Category: Blogroll
The Mediterranean diet is an important part of any brain health program. A number of studies have shown that people who follow the Mediterranean diet have less chance of having a heart attack, and that changing to the diet can reduce risk for another heart attack. Consistent with our increasing appreciation of the relation of heart and brain risk factors, at least one study has shown that people who follow the Mediterranean diet more closely have a lower risk of being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease.
Just that may be enough to have you ready to try the diet, but you might wonder what it is and what you’re supposed to eat. That’s where Dr. Michael Ozner’s book comes in. Dr. Ozner is a cardiologist in Miami, Florida, and says that he has been using the diet to treat his patients for more than 25 years. The book includes clinical vignettes in which patients describe their experiences with the diet and how it has helped them. Although Dr. Ozner recommends the often-unpopular practice of counting calories, people who follow the diet may find that they can eat more and still lose weight because of the diet’s emphasis on low-glycemic index foods, fresh fruit and vegetables, and whole-grain breads and pastas.
In clear language Dr. Ozner lays out the reasons why you should be interested in the diet. He gives you an overview of the studies that have shown that people who follow the diet have lower risk for heart disease, and explains why. You may note that many of the elements of the Mediterranean diet have anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant effects, making it similar in this respect to Dr. Andrew Weil’s anti-inflammatory diet.
But the book has lots more than just a description of the why the diet is important. It also has a complete 14-day diet plan and a wide selection of recipes that any cook can use to make the diet not just healthy but delicious. My favorite section of recipes is the one for pizzas. There is also a section with a number of recipes for desserts that are high in flavor and low in fat.
Overall, this is a very useful book that will help you understand the importance of the Mediterranean diet and will help you get started in following it.
The Miami Mediterranean Diet: Lose Weight and Lower Your Risk of Heart Disease with 300 Delicious Recipes
Hardcover, 432 pages, ISBN 978-1933771502, $25.95.
Click here to order the book from Amazon.
Latest
- Meditation as Brain Training
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- Brain Fitness Tip: Training Without a Computer
Mindfulness meditation as practiced over a long period by experts makes clear changes in someone’s brain function. But what about those of us who don’t have a few years to sit in a monastery in the Himalayas? A new study shows that even brief meditation practice can improve attention.
I saw an interesting blog post yesterday evening on the site of the Huffington Post about the potential benefits of meditation – or at least about what one woman thinks might be the benefits. (more…)
Although many people are excited about the potential for using computers to train their brains, we shouldn’t forget that other techniques have been used to the train the brain for many centuries. I’m thinking about the large number of techniques for meditation. While free computer software still requires an investment in a computer, meditation only asks you to sit or lie quietly and focus your mind.
A recently-published study shows parts of the brain in long-term meditators are larger than the same parts of the brain in people who don’t meditate. The article by Eileen Luders and her colleagues appeared in a recent issue of the journal Neuroimage (Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 672-678, April 15, 2009). The study showed that portions of the orbitofrontal cortex and the hippocampus were larger in persons who had been regular meditators for 5 or more years. The study is interesting because the parts of the brain that were larger are often thought to be important in helping people keep themselves emotionally balanced.
A number of strategies are likely to be helpful for meditators. There has been a great deal of interest over the last several years in mindfulness meditation. Researchers have studied how it can be used in reducing anxiety and depression. Mindfulness is based on Buddhist meditation (for a brief article, click here) but you don’t have to be a Buddhist to practice meditation. In fact, one of the most important persons who has promoted mindfulness is Jon Kabat-Zinn, a researcher at the University of Massachusetts. You can see a video presentation by him on YouTube by clicking here.