Eat More of This to Avoid Alzheimer’s

Jonathan: Hey, what’s up everybody? Jonathan Bailor and April Perry and we are back with another episode of the SANE show. What is up April, how are you doing today?

April: I am doing great and I’m so excited to be able to talk today about Diabetes and Alzheimer’s.

Jonathan: April, I know we definitely wanted to start the show off on a high note because you have sent me such a touching note last night which wasn’t necessarily a high note. It was a note about real life and it was a note about how this is so much more than the scale. I’d love for you to start off today’s episode with a little bit of backstory if you’d be willing. I know it’s hard to talk about, but I know the audience will really appreciate it.

April: I told Jonathan that I’ll try to talk about it without crying because it’s really close to my heart, but I know this is happening all over the world. I just found out that people dying from Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death. That was astounding to me. I thought surely there must be other things that are causing death before Alzheimer’s, but the sixth leading cause of death. Right now, I have a mother who has Alzheimer’s and she and I have been best friends my whole life. She is the most loving mother, took care of me, was wonderful and over the past few years, it’s been about six years since she started getting dementia and losing that memory and Alzheimer’s has been slowly progressing where she now has just entered into Stage Seven of Alzheimer’s, which is the final stage. In addition, I actually have been writing a book about her and about my life and about the beautiful things that she taught me, just published it and launched it yesterday. I went to her house and got to celebrate with her. She doesn’t know my name and got to show her, Mom, look what I’m making for you and last night, I got there and I’m celebrating with her and I’m so excited and I was making her dinner and my sister came in. She said, April, did Cheryl, your mom’s helper, tell you not to feed mom without talking to her first. I said, what I make dinner for her every week when I go. She said no, this week you can’t feed her until you talk to Cheryl because she is entered the seventh stage and she’s forgetting how to chew and how to swallow. She’s forgetting. So now, it’s almost like she’s becoming more like a little baby and we had to chop up her food. I’m chopping everything and feeding my mom and realizing, I’m losing her a little bit more every week and it’s been the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever had to go through in my whole life and I likewise had a fear that it would someday happen to me.

At the same time, my dad has Diabetes and I know that I’m not the only one going through this with my parents. I know it’s very common and I know you went through this with your grandfather. So that’s an initial start, that Diabetes and Alzheimer’s is happening and is happening to a lot of people. It’s a big problem and I know SANE is a way to prevent it. Let’s talk about it today.

Jonathan: You’re right, April that they are so intimately tied together and I’m very happy to record about this because I know some other shows we have planned and some shows we’ve done in the past, they really talk about I want to look this way, or why am I not losing fat this way, or I want to look skinny this way. I just want to take a step back here and this is a great example if we know, which we do, that Alzheimer’s is now being referred to as Type 3 Diabetes and that is now proven to be caused in part by in-SANE eating. We know the neurological pathways that are taking place, so just like we know that smoking leads to lung cancer and we know that sugar and processed carbs lead to Diabetes, we’re now seeing that same tie between those same in-SANE substances and Alzheimer’s and when we talk about SANE eating, remember that we’re here to not getting Alzheimer’s disease is such a different goal than being able to see your abs and I now that that sounds like ridiculous and obvious, but I really want to take a step back and start this episode by saying, once and for all, with respect, I’m kind of tired of getting questions about this, if your goal is rapid, short term weight loss to see your abs in the next two weeks with no respect for your long term health or wellbeing or happiness, SANE is not the right fit for you. It’s not the right fit for you.

Now, if you’d like to heal your body at a cellular and genetic level, so that you will have a natural and healthy level of body fat and radically reduce our incidents of Diabetes, cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, this will be a good fit for you and in this episode let’s focus on one of those three key benefits that SANE is designed for and that’s to help deter Alzheimer’s. does that sound okay April?

April: Oh, my gosh. Jonathan, this is really why I’m here. I was thinking about it last night. I was thinking about the Alzheimer’s and I was thinking about a fear that I’ve had for the past six years and it was the fear that there would come a day when I would look my children in the eyes and I wouldn’t know their name. That’s a common fear and a really natural fear for me because it happened to me because my mom now looks me in the eye and doesn’t know my name. I kept thinking, I bet the same thing is going to happen to me because I’m so much like my mom. I look like her, I smile like her and I talk like her. I bet I’m going to someday forget. My kids actually started saying things like, so mom, maybe when you start losing your memory, or they kind of start talking about it, like here’s what we’re going to do for you or here is what it’s going to be like for you and that haunted me, honestly.

