Food and Brain Health with Tina Reilly and John Ralston

Disclaimer: Unedited AI transcript

Announcer (00:06):

You are connected and you are listening to specifically for seniors, the podcast for those in the Remember When Generation. Today's Podcast is available everywhere you listen to podcasts and with video at specifically for seniors YouTube channel. Now, here's your host, Dr. Larry BarscBarshh.

Sponsor (00:37):

This message comes from specifically for senior sponsor snoozer.com. That's SS N E w S er.com. The up-to-date news site designed for older adults. Stay current with just one click@snoozer.com. There's always something new@snoozer.com and it's free. This is the fourth episode in specifically for seniors podcasts in conjunction with Hebrew Senior Life and Orchard Cove's series on cognitive fitness. In the first episode, we spoke with Dr. Alvaro Pasquale Leone on brain health and cognitive fitness. In the second episode of the series, we reviewed the relationship of physical exercise and brain health. In the third, we discussed challenging your brain and learning new things. Today specifically for seniors welcomes John Ralston and Tina Riley for a discussion on food and brain health. John Ralston has been the director of Culinary Services at Orchard Cove, senior Living Community in Canton, Massachusetts for 14 years. He previously held similar positions with Hilton and Marriott Hotels. Tina Riley is the clinical nutrition manager at Hebrew Rehabilitation Center. Previous to this position, Tina was the director of Food and Nutrition Services at Kindred Hospital in Boston. Her experience includes being a dietician at several Boston Hospitals, including Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Tina has a BSS in Clinical Dietetics. Welcome to specifically for seniors. Tina John,

TIna Reilly (02:55):

Thank you. Great

Larry (02:57):

To be here. It's good to have you on. John. In this series of podcasts, we've been talking about cognitive fitness. We all know our choice of food plays an important role in our physical health, but how does, how does choice of what we eat affect our mental health?

John Ralston (03:20):

Hi, Larry. It, it can work in a number of ways and in no one particular way. The great news is the foods that are good for our body are the same foods that are good for our brain. And there are a number of things that you can do by changing your diet to help mood, for example, and here's just a few. The phytonutrients in fruits and vegetables can improve the chemical balance in the brain between neurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine, and monoamine oxidase, specifically by tamping down monoamine oxidase. Phytonutrients can improve neuro transmission in the brain. Phyto fruits and vegetables also have a myriad of antioxidants, which can lower oxidative stress caused by free radicals. Free radicals are those rogue Hulk like antinutrients that bounce around inside of our brains and our bodies and damage everything they touch.

Jon Ralston (04:34):

And the antioxidants in fruits and vegetables can very much minimize the oxidative stress from the, from the action of those free radicals. And then finally as far as I know, finally fruits and vegetables are just loaded with soluble and insoluble fiber. And when this gets into our gut it's food for the good healthy gut bacteria that we need. And our good healthy gut bacteria just glom onto and chomp up these this fiber in an anaerobic process which as an end product produces something called short chain fatty acids, which are incredibly beneficial. The short term, the short chain fatty acids one reduce gut permeability. We've heard the term leaky gut. Well, that's a terrible thing because what's in our guts doesn't belong in any other part of the body. And when it does get out into other parts of the body, it triggers an immune response. And therefore, inflammation, chronic inflammation can cause all kinds of problems, but the short chain fatty acids actually decrease gut permeability. Also, short chain, short chain fatty acids have the ability to cross the blood-brain barrier in the brain and have an antioxidant effect, reducing plaques and tangles that are associated with dementia and Alzheimer's. So those, those are just a few of the ways, ways that a shift to the mind diet can really benefit mood.

Larry (06:20):

Okay. We, we, we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here. Tina, do you have anything to add to the, to the chemical nature that that John brought up?

Tina Reilly (06:33):

Yeah. many much of the mind dieted and the healthy Mediterranean Diet Dash diet are all focused on plants, plant-based, increasing them and reducing saturated fats. And as John mentioned, there's so many good qualities in fruits and vegetables, the and healthy oils and healthy fats. And that's the reason why the focus on is on them, including vitamin e, folate. These are some of the big proponents to help the, to help the brain. And they, you know, they reduce inflammation and they also have antioxidants. That's, that's why they're, they're focused on those nutrients.

