid gets into the brain, and you feel better as a result.
Why exactly is this the case? When we don’t get enough tryp-tophan (along with the cofactors it needs, such as folate, which I explain on pages 64 to 65), our brains just aren’t able to produce the serotonin that soothes anxiety and boosts mood. (Note to vegetar-ians: many vegetarians are tryptophan deficient, so you need to go out of your way to make sure that you get enough of this important amino acid. Sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, and bananas are great sources.)
When you aren’t making enough serotonin, guess what you crave:
carbs! Processed carbohydrates release big doses of serotonin in the
Carbohydrates: Highs and Lows
brain in the same way that cocaine releases big doses of dopamine. If your brain isn’t getting enough serotonin through healthy food, you will end up self-medicating with unhealthy food to achieve that same state. Luckily, it’s easy to swap out the brain-endangering carbs with healthy, sustaining ones.