There was one day when I just started learning about SANE and you and I first started podcasting a little bit together and I’d let you know about my mom and Alzheimer’s and you sent me the link to this study showing that Alzheimer’s was Type 3 Diabetes and talking about this link between SANE and Alzheimer’s. When you sent me that email, I was in the car and I just parked the car. I was at the house and checking email. I got that and I just got very emotional because all of a sudden I saw this clicked together. I’m a productivity person. I teach people how to organize papers, and processes and at their desk. I’m thinking why am I talking to Jonathan about SANE? This has nothing to do with my area of expertise and I’m also writing this book about my mom and it’s focused on family. I felt like I wasn’t sure of even working with you was even a possibility.

When I saw the connection between what I was losing with my mother and SANE and how as you get organized and bring your life together you can make SANE happen, everything snapped into place and that’s why I’m here today. So let’s talk about it.

Jonathan: And that’s the key distinction is two really important points. I’m going to be very concrete here and I’m not trying to call anyone out here, but I want to give a very concrete example. It’s an example people have shared with me and I think a lot of people can emphasize with it.

There has been a commercial on television now for a while or by the time this show airs it might be off television, but it’s someone who I respect deeply and admire deeply and her name is Oprah Winfrey, and she is on television talking about how she eats bread and she eats bread every day and despite the fact that she eats bread and celebrating the fact that she eats bread and she’s lost 20 lbs. How does this relate to what we’re talking about here. What relates to what we’re talking about here on two different levels. So if we know that white bread for example, spikes blood sugar more than a Snicker’s bar does and if we know that continuous spikes in blood sugar are now being linked to Alzheimer’s as strongly as smoking is tied to lung cancer, stick with me here. Imagine if there was a follow up commercial on television where Oprah said, with all sincerity, I smoke three packs of cigarettes a day, and I’ve still lost 20 lbs. I’m smoking three packs of cigarettes per day and in fact it’s actually sped up my weight loss because did you know and this is true, that cigarettes and nicotine actually have a set point lowering effect. They actually do help with weight loss. They also give you lung cancer. So it’s not the right approach to take. So when we say, is my goal just rapid weight loss? Yes, you can eat 1,200 calories of sugar and processed nonsense all day. You can count calories all day, but you know what? The toxic load that 1,200 calories of in-SANEity is going to put on your body, will put you at risk for all of these terrible conditions. That’s why we can’t just look at this from a perspective of weight loss because there are things you can do to lose weight. Oprah is 100 percent right. You can eat bread every day of the week and lose weight, but what you can’t do, is eat bread every day of the week and reduce your risk of Alzheimer’s.

April: I’m so glad you brought that up because this is the information that needs to be out there. If my mom knew about SANE, she would have done it. I know she would have. If she had known what she was doing, I could tell you what she was eating because I have all of her calorie counting journals. I even have this random notebook that I was using the other day to take notes at a conference and I turned to the front, it was one of my mom’s old journals and I see all her calories. She was working hard. It was not just calories, it was calories, fat grams, fiber, protein, sodium, and she had a whole spreadsheet that she put together trying so hard to lose weight, her goal was to lose weight. That’s what she wanted. If she had known about SANE and if she had known I don’t have to be hungry and I can eat foods that will keep my blood sugar level just where it needs to be and I won’t get Alzheimer’s, I won’t get Diabetes. She would have done that in a heartbeat and that’s why I feel like making this connection, most people don’t even make the connection and I think one of the reasons why is because all you see out there is how to help find a cure for Diabetes and Alzheimer’s. Hey everybody, we’re really working hard on this cure. And the cure right now consists of getting my mom a whole bunch of pills to try to slow it down, but it’s not curing it and I think we need to step back, look at prevention and look at, let’s get SANE out to the world. Let’s prevent it and let’s help save so many people from the heartache and trauma and expense that comes with these really debilitating diseases.