Larry (07:16):

Let's take this simply, Tina. What are the basics of a Mediterranean diet?

Tina Reilly (07:24):

Okay, well, the Mediterranean diet is highly focused on whole grains, legumes fruits and vegetables and fish. Those are the main pieces of the diet. Also olive oil and legumes, if I didn't mention that already. So those are the specifics of the Mediterranean diet. And it also, like if you look and research into the reason why the Mediterranean diet is so healthy, it's also about the way they eat. They eat in a family style communal style. They, you know, they exercise a lot. So there's a lot of pieces of the medi Mediterranean diet that are beneficial for health.

Larry (08:11):

But here's where,

Tina Reilly (08:12):

And then the cash diet is also, sorry, similar and focused on plant diet and the reduction of saturated fat, like John mentioned, cutting back on animal fats, processed foods things that are baked goods that are processed with saturated fats. So there's a, a look to decrease those. And the dash diet also has been shown to, it stands for to stop hypertension, reduce hypertension, and by that they reduce Sonia in the diet, salt in the diet. And it also includes having low fat, high calcium foods in the diet. So the reason, so the mind diet is like a combination of the dash and Mediterranean diet focuses because they both help cardiovascularly and limiting hypertension. And as John mentioned, they're good for your body in general. So that's why they're the top diets that are recommended.

Larry (09:14):

So just to clear this up a little bit, it started with the Mediterranean diet

Tina Reilly (09:23):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>,

Larry (09:24):

And that was altered a little bit to become the dash diet. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> things were added to it to become the dash diet, right? Like low sodium Yes, very

Tina Reilly (09:39):

Close and calcium. Yes.

Larry (09:41):

Then the Mediterranean diet and the dash diet were combined to become the mind diet, correct?

Tina Reilly (09:53):

Yes. Yes. Okay. There, they're similar in plant-based and low saturated fat. And the research has been ongoing for many years on which specific foods are beneficial for your brain. So those were the ones that were high in vitamin E and folate. And tho they specifically chose those fruits and vegetables to be included in the mind diet. That's where it, it breaks off.

Larry (10:27):

What, why did they call it the mind diet?

Tina Reilly (10:32):

It stands for the Mediterranean <laugh> Mediterranean dash diet intervention for neurodegenerative delay. So they were looking for a specific diet to prevent the degeneration of the the brain.

Larry (10:57):

What are the specific recommendations for food mm-hmm. <Affirmative> in the mind diet?

Tina Reilly (11:06):

Sure. There are 15 components of the mind diet, and they actually made a, a way to score your diet. The top score you could get would be 15. If you met the requirements for the 10 positive items that benefit your brain and you had enough of them and you limited to a certain amount the five negative consequence foods that would affect your brain. So the highest, as I said, the the highest score you could get would be 15 if you met the requirements in each of the food items. So they specifically found certain amounts for each food that you would look to have in your week.

Larry (11:48):

There is a scoring sheet for that that I will put in the show notes for everyone to have when they want to adjust their diets to the mind diet. Let's go over the 10 brain foods that are included in the diet.

Tina Reilly (12:08):

Positive foods on the mind diet. If you meet the requirements that are on the list or on the slides, you will be able to get a point for each item. The green leafy vegetables. If you have greater or equal to six servings per week, that'll, that'll meet the mind diet standard. And those can be a wide variety of green vegetables like spinach, collard greens, mustard greens, romaine lettuce. So it's nice to include a variety of them in your, in your day. The second one is any other vegetable that wasn't shown to be anything specific, but if you at least have one serving a day, you'll meet the mind goal. And there's so many to have. The more you vary the color, the more vitamins you'll receive. Orange vegetables include beta carotene, vitamin C and the green pepper. So one serving of day and vegetables nuts include are a good source of vitamin E.

