The Berman Method
The Berman Method
Episode #176: Dementia and it's relationship to food
Unlock the secrets to a healthier lifestyle as we celebrate our 176th episode, where we challenge the norm of Western medicine. With nearly four years of transformative conversations under our belt, we’re thrilled to announce a special longevity event on February 15th, featuring the esteemed Dr. Carolyn Sederquist. Get ready for an intimate evening packed with actionable insights into sleep, energy, and gut health, complete with vibrant discussions from a panel of functional providers, including myself, Jenny Berman. This is an exclusive opportunity to redefine your health journey—don’t miss it!
Ever wondered how a switch from fast food to organic vegetables could alter your body? Our lively discussion tackles exactly that, using McDonald's fries as a jumping-off point to question the long-term effects of processed foods. We also navigate the maze of international food regulations, highlighting the stark contrast in ingredient lists from one country to another. With the rising cost of healthy groceries in focus, we critically examine outdated dietary guidelines that still place grains at the forefront of our diets, and how these choices impact our wallets and well-being.
Join us as we confront the stark realities of the modern diet, particularly the alarming trends in gluten sensitivity and childhood obesity. We trace these issues back to the dietary shifts of the 1980s, questioning the consequences of replacing essential fats and proteins with grains and cereals. Our conversation takes a deeper dive into "type 3 diabetes"—and how unstable blood sugar and inflammation are linked to dementia. This episode calls for a reevaluation of dietary habits and highlights the overlooked significance of comprehensive blood sugar monitoring in preventing neurological conditions. Let's explore the path to quality nutrition and a healthier future together.
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This is the Berman Method podcast, featuring Dr Jake Berman and physician assistant Jenny Berman. We are here to treat problems and not symptoms. Disclaimer this podcast is for entertainment purposes only and not to treat anyone or to give medical advice. If you are interested in any information that we are giving and would like to use this for yourself, we recommend that you contact your primary care physician or reach out to us and ask us questions about yourself specifically. Enjoy.
Speaker 2:And we're rolling baby with a baby on Jenny's lap. Dr Jake Berman, here with my beautiful co-host.
Speaker 1:Jenny Berman, physician assistant.
Speaker 2:And our ride-along Walker, ryan Bermanator. Welcome to the Berman Method podcast, where we're focused on treating problems and not symptoms. We're, david, going against Goliath, where Goliath is the corporate medical system, western medicine, health insurance, pharmaceutical companies. We don't believe they have your best interests in mind. They will choose profits over patient outcomes every single time and we're trying to villainize them to an extent, but at the end of the day, they're a business and you can't blame them for choosing profit, because you have to run a profit or make a profit to stay in business. Now, when you are the one that takes the short side of the stick or picks the short straw, or however you want to say it, I don't think that that's okay. I think there is a way that you can make a profit and do good in the world, but neither here nor there we want to show you another way, that there is another option, and Western medicine is not always the best, and it's rarely the best for chronic conditions.
Speaker 1:Touché Yep.
Speaker 2:Real quick shout out. We had a huge announcement last week for our big event coming up February 15th. Give us a brief summary again.
Speaker 1:So this is our longevity event to unlock better sleep, energy, all while improving your gut health and reaching your goal weight. We're going to have a really, really super awesome keynote speaker, dr Carolyn Sederquist, who has actually been my mentor through functional medicine and all the education that I had leading up to opening up my own business. But she is an Institute of Functional Medicine board-certified physician, dr Carolyn Sederquist, so she'll be speaking on the MD Factor, which is a book that she wrote, but also Unlocking Metabolic Dysfunction, blood Sugar Instability. I'm going to be doing a short speaking session on gut health and then we're going to have a really intimate question and answer session with the audience where they can ask questions and receive answers from a panel of four functional providers in town. So Dr Carolyn Sederquist, myself, jenny Berman, then we're going to have Ava Ellenson and Jennifer Linguidi, who are also functional providers, in town, to answer questions and just kind of give you some different insights from the different things that we do.