Jonathan: That’s exactly right, April. Let’s take a step back and let’s talk about the actual science below the relationship because some people might be wondering how is it that in-SANE eating, aka Type 3 Diabetes leads to Alzheimer’s and it’s important to know because I will go on record right now saying, it seems novel that we’re like oh, wild spikes in hormone levels over the course of your life contributes to Alzheimer’s disease and that is novel. You know what we’re going to find out in five years? We’re going to find out that that also is related to cancer risk and we’re also going to find out that it’s related to the next thing and the next thing and the next thing because if we put substances into our body that cause our body to react in a negative way, every system in our body will be affected. If you take kerosene or lighter fluid and you put in your car’s gas tank, it might not break tomorrow, it might not break the next day, but three years from now when your car just starts running weird, you might be like, what’s going on? What caused that? There is no function in the body that is not negatively affected by putting the wrong type, the inappropriate type of fuel into your body and that distinction is so important April.

Let’s go back to the car example. Imagine if someone was putting kerosene or lighter fluid in their car’s gas tank and then they went to their mechanic and their mechanic said the problem is that you’re putting too much kerosene or lighter fluid in your car’s gas tank, just put less kerosene and lighter fluid in your car’s gas tank. The person would probably say is there a problem that I’m putting the wrong fuel in my car’s gas tank and sure putting less of it in there, like of course smoking one pack of cigarettes per day instead of smoking two will make you get lung cancer slower, so it is better, so eating 1,200 calories of junk is better for you than eating 2,400 calories of junk, but why not, instead of saying, I’m eating one slice of dwarf mutant wheat bread per day and feel bad about it and be hungry, say, I’m going to eat bread made with almond flour and coconut flour and feel great about it and not break my body and not increase my risk of Alzheimer’s disease.

April: I think that’s brilliant and it makes perfect sense to me and I think it makes perfect sense to a lot of people, especially as we educate ourselves, as we read books, as we listen to your podcasts, as we become familiar with SANE. Maybe a question to ask is how would you describe this or how would you explain it to an aging population who thinks that anyone who is encouraging you to eat a lot of kale or Greek yogurt or some of these health foods, how do you explain it to people in a way that helps them to understand the connection?

Jonathan: One thing that is especially challenging, especially in individuals who lived through the low fat era from its very inception in the 1970s. If you were an adult in the 1970s, you’ve been 40 years hearing that fat is bad for you and that processed food is brilliant. After World War II, it was thought of as landing on the moon. Like look, we have food in our pantries and we are processing food and TV dinners. This might sound silly, but it’s true. If you look back in the history books, the same way we’re like check out my new iphone today and that makes us proud and check out my new wearable devices, after World War II people were like, look I can put food in the microwave and it’s ready. So that was huge technological advancements. So now, us saying, oh, my gosh, that stuff is actually toxic and while it is neat and time saving, your body can’t really handle it. It’s very hard because we’ve spent 40 years learning the opposite, but what we can, maybe anecdotally say in short order is if you’ll notice, before we had those foods, we did not have these problems. I know that might be too simple, but if you look at any culture anywhere in the world, as soon as they are introduced to what we call the modern western diet which is 40 to 60 percent processed products rather than actual food, everywhere, Japan, China, India, Malaysia, South America, doesn’t matter, it’s not a U.S. only problem, their rates of Diabetes of Alzheimer’s, cancer, all cause mortality, skyrockets, simply because those foods are not compatible with our body.

April: I think that’s really helpful information and I think that while we can help impact our aging parents and aging population, I think that’s why this information is so important to teach to our generation and to our children, help them to grow up knowing these things so that it’s just obvious because I can’t imagine as we’re looking at this situation, you look at how millions of people have Diabetes, and Alzheimer’s and how it wasn’t as big as issue as you were saying before and in looking at food. People think it’s too simple or either they think it’s too simple of an answer or they think that it’s not a fun answer, but wait. That’s where I’m so grateful for SANE. I’m so grateful for all the work you’ve been doing with the cookbooks and all of the different ideas and all of the different recipes and suggestions on how people can make this [Inaudible 00:18:46], make it fun, there’s new product out there. Our Sam’s Club has more coconut oil and coconut flour. People are starting to get on board, which I love and I’m hopeful that just us bringing up the topic today maybe talk about next-action right now? Is this a good time?

Jonathan: One more beat on how to explain this to people, It may be really helpful. At the root of the Alzheimer’s in-SANEity connection, at the root of the Diabetes, in-SANEity connection, at the root of the heart disease and cardiovascular and heart disease and in-SANEity connection is a term called inflammation, which whether it’s neurological inflammation for the neuro-degenerative diseases or it’s arterial inflammation for the cardiac diseases, anything like that, there is this term called inflammation.

