Monthly Archives: April 2016

Am I consuming enough Olive Oil on the MIND diet?

Olive Oil, The MIND Diet,
How much olive oil is the MIND diet recommending?

The MIND diet lists use of olive oil as the primary oil as one of 10 brain-healthy diet EVOOcomponents. I have been working at doing that. However, my approach has been mostly replacing fats that I have already been using with olive oil. Because I have been eating a fairly low-fat diet, I am wondering if that is enough. Many articles say that olive oil has anti-inflammatory properties. Maybe I need to eat more olive oil to benefit from these properties.

The diet that is based on the MIND diet study (Morris et al., 2015) is based on the results of previous research on the DASH and Mediterranean diets. One of the frustrating aspects of the information published about the MIND diet is that serving sizes are not included, and, in the case of olive oil, not even a recommended amount.

This was the only mention in the Morris et al. article of a specific study on the effect of olive oil on brain health:

“Mediterranean diet interventions supplemented with either nuts or extra-virgin olive oil were effective in maintaining higher cognitive scores compared with a low-fat diet in a substudy of PREDIMED [6], a randomized trial designed to test diet effects on cardiovascular outcomes among Spaniards at high cardiovascular risk.”

I decided to find the study that Morris et al. cited and other reports of the PREDIMED study to see if they gave more specific information about the amount of olive oil needed. The Martinez-Lapiscina et al. (2013) article stated that the participants in the group that did best on cognitive tests received training on the Mediterranean Diet (which includes using olive oil instead of butter) plus they received 1 liter of olive oil per week.

My reaction was “Yikes! that’s a lot of olive oil.”  I did a little math and figured out that 1 liter is about 67 tablespoons per week or 9.57 tablespoons per day. At 120 calories per tablespoon, that adds up to 1148 calories per day! Surely, the participants were not expected to consume that much.

In a previous post, I described my struggle with keeping my weight down and the MIND diet and my worries about increasing amounts of whole grains, nuts, beans, and wine suggested as brain-healthy foods by the MIND diet would be a problem for me because I gain weight if I eat over 1200 calories per day.  I didn’t even consider the olive oil because I was originally just replacing what I had been consuming in oil.  If I am going to increase my olive oil, I will have a weight problem.

My assumption is that the 1 liter of olive oil the study participants received was for the whole family.  So, I looked further.  I finally found another article about the same study that gave me a more definitive answer. In a 2010 article, Martínez-González et al. described the design and methods of the PREDIMED study. They included a short questionnaire that they used to assess compliance with the Mediterranean diet plus extra olive oil. These are the two questions relevant to olive oil:

1. Do you use olive oil as main culinary fat?    Criteria to receive 1 point = Yes
2. How much olive oil do you consume in a given day (including oil used for frying,
salads, out-of-house meals, etc.)?   Criteria to receive 1 point  =  4 Tablespoons or more.

So, I guess I have my answer. 4 Tablespoons!  480 calories!  It seems unbelievable but this amount was repeated in a more recent New England Journal of Medicine article by Estruch et al. (2013).

Amazingly, Martínez-González et al. followed the participants’ weight for 3 months on this augmented olive oil diet and there was no change.  In spite of this, I am fairly sure that my consumption of 4 TBSP of olive oil per day would lead to a weight gain.  I don’t want to do that for a lot of reasons, but the most relevant one is that obesity has also been cited as a risk factor for Alzheimer’s

How might I be different than the people in this study who didn’t gain weight when consuming 4 TBSP of olive oil per day?
The study showed that their average age (67 at the start of the study) and BMI (about 30) were close to mine.  Perhaps they were more active. I am still struggling to get in 7,500 steps per day. Or, perhaps the 4 TBSP was just to replace the amount of oil their diets usually contained.  I have a feeling I eat more meat than they did.  Or, maybe it’s a genetic difference. If I were ambitious, I would repeat that study here in the USA.

My decision:

After all that analysis, here is my decision. I am going to try to consume at least 1 TBSP of olive oil per day without increasing my calories.  I think that will be a slight increase in olive oil consumption.  The main way that I will keep my calories in line will be to decrease portion sizes, especially of meat.

I will track my olive oil consumption and weight for a while. If I haven’t gained, I will try increasing more — a little bit at a time.

How much olive oil do I consume at present?

Breakfast:  ranges from 0 (cereal, milk, and fruit) to ¾ TBSP (Pecan Cinnamon Scone)  – average  ½ tsp

Lunch  ?   usually none

Dinner: salad dressing  (my current light balsamic dressing has about ½ tsp); sautéing vegetables or meats about 1 tsp

Total:  Rough estimate = 2 teaspoons/day.  So, I have to add 1 teaspoon to