Speaker 1:So it is going to be intimate. It's going to be fantastic information. There will be beverages and hors d'oeuvres included. You have to have a ticket to attend, so you need to click the link in the show notes to purchase your ticket and save your seat. It is a limited number of seats because we want to keep it intimate. We want everybody to be able to ask their questions and to learn specifically for themselves. So you have to arrive or we recommend arriving at 930. We will start at 10 am sharp on February 15th 50 tickets, that's it.
Speaker 2:Get yours now, once they are gone. They are gone. We will not be giving you any more chances. 50 and that's it.
Speaker 1:Which I mean it's going to be amazing. Keynote speaker, beverages, hors d'oeuvres, question and answer panel. I mean what else? What more could you want?
Speaker 2:Beverages like Tito's Bloody Marys.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, it actually is alcohol included. Oh my goodness, open bar, alcohol included, at 9.30 am on a Saturday.
Speaker 2:Okay, I'll be there. I wasn't planning on it, but after that I will be there.
Speaker 1:And beautiful views downtown, naples, hyatt House, downtown.
Speaker 2:Yeah, right on the water beautiful facility. Also, last week was our 175th episode. Didn't even realize that. Oh goodness we didn't celebrate Holy guacamole, didn't even realize that, oh goodness, we didn't celebrate Holy guacamole. A hundred and seventy five episodes of you and I bickering at one another Me going off on the deep end and being extreme and you giving me the death.
Speaker 1:Stare yeah Through two babies sitting through our podcast. It's been Wow, a hundred and seventy five. Yeah, fireworks are going off right now.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we're coming up on our fourth year of doing this. This has been a ton of fun. So many of you have heard different stories that we've said over the years and it's really changed your lives, and that's what makes this worth it, because this is not easy. It's not easy to get up here every single Monday morning when there's a hundred emails and text messages and phone calls to get to. Yet we've done it every single week, or at least the majority of weeks, if we're not batch recording, and you guys are the reasons why you are helping us achieve our goal. We're just trying to spread the word. There is other options out there, right? So it's been a ton of fun. It has Happy. 176th episode today.
Speaker 1:If you didn't listen to 175, it was a good one you should probably go back and listen, although it kind of jinxed me.
Speaker 2:It did jinx you. The main topic of last week's episode was a guarantee. I guarantee you will fall at some point in the future. Every single one of us is going to fall again at some point in the future. The extent of how damaging or catastrophic it is is completely up to you. So in last week's episode I talked about how I slipped off of my boat when it was on the trailer here at my house when I was washing it and I went straight down to the ground at least four feet straight down and that's pretty freaking high Like it's high to go straight down and the only thing that happened was I skinned my shin and over the weekend I kind of sabotaged you, jenny.
Speaker 1:You did. I had on a pair of 20-year-old slippers. They are big, fat Eeyore heads that I've had for over 20 years and they have absolutely no grip or anything on the bottom. They have massive holes in the bottoms of them actually. And I was going down the stairs. I had just gone up the stairs to put Walker in his crib and was coming down the stairs with my Eeyore slippers and slid, slid down the stairs. I, the one of the slippers, slipped out from underneath me and I slid down about six stairs and I get down and I didn't say anything. I just got up and walked out and you go. What in the heck was that? And I just started cracking up laughing as I just fell down the stairs or slid down the stairs and nothing was injured. I mean, I landed pretty hard on my tailbone but nothing was injured other than a little bit of carpet burn on my left arm.
Speaker 2:And your ego.
Speaker 1:I was laughing, but that was about it. And I said to him the next morning I was like you know that fall probably should have been worse had I not been anti-fragile.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Just like we had already talked about, because I slid down several stairs.