Tina Reilly (13:12):

And if you have greater than equal to five servings a week, and that's just one ounce or a quarter of a cup, a small handful of nuts, you can have peanuts, almonds, walnuts nut butters. People enjoy as long as there's not hydrogenated fat in them. Many people keep them in little dishes around the house to snack on or add them to salads or or add them into your, like green beans, almondine, right John <laugh> to include your, your nuts each week. Berries specifically great varieties of blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries. There's a lot of research on berries showing how, how effective they are in improving brain health. You wanna have greater than or equal to two servings a week. And a serving size is only half a cup, so pretty easy to get in if you add to cereal onto salads you know, keep them in the fridge at all times.

Tina Reilly (14:12):

Or you can also use frozen berries, beans, you would wanna have greater than or equal to three meals per week. And a serving size here is only a half a cup. And in some ways you can include these different types of beans. So you could have garbanzo beans and a salad red beans and a, and a rice and beans dish or in and a soup. You can use tofu, this different varieties. And that might take some conscious thought to include, I wanna have three serving of beans a week if you're not already doing so. Whole grains here again, in America, we've gotten away from, from grains and not having, you know, using processed breads, we wanna really go back to having whole grains. You wanna have rare or equal to three servings a day of grains. And a serving is just a slice or an ounce or half a cup. So if you have oatmeal, a cup of open oatmeal in the morning with some berries, you've already had two servings. So you wanna have three servings a day. And you might think here again, of making some conscious thoughts of getting whole grain rice or quinoa. Some, some whole grains in your breads. Try different varieties so that you can obtain three servings a day.

Tina Reilly (15:34):

Now many people know about fish and salmon they've heard is good for your brain because of the omega three fatty acids. And they find it tough sometimes to have an as many pieces of fish as the Mediterranean diet suggests. So here, the mind diet found just as much positive success if you have one equal to one or more pieces of fish, and that's just three to four, five ounces a week. So here again, you can throw it on a salad or you can even use canned fish poultry is encouraged 'cause it's low in saturated fat, and you wanna have two servings a week. And here again, the serving size is only three to five ounces extra virgin olive oil. It is shown, shown to be brain protective, and you wanna use it as your main oil. So to get out of the habit of using just regular standard oil, you wanna pick up extra virgin olive oil and use that when you saute or in a salad. And it's encouraged to have one to two tablespoons a day. And wine is also on the list, and you keep seeing that one glass per day. You know, that's something to talk to your doctor about because in some cases they do not want you to have alcohol. But it, it does keep showing up on the healthy brain diets.

Larry (16:59):

So now the other side of the coin, the not so healthy foods,

Tina Reilly (17:06):

Right? And here you, you find the common thread here is they're processed. They inherently have saturated fat in them or they're processed with like a shortening a margarine or saturate or some other kind of solid fat. So red meat is encouraged to reduce to less than three equal or less than three servings a week, which is three to five ounces again. So as mu, you know, as much as we're going through these things that adversely affect your brain, you can see they're still here and your brain still can show improvement if you're limiting to this nu, you know, kind trying to reduce to these numbers. So it's not that you can't have them ever. So it's, it's encouraging because like if you were on your path to having good nutrient foods, you can start to reduce them, but you can still enjoy them occasionally.

Tina Reilly (18:06):

So red meat, less than three or equal to three servings per week. Butter and stick margarine. Here's the saturated fat in this. So it's encouraged less than or equal to one teaspoon a day. Whole fat cheese is less than or equal to one ounce per week. And here, you, you know, people will al always ask, what about low fat dairy? And the study was specifically done on high fat dairy. So if you're choosing low fat dairy, you know the lowest you can go, you know, like skimm milk or soft cheeses. You can reduce the saturated fat content of your dairy, so you can look in the label and see how many grams of saturated fat they have. So you can really have an effect on cutting that saturated fat back. And the same goes for pastries and baked goods. Sweets, it's for servings or less per week. So it's still there. But again, if you wanna choose to have a lower saturated fat dessert, like a sorbet instead of an ice cream or a yogurt instead of an ice cream, you can look at the label and find items that have less saturated fat. And lastly fried or fast food is suggested less than one time per week.

