One of the news stories that flashed up on my radar this morning was about how a paleo diet or paleo based lifestyle affects the elderly.
When you consider it the typical diet that seniors eat can’t be particularly nutritious.
One part that struck home pretty hard was the relationship between a high carb diet, insulin and Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately my mother has just entered a home as she has alzheimer’s so I paid particular attention to that section.
An article in the European Journal of Internal Medicine suggests two dangerous nutritional factors that may contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease: excess carbohydrates (especially fructose), and a lack of cholesterol (yes, a lack of cholesterol). In fact, the carb connection is so strong that the researchers tentatively described Alzheimer’s as “Type 3 Diabetes.”
The researchers started by noting what we already know: the elderly tend to have decreased insulin sensitivity as they age. Insulin signaling is important for forming memories, so a high-carb diet would be a prime suspect in memory loss for this reason alone. But there’s also another connection to diet in the form of cholesterol. People with low serum cholesterol levels have higher levels of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s Disease, and dementia.
Read the full article at http://paleodietlifestyle.com/paleo-for-seniors/
It’s well worth a read so grab a coffee and take 10 minutes out to learn more about how a paleo lifestyle can help seniors.
Then maybe it’s time to sit down with your parents and discuss their diet (ohh the irony!)
Many anti-agers recommend following the paleo diet except that you should drink milk for the calcium. I guess you could get calcium in other ways. The main benefit of paleo is the antioxidants which neutralize free radicals which can damage the body at a cellular level and by implication organs and tissue in the body.