Speaker 2:So we've got two girls that play upstairs and when they're roughhousing and bouncing off the walls we're downstairs. It sounds it's loud, Like it is definitely loud. So I was sitting on the recliner when Jenny went to go do this and put Walker away and then I heard this noise and it was at least twice as loud, if not three times as loud as anything I've ever heard before. And I'm going what in the world was that? I had no idea what could have made that noise. So I'm sitting here thinking for like five seconds, going what could that have possibly been? But it wasn't so catastrophic where I jumped up out of my chair to go see if there was an emergency, because it was, I was just going. That was really really odd. What was that? And right about that time Jenny walks around the corner and tells me and I'm like what was that?
Speaker 1:it was me, it was I said. That's all I said too. I was like it was me and he goes wow, I was like, yeah, I fell down the stairs, but here we are, got up, worked out. The next morning was all fine and dandy yeah, so there you go now.
Speaker 2:If you weren't in the shape that you're in, that could have been much worse. It should have been much worse. It should have been much worse, and it wasn't so. Congratulations, good job.
Speaker 1:Thank you, thank you. So, and again, go back and listen to last week's episode, because we talk about a lot of wonderful things, but this week I wanted to talk a little bit more about a study that came out just a couple weeks ago, maybe a month ago now. The study came out that shows that by 2060, the year 2060, we are going to increase our rates of dementia three times of what they are now. So what they're predicting, based on this study, is that the percentage of individuals diagnosed with dementia not just Alzheimer's but any memory loss dementia is going to be at 43%. With a combined male and female percentage, that's almost half of the individuals living are going to be diagnosed with dementia by the year 2060.
Speaker 2:That's knocking futz, because right now, over two-thirds of Americans are obese. Right are obese and then 20 more years from now half of Americans are going to be demented.
Speaker 1:Right. 43% is what they're suggesting based on the studies that they've been doing, which is just crazy to me, and again, that's three times of where the rates are at now. I think right now I need to go back and fact check this, but if I'm remembering correctly from reading the study, females are at about a 23% rate for dementia at this point and males at 15% or maybe I'm saying that backwards, I'll look it up while we're talking, but regardless, it's going to be a ridiculous increase in just a couple of years 30 plus years and the reason for this, or the reason that the studies are showing this increase, is because of how processed our food has gotten.
Speaker 2:It's not even real. I was just thinking about this. Yesterday I went to go pick up our groceries from Publix and there's a McDonald's in the same parking lot there. And I just left Publix with all of our groceries and I saw an empty french fry container on the road there, just littered on the road there, and I just immediately started thinking what is that like? What is it like to eat a supersized fries set of fries, pack of fries, like? What does that do to your body?
Speaker 2:And I just went down this rabbit hole, daydreaming as I'm driving home, going man, the type of person that eats that. How does their body respond to it? Does it feel nourished? Does it feel not nourished? That person's psychology, how do they feel? Immediate dopamine hit, but then three minutes later, five minutes later, a huge crash and does it cause depression or some type of faux depression or short-term depression?
Speaker 2:Then I thought about that same person that eats that crap, that fake food. It's not even real food, the fake food. Take that same person and give them a 100% organic vegetable protein filled meal. What would their body respond? Like to that? Would they respond adversely? Would they have a reaction because they're so used to eating this crap. And then all of a sudden, you give them a healthy meal. That's real food. Would they freak out? And I just went down this rabbit hole and I'm going what in the hell is wrong with us? Why do we think that that's okay? Why is it okay to eat french fries from mcdonald's, when that same pack of French fries that you just ate, you throw it in the back of your car, forget about it and look at it a year later and it looks identical.
Speaker 1:Right, right, there's nothing.
Speaker 2:It hasn't even molded or anything. There's nothing that you bought from Publix that I picked up yesterday. There's nothing in those bags that would look identical a week later, right?
Speaker 1:But French fries look identical a year later and we think that's okay, I know and it's true. So many people are like. So many people have gluten allergies. Now why is it such a big thing now? Or there's so much also going around now about the ban on food dye and how we're banning food dye, which is going to change a lot of products, which, by the way, they banned one type of food dye, not the other 36 that are still out there.
Speaker 1:So, it's not going to be a drastic change quite yet, but hopefully we continue on that track of making our foods a little healthier. If you look at a ketchup bottle in the United States and probably nobody has even looked at the ingredients of a ketchup bottle but if you look at the ingredients of a ketchup bottle in the United States compared to the UK, we have three times as many ingredients in our ketchup bottle in the United States than they do in the ketchup bottle in the UK. Added hydrogenated oils, added seed oils, sugar is all added to our ketchup here but not in the UK.
Speaker 2:Isn't it supposed to be tomatoes and salt?
Speaker 1:That's it and that's why I actually said this to you the other day when you were drenching something in ketchup and I was was like you've gone through quite a bit of ketchup in our dinner. First of all, is the meat that bad? It was like did I not do a good job on that meat? But secondly, do you know how much sugar you're getting through that ketchup you're eating? And you really had no idea.
Speaker 2:I had exactly the idea. You misinterpreted how much I was using. The bottle was empty, it was absolutely empty. So it took me 10 tries to get the amount that I would have gotten had it not been empty. And all she saw me doing was squeezing ketchup 15 times in a row and she goes geez, louise, want any meat to go with your ketchup. How bad is the meat taste. Did I fail at cooking this dinner? But yes, I get it, I get it. I get it. I get it, I get it. And same thing with Froot Loops. Right, there's two different Froot Loops. There's an American Froot Loops and then there's a Froot Loops for the rest of the world, because it's banned in the rest of the world.
Speaker 1:Right. And then people ask well, why? Why is our food the way it is? And there's a couple of answers. One they want you addicted to it.
Speaker 1:I mean that's a big part of it is they want you addicted to the product so they fill it with things that quote unquote taste good the sugar, the seed oil so that you're addicted to it and you continue to buy it. But secondly, they're doing it because we need to be able to mass produce for the amount of people, the population, we need to be able to mass produce, we need to be able to mass produce quickly and we need to do it at the cheapest possible price. So they're using these ingredients that we can get it done, get it done quickly and get it done at the cheapest price possible so that we can provide to the amount of people within the country. So it was just kind of a sad situation where, yes, the price of groceries continues to climb and it's going to continue to climb if we stay on this path of making it healthier and cleaner, but then, guess what, you're spending less money actually on your own health care if you're a healthier individual.
Speaker 2:It's crazy to think about it. It's almost like it's ass backwards. And as you're saying that I pulled up, I quickly Googled food pyramid, because this is the first thing that popped up is food pyramid for kids 2024. The thing that's at the bottom. So the biggest percentage of the diet, the thing that you should be eating the most of if you're following this pyramid grains, cereals, and I'm just looking at this thing going what in the f? That's what you want the kids eating the most of. This is in America. This is what American, the FDA is suggesting for kids in 2024. The biggest consumption at the very bottom is grains and cereals. Then you go up to the very top and that's the smallest thing, the thing that you should be eating the least of, and it's fats smallest thing, the thing that you should be eating the least of, and it's fats, oils and sweets. And then the second smallest thing meat, poultry, fish, eggs, beans, nuts. I'm going what?
Speaker 2:the hell the second least thing.
Speaker 1:And, by the way, in children, fats are one of the most important macronutrients because their brain is developing. You know, not seed oils, but the least thing they want you eating is fats. And then, second least, is your proteins.
Speaker 2:It's crazy. It's crazy to think about, but it's glaring at you, it's punching you right in the face. So you mentioned five minutes ago. People are saying why is gluten sensitivity such a big deal? Now, it never was, especially my father's generation, when this first started coming out and you were, we first decided or discovered you were gluten sensitive. You know, my dad, myself included, was very oh, this is just a fad, this is just people trying to get attention. How is this even possible? Well, it's very possible.