Larry (19:16):

So John, being a culinary manager and now understanding what we should and should not be eating, how do we bring this into our daily lives? How do we make the changes?

John Ralston (19:36):

It's a, it, it's a great question, Larry, and I think it's really as easy as ready, set, go. Ready, meaning get your head right to start with. Be optimistic from what Tina said, we can see the mind diet works and it works for people young and old. Be optimistic. Approach it with, with a can-do attitude. And of course, if you are an older person or if you have underlying medical con medical conditions, or if you have complicated food sensitivities and food allergies before starting that mind diet or any other diet, always good to talk to your physician or a registered dietician. And so get ready with a positive mental attitude. And if needed, check with a healthcare professional. Set. Meaning, the beauty to me of the mind diet is that it is an, it's an ingredient driven diet more than it is a recipe driven diet.

John Ralston (20:57):

You wanna get these foods into your body. And because it's more of an ingredient driven diet an experienced cook can implement it, an inexperienced cook can implement it. And the next step would be really just to get familiar with the mind diet. You can google mind diet and get enough reading material for the rest of your life on the internet. Or there are some nice books out there about the mind diet, which combine the theory and the science with recipes that you can use to make at home. But get familiar with the mind diet, how it works and what it will do for you. Learn about the food groups that Tina has already discussed and what's in those food groups.

John Ralston (21:55):

And then resolve, make up your mind. You're going to go for it for at least 30 days after ready and set. It's go, but go slowly and it's okay to go slowly. Start it. Start to just incorporate the ingredients from the mind diet that you like into your meals a little bit at a time before you even start to remove the unhealthy items. Add the healthy before you remove the unhealthy. And then based on your skill level, start to experiment with some recipes. And it's kind of like learning to paint to me. When you're learning to paint, you start with a very basic simple color palette. And then as you slowly learn to paint and you get better, you expand the palette, you expand the ingredients, and then when you start to get really good, you learn how to mix and match your paints and ingredients to create your own things.

John Ralston (23:10):

So you're really just starting to introduce the ingredients into your diet, maybe slowly pulling the unhealthy ingredients out, and then expanding the those mind diet approved ingredients as you get better and better. And as you're doing that, you're going to learn, you're gonna have leftovers. You can cross utilize your leftovers into healthy bowls. For example, the grilled salmon and roasted sweet potato and that, that you had last night for dinner. The leftovers can be used to put on a base of spinach or brown rice or quinoa and make a healthy bowl for lunch tomorrow.

John Ralston (24:02):

Keep going, reducing the unhealthy ingredients, adding the healthy ingredients. And it's going to, you're, you're going to be shopping all along and the way you use the grocery store is going to change. You're gonna be spending a lot more time and money on the outside aisles of the grocery store where the produce and the fresh fish and seafood and meats reside. And you're going to be spending less time and, and money in the center aisles of the grocery store where all of that pre-made pre-made prefab food e exists. And as you're doing that, your pantry is going to start to look different. Your cupboards are gonna start to look different, and your refrigerator space is going to start to look different. So you're moving into this 30 day period, evolving, adding ingredients, learning new recipes, learning how to cross utilize the things that you didn't have for dinner last night, for lunch tomorrow, or maybe even breakfast tomorrow. And now you're really starting to fly. And now it's maybe time to start to pay attention to your changes in your body. How do you feel? Are you more alert? Are you more energetic? Are those everyday aches and pains starting to reduce a little? Or even seasonal allergy symptoms? Are you seeing some reduction there? Are you sleeping better?

John Ralston (25:41):

Hate to talk about it, but are your, are your bowel move movements easier, more bulky, not pleasant to talk about, but good things to have happen? How do you look? Do you see a change in your skin tone? Are you glowing more than than than you were before? And as you start to get to the end of this 30 day period, are you starting to crave those healthy foods that you never craved before? Conversely, those el, those less healthy foods that are still in your diet, in your diet, are you able to satisfy yourself with smaller and smaller portions? And if any of those things are starting to happen within that 30 day period, it's really going to propel you forward to continue on the diet and to make additional improvements and refinements, and you've really got the ball rolling at that point. So that's how I a a and that's how it worked for me seven years ago, and I don't think I'm too different from anybody else who might be listening to this podcast. So there you go, Larry

Larry (27:00):

<Laugh>. What about people who will say, I just don't have the time to shop and cook. I'm busy. I've got three kids. I know that doesn't apply to most seniors, but I've got a bunch of kids to take care of. I gotta get to work, I gotta get my husband or wife settled for the day. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>.

John Ralston (27:25):

Mm-Hmm.

Larry (27:25):

<Affirmative>, how do, how do you incorporate the time to do this?

John Ralston (27:30):

Right? Well, if you're, I think if, if you're preparing meals at home that are made from unhealthy ingredients, I think the amount of time that you would spend preparing foods from healthy ingredients is roughly the same. Granted, there is a learning curve and and, and you'd have to, but once you have the ingredients in your house at your fingertips, you can really, I, I find it's easier. I, you know, the ingredients that I always have, say in my refrigerator at home, strawberries, blueberries sometimes cherries when they're nice, Greek yogurt, hummus, tabouli various fresh vegetables, always dark leafy greens of some sort. It could be some kind of a power blend using spinach and kale and spring mix. Or it could be just some baby kale, or it could just be some baby spinach. Those are things. And, and then I always keep, I mean, the best of the legumes are lentils, chickpeas, small red beans and black beans.

John Ralston (28:49):

Those are the most nutrient dense and have the highest in fiber. I have always got them either in the fridge, rinsed and ready to go, or in a can, which I could then rinse and eat. Remember canned beans are cooked beans doesn't involve overnight soaking and then cooking them for four hours the next day. Those are things that I always have in my refrigerator and my pantry. And from those, you can combine, you can combine those in a myriad of ways. You've got some leftover grilled chicken breast, you've got some leftover salmon. You can put them together in a healthy bowl quickly and, and easily, as easily as you could assume you're cooking from scratch. Now, if you don't have time to cook from scratch, whether it's healthy or unhealthy, then start looking at those options where the mail-in food options I, I don't know what they're called, but some of them have some really awesome offerings where you select your meals for a week and they mail them to you.

John Ralston (29:54):

You just have to find space in your refrigerator for them. Some of them even provide you with their own specialized ovens and things like that, which you lease from them. That is, that's a way to take away your, to really save on your shopping time. Right. And your travel time and your unpacking time. It's a little more expensive, but I've got some nieces and nephews who are very health oriented and they fall in that category. I'm just too busy and they're using these sites to mail the food in mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and, and they keep it in the fridge. So you're saving all that time in the, in the grocery store and all that time in the parking lot and all that time on the road. And then you still have to cook the food. I mean, there's no way around it. Any healthy diet, whether it's Mediterranean or Dash or or, or mind diet is based on whole natural foods. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, many of them that you can eat raw but that have to be cooked, cleaned, and cooked.

Tina Reilly (31:03):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And it's always good to, as you said, have the green leafy vegetables at home, have berries at home or frozen. You can, they have the same amount of nutrients frozen. And just like you mentioned, legumes in a can are just as nutrient rich as starting them from dry. Many el seniors have issues with being able to go shopping or cost. So legumes are a nice source of protein that aren't expensive. And as you mentioned, you can throw together, you know, like if you're just making like an omelet, you can use a lot of green leafy vegetables and saute and some vegetables to get them in there. Not just have an omelet, not just have a sandwich. Say you just wanna have a tuna sandwich, maybe put some greens in there with it, or some almonds or other nuts that you like with it. You just have these items to add to the things that you're either quickly preparing or purchasing to be delivered. If you have those things, you can just add it to it. I love keeping all different variety of nuts in the refrigerator extends their life and, you know, you can really get creative with how you add them to them. You just might not have, you know, thought of doing that.

John Ralston (32:20):

And, and what's, what was a great motivator for me when I started this a long time ago. I, yeah, I, I was one of those people who I work around food for a living, so the last thing I wanna do when I go home is cook <laugh> and it, but after about three weeks into my dietary changes, I was getting such great feedback from my body that I wanted, I was motivated to find the time, I made the time to shop, to seek out the best ingredients and then to prepare, prepare them so as to preserve the fiber and the nutrient content of the food. I want it. And the goal is to get to that point, you're really rolling when you get to that point.

Tina Reilly (33:07):

Yeah. Yeah. And it's, and nice to enjoy the freshness of the fruits and vegetables that you're having. What

Larry (33:13):

About organic versus non-organic food?

Tina Reilly (33:20):

Well, personally, I feel like that it is very it's a lot more costly to get the same nutrients that you would get in a non-organic food, and you can rinse them and scrub 'em to help remove the germs and I mean, the pesticides. And thirdly, there is a increased risk of like a food foodborne illness with organic if you're not careful because the risk of picking up bacteria from the food. What do you think, John?

John Ralston (33:53):

Yeah, I, I think the, I think the cost of organic is prohibitive for a lot of people, and the availability can also be a, a barrier. But I, I don't have them memorized, but there are 12 fruits and vegetables in particular that proponents of organic food have identified as being the ones to buy, if you can mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And those are the fruits and vegetables which are harder to clean, you know let's say you take dirty Yeah,

Tina Reilly (34:28):

Yeah. Top 10,

John Ralston (34:29):

The dirty 10 or the dirty dozen they call them. Yeah. For example, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries once a pesticide were to touch the surface of those, it's very hard to get it off as opposed to an apple, which has a hard, slick surface, which you can clean very easily. So if, if a person is really driven to go organic, identify that those top 10 or those top 12 easy to find them on the internet and try to focus your efforts on those first.

Tina Reilly (35:00):

Mm-Hmm. There is a little, I think there was just a recent study that also showed that maybe that's not as legit as it seemed over the years, so mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, you know, but I, that's one of the, that's definitely the list that people have suggested to go for first. Yeah. If you wanna use organic

John Ralston (35:18):

And, and, and just as a si just to add on to what, what, what Tina said. There's when it comes to strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, if you have the time, it's really great to soak them for a few minutes in a, in a solution of water and lemon juice there is the tendency for fruit flies to, to, to lay their eggs in those berries. And by soaking them in this acidic solution, it draws that larvae out to the surface. And then you can very easily rinse it away.

Larry (36:00):

Tina I'm gonna ask you most physicians, and I don't think there are any medical schools that actually teach nutrition

Tina Reilly (36:10):

Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>

Larry (36:13):

A physician is kind of a touchy matter. Who do you recommend people talk to about,

Tina Reilly (36:21):

Well, registered dieticians are required to take many science-based courses to initially receive their bachelor's in nutrition. And now this year it's being required for them to have a master's. Then they have to have a year internship and pass an exam for, to be a registered dietician in Massachusetts. We act, we also have a licensure, so we have to keep 30 CEUs every two, two years to meet this requirements to, for our licensure. So a registered dieticians are available at every hospital. We have our own outpatient nutritionist at Hebrew Senior Life. So you can, you know ask for a referral from your doctor to see a dietician, and we work in conjunction with 'em. We ask for the referral for what is the concern, the diagnosis, the past medical history. We evaluate all these things when we talk to the patient, we look at their labs, their weight history, their goals, like it's goal-based, like what do they wanna do?

Tina Reilly (37:31):

It's not what we wanna do, it's what their goals are for their nutritional status. You know, they might be wanting to lower their blood blood pressure, reduce their weight, less risk for diabetes. If that's in their family, they've, you know, concerned about that. So they would tell us what their goals were, and then we would look at their history, look at their what they're usually eating, where they, where they're usually eating, are they going out to dinner or eating at home? And then we work together with goals. They might say, I'd okay, you know, after you go through everything, I would like to increase my green leafy vegetables. So we would work on how to do that. So if they were only having it twice a week, we were like, what's your goal? Oh, my goal is four times a week, so let's do that. You know, we would specifically have their goals marked out so that they would work on those. And then you could come back and see the dietician on a regular basis if you'd like to keep working on those goals and how to do it. So you work together as a team between the doctor, the dietician, and the patient.

John Ralston (38:35):

What did we miss in this discussion?

Tina Reilly (38:40):

Maybe a little bit on the research, like what it did show the mind diet and the mention of in Chicago, the Rush University really really took off with their, their study of the mind diet initially showing how if you moderately comply, you have a 35% reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease. If you comply more closely to it, you have 53% reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease. And again, if you comply, you have your brain. When we do the studies on your cognition, you go through the battery of the test that they did. You have actually seven and a half years younger if you comply to the mind diet, which is amazing, right. <Laugh>. And it is fascinating. And then the most recent study really got me excited because the the Rush University continues to work on, on this topic, and they followed these people until their deaths and they donated their brains. And when they looked in their brain pathology, there was reduced protein buildup in their brains for the people who had more strongly complied with the, my diets specifically correlated with the green leafy vegetables and avoiding fried foods. So there again, are those two top things to work on. Yeah. So

John Ralston (40:08):

Put putting just a little twist on what on what Tina said, Larry. I think the, one of the most optimistic aspects of this diet is that what Tina said this study, which was people between the age of what 65 and 98 years of age, all showed that if they complied with the mind diet, they got a benefit mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. And the more they complied, the greater their benefit was. But you don't have to comply a hundred percent. And I think that's an important point because one of the, the obstacles for people to embrace this diet is, let's face it, our, we're, all of us are addicted to our unhealthy food choices. We're biologically and psychologically addicted to some of the things we eat. We shouldn't do it. But, and, and, and people don't wanna just give up everything that they ever liked.

John Ralston (41:11):

And it's so optimistic to me to be able to tell a person that, mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, you can hang on to some of these things as guilty pleasures. You don't have to leave your old habits completely behind and still get a benefit as long as you're 70% in compliance. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, let's say with the mind diet. Once you get to that point, and here's the other optimistic realization, at some point, when you start feeding your body regularly, these healthier foods, it's gonna change the way your cells nourish themselves. It's going to turn genes on, on your chromosomes that weren't turned on before. And those chromosomes and those cells are gonna send a message throughout your entire nervous system, feed me more of this stuff, and it's, you're gonna start to crave it. And those guilty pleasures you, instead of eating a whole fish and chips dinner, you know, which I used to love a bite and I'm satisfied, I realize, yeah, you used to really like this. I take a bite and I'm done. I don't eat 16 ounces of fish and chips. 

Tina Reilly (42:38):

Yeah. So you can look, you can do the score sheet that we have attached, and you can see where you are, where, where your score is. A highest score is 15, a high considered high compliance is between eight and a half and, and 12.5. So, you know, you don't have to do everything exactly like it says. Moderate compliance is between seven and eight of a score. So after you do yourself, you score yourself, you can say, Hey, I scored a seven, I'd really like to score a nine. What can I do to score the nine? And you can look through and see which foods like, you know we were talking about, which were, were your favorites, which are easy to increase. Geez, I can throw some more green leafies in. Gee, I can have some nuts. I like them. I just forgot about, I like them. So you can, you know, continue to do those things until you get the score you would like to have.

Larry (43:31):

And I'll remind everybody, there's gonna be a copy of the score sheet in the show notes down below. Tina John, thank you for an enlightening discussion. Thanks for coming on specifically.

Tina Reilly (43:46):

You're welcome. We enjoyed it. Take care. It was a

John Ralston (43:49):

Pleasure. Thank you.

Announcer (43:55):

If you found this podcast interesting, fun, or helpful, tell your friends and family and click on the follow or subscribe button. We'll let you know when new episodes are available. You've been listening to specifically for seniors. We'll talk more next time. Stay connected.