Let me just take a step back really quickly because this is more sound biting. If you get a cut on your skin, it turns red and it sometimes becomes swollen because your body is sort of deploying things to help fix something that is broken and so inflammation isn’t necessarily a bad thing, it’s what your body does to react and send healing mechanisms to something that has become damaged and when something that is sort of not supposed to happen, “we’re not supposed to cut our skin,” our body doesn’t want that to happen, what happens if you get the flu or you get a cold, you get that because an invader or sort of an inappropriate substance comes into your body and your white blood cells try to attack it, and you get tired because your body is trying to fight this off. If you can sort of start to see processed non-food as almost like a bacteria or almost like a virus and something that does not belong in your body. It wasn’t designed, it didn’t evolve, regardless of your belief system, it was not set up, to have these things put into it. So when you put these things into it, what it causes is this inflammatory almost disease response in your body where your body says, oh, my gosh, I’m inflamed. There are things in me that don’t belong in me, so now your body is almost in this chronic state of fighting off things and it’s that chronic state of and constantly in a battle with itself day in and day out that causes your arterial walls to become inflamed and that causes heart disease, that causes your pancreas to burn out and it causes Diabetes and that causes the neurological pathways in your brain to break down because your body is constantly fighting, and fighting and it just wears out. That’s why we don’t want to put that inappropriate stuff in to our body in the first place.

April: That was brilliant right there Jonathan. Honestly, these are the things that we’ve never learned in school. I never learned this in elementary school, middle school, high school, college. No one ever talks to you about this. Instead, what we’re educating is as we’re doing pizza parties and ice cream parties food is almost just like this reward that has no relation to any of these diseases. Honestly, as I listen to you say this, it rings true to me. That makes total sense in every aspect of what I can see and that helps me feel more inspired to want to make sure I’m not causing those problems inside my children’s bodies. And it gives me hope knowing that I can take care of myself and live a long healthy life.

I read that book, “Flowers for Algernon” back when I was in high school and reading that little mouse that started getting smarter and smarter and smarter and then they applied the same logic and same treatment to humans, one human in particular became smarter and smarter and then he watched this mouse start to decline and I’ve felt I’ve been watching my mom over these last few years and just seeing myself following the same path and feeling like I had no control. And once I learned about SANE, and once I learned about this link about Alzheimer’s and Diabetes and health and how food makes a difference, I feel so empowered. I can’t even tell you what it does for me. While I don’t know if I’ll get in a car accident, or if I’ll die, and I can’t predict everything, but I know that if every day I’m taking care of myself and I’m eating SANE foods and living a SANE lifestyle and I know that I’m giving it my best to be here for my children or as long as I possibly can.

Jonathan: April, that is a perfect segway into the next-action that I would recommend for people which is to write down on a slip of paper or on your phone or something that you keep with you, if your goal was to make a lot of money by next week with no regard for the law or no regard for your wellbeing, you’d probably do something different and if your goal was to invest so that 40 years from now, you could rock and roll. What we’re talking about from a SANEity perspective is investing today and the good news is that tomorrow and next week it will pay dividends, but even more importantly, when you’re walking your daughter down the aisle, that we’re in this for the long term so get clear on your goals. Write that down and think of someone in your life who if they knew what you know now, could be potentially not experiencing what you’re experiencing and when you hear the calorie counting nonsense, when you hear the looking in the mirror, putting yourself on the scale nonsense, pull out that slip of paper, read it and remind yourself that you’re in this for the long term for what really matters. That’s my recommended next-action.

April: I am all for that and I think that’s something that we need to just remember every single day because it’s going to make a difference. While of course feel so sad losing my mom and my parents are in their 80s now. I know they won’t be around very much longer, but I feel so grateful that I get to live a healthy life and you’ve been a hero to me. You’ve helped give me this confidence and this strength and hope that not only will I be able to stay strong and healthy, but now I get to teach my children and hopefully through the work that we’re doing here on this podcast that those who are listening will think about it and will start looking deeper into how they can start going SANE if they’re not yet or continue to be SANE if they are. So I hope it’s as helpful to you. Please share this with those that you care about, who you want to live a long and healthy life and remember to stay SANE.