Speaker 2:When you think about the evolution of food. Back in the 80s is when things just went completely ass backwards. That's when all of the things went crazy. That's when there's so much money poured into the I'm doing air quotes right now into the research that pharmaceuticals were placing on drugs and sugar companies were placing on their products. So it's like, of course, this is going to be a problem 20 years later. It doesn't just happen instantaneously, because the human body is very resilient. It's one of the most resilient living organism on the planet, so it can tolerate being poisoned for years until finally it can't tolerate it anymore.
Speaker 1:Right Massive compensators.
Speaker 2:I'm looking at one of my buddies from college and we hung out a lot during college in the few couple of years after college and he had a son, has a son right now and I've been watching his son grow up. His son cannot be more than 10 years old, cannot be more than 10 years old and is at least 180 pounds. And I'm going I was just looking at him this morning and I'm going what happened to this kid? What happened to this kid? And this is everywhere. It is absolutely everywhere. Every time we're out in public, I'm watching kids walk down the street with their parents and I'm going how is this not child abuse? The problem is the parents are not doing it intentionally. They're trying to feed their kids, but the things that they can afford is the processed things. It's the fake food.
Speaker 1:Right. And so to come back to the article or the research study that came out about dementia rising by the year 2060, it's what we're calling type 3 diabetes. So we are all familiar with type 1 diabetes, where the pancreas just doesn't work, there's a beta cell dysfunction, so type 1 diabetics typically will need insulin replacement. Then we have our type 2 diabetics, which is the blood sugar problem that comes typically later in life and comes along with obesity.
Speaker 1:And now we have this type 3 diabetes, which is actually associated with dementia, where we are a type 2 diabetic essentially, or even a pre-diabetic, but you have unstable blood sugar levels a lot of times coming along with obesity or being overweight, although not always, there's certainly individuals with a normal weight that have pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes and then along comes with that is the dementia because of the inflammation that the blood sugar is causing on the brain.
Speaker 1:So when we have elevated or unstable blood sugar, even if your morning fasting blood sugar is normal, it doesn't tell us what your blood sugar looks like over a 24-hour day. So if you have unstable blood sugar, it is putting an increased inflammation, inflammatory response on the brain, which is actually causing chemical reactions and leading to the development of the dementia turning on these genes that we have that put us at risk for dementia and that's where it's associated with what we're calling type three diabetes is diabetes associated with dementia? So, because obesity is increasing, because the inflammatory responses are increasing, autoimmune diseases are increasing within the United States because of our food, essentially, we are developing this higher risk of dementia.
Speaker 2:Yes, and just note that just because you're eating crappy food and you're not getting fat doesn't mean that you don't have massive out-of-control inflammation occurring in your body which is leading to this, because I know of quite a few people who you look at them. They're older, 70s, 80s. Look at them and you would never, ever even think the word obese, yet they are starting to lose their mind. That's because of this systemic internal inflammation that's occurring, so it doesn't have to look like you're overweight for it to be happening.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we see clients all the time who are a very normal weight or even underweight, that have pre-diabetes or diabetes that's uncontrolled I mean. I can think of three right off the bat that we're working on right now that are actually underweight and have uncontrolled type 2 diabetes. And a lot of times you don't even know it until something else happens. One of our clients specifically had no idea he was an uncontrolled type 2 diabetic until he had a heart attack. Then, once he had a heart attack, then they did some blood work that said, oh, you have unstable blood sugar. That blood sugar didn't happen yesterday when he had his heart attack. It happened 10 years ago. But because he was a normal weight and the way insurance is, his doctors never checked his A1C or anything to that effect that would tell us more about the blood sugar.
Speaker 2:Exactly.
Speaker 1:And that's a whole nother topic. Yeah, we can just keep going.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we can keep going on for hours on this topic. So the thing that I would let's wrap things up with this. There is a direct correlation with the increase in neurological conditions, including dementia, and the shitty food that we've been eating for the past 30 to 40 years. The food has changed. It is ultra processed. How many times have we said that over the past four years? In 175 episodes? You've got to know what you're putting into your mouth.
Speaker 2:And now here's the thing I want to end with the restaurants you go to matter. Just because you go to this nice, fancy restaurant on Fifth Avenue and you spend $100 for one meal does not mean that it is a quality meal, because if you go out back, you can almost guarantee that there's a Cisco truck delivering that food to that five-star restaurant. Now the problem is everything that comes off the Cisco truck is processed in some way, shape or form, because it has to have longevity, has to have a shelf life. When you're transporting it from point A to point B, it's not coming straight from a farm and going straight to the grill and to your table. They have to process it.
Speaker 2:This was the first lesson I ever learned before Jenny and I started dating. This was my first mentor in Destin that told me this. I thought I was doing really good one night when I went to this restaurant freshly out of grad school. I'm like, okay, I'm going to splurge tonight and go to this nice restaurant and eat something healthy and I bragged about it. He goes you know that wasn't healthy, right.
Speaker 2:I'm like what the hell are you talking about? He's like everything on that menu is straight off the Cisco truck. The only restaurant in this town that is not from Cisco or supplied by Cisco is this restaurant. And he told me what it was and I'm like what are you talking about? It was delicious. It looks so healthy, the greens were so green, the broccoli was green, the meat was tender and juicy. He goes, yeah, Out of a five-gallon bag out of a five gallon bag out of a five gallon bucket.
Speaker 1:With extra butter.
Speaker 2:And it's like holy shit. Just because you go to these nice restaurants doesn't mean you're getting good food.
Speaker 1:It's true and again, this is something else a whole nother can of worms. But just because you're eating quote unquote healthy doesn't mean you're getting the right nutrients for your body either. It doesn't mean you're doing the right things. You know you could be on a vegan diet, but your macros are not even optimal for what your body needs, so you can't base it off of what the media says is healthy.
Speaker 2:Essentially, yeah, what the media says is kids should be eating primarily grains and cereals. The media says is kids should be eating primarily grains and cereals. By now, if you're listening to this podcast for more than one, you know that that is a blatant lie and it's just not true. So the answer at the end of the day is we're all unique. We're all individualized. You got to know what is right for you and your body. Just because somebody has the carnivore diet and is doing great doesn't mean that you should do it. Just because somebody is doing a vegan diet and they're thriving doesn't mean that you should do it. You've got to know what is right for you and your body right here, right now, because it might change.
Speaker 1:Go eat your fiber. That's my moral of today, okay.
Speaker 2:Click the show notes. Buy your tickets to our big event only 50 tickets. After last week's episode, we sold quite a few tickets that was.
Speaker 1:There's less than 15 available, just so you know that was exciting, so cool.
Speaker 2:Get your tickets now, share this episode, subscribe. Share this episode with somebody that you know is thinking they're eating healthy and they're really not and bring a friend to our event. We want to see you guys, all the listeners that have not been in our office. This is your chance to come meet us. We'll be shaking hands and kissing babies and drinking Tito's Bloody Marys. It'll be a great start to a beautiful Saturday.
Speaker 1:Ciao for now. Thank you for subscribing on your social media and podcast platforms to the Berman Method Dr Jake Berman with Berman Physical Therapy and Jenny Berman, physician Assistant, with Berman Health and Wellness. You can find more information on our website wwwbermanptcom for physical therapy. Wwwbermanptcom forward slash wellness for the health and wellness. Wwwbermanptcom forward slash wellness for the health and wellness. You can also find us on social media Facebook, instagram and on your podcast platform, so be sure to follow us, like us, subscribe to us and, if you would like any further information, definitely visit our website and reach out to us. You may also find our free reports on the websites as well, where you can download this free information for yourself. Have a great day.