Oh No! High Fat Diet Impacts Brain Health

[Cort]

Sugar is gone, of course - fat too?
I do notice remarkable sluggishness around high fat meals at times.

• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/03/150326110954.htm

High-fat diet alters behavior and produces signs of brain inflammation

The animals who received the microbiota shaped by a high-fat diet showed multiple disruptions in behavior, including increased anxiety, impaired memory, and repetitive behaviors. Further, they showed many detrimental effects in the body, including increased intestinal permeability and markers of inflammation. Signs of inflammation in the brain were also evident and may have contributed to the behavioral changes.

"This paper suggests that high-fat diets impair brain health, in part, by disrupting the symbiotic relationship between humans and the microorganisms that occupy our gastrointestinal tracks," commented Dr. John Krystal, Editor of Biological Psychiatry.

Further research is necessary, but these findings suggest that the gut microbiome has the eventual potential to serve as a therapeutic target for neuropsychiatric disorders.

 

[GracieJ]

Hm. There is talk that the move away from fat is in part what brought on the wave of dementia and Alzheimer's we are seeing. One of my doctor friends puts his MS patients on fats. His words: Time to OD on cream cheese and sour cream.

I do best with the diet suggested by metabolic testing - high protein, high fat, low carbs. High fat is relative - the natural fats that come with the protein, in a perfect ratio. I have to wonder if it is the other nutrients in synergy that make the difference, and that just fats alone without the other factors are what gave these results.

it is most likely an individual need for the dietary subgroups that are developing. I was once put on a vegetarian diet, and just went downhill within weeks. It was moments of supposed cheating, ordering a nice big steak, for instance, that led me to stop trimming fat and worrying. I always felt so much better, yet the general advice is to avoid red meat. I need it, and eat steak twice a week, the more fat clinging to it the better. I know several people who could not eat that way at all. Very individual. Me, I have a day very close to normal the next day.

Our bodies need the right kinds of fats to be healthy. Cutting back on them doesn't do health any favors, nor does overdoing it.

 

[Issie]

May be why I'm so much better. Since becoming a low fat vegan my life has greatly improved. Since I have a protozoa that thrives off of fat, keeping it low is very important to my health. When i exceed my 20g a day, I can feel it. Since my hubby has started eating more like me, he also notices the difference.

Issie

 

[Cort]

Interesting that Courtney Craig just found that a very high fat diet helped her get out of her first major relapse in years...

• http://www.drcourtneycraig.com/blog/2015/3/25/a-ketogenic-diet-for-mecfs-fibro

 

[Issie]

Key is whole grains and no refined foods. Try to eat whole food. Carbs give energy. If you don't have enough you may be overly tired.

I was thinking about the herx reaction that a person with either Lyme or other protozoa has when they start to die off. With fat being one of the key things as to keeping them alive and healthy - if a person was in a die off and started feeding them again - they would feel better. But they would still have the parasite/protozoa. We tend to feel a whole lot worse before it gets better.

Issie

 

[LondonPots]

Hmmm. Well, we don't know what the fats were that they were fed on (inflammatory fats?) or what the rest of their high-fat diet consisted of (malnutrition?); we aren't mice; and presumably they aren't mice with CFS/ME. Plus I've never had a high-fat diet, yet I got inflammation. And they eat their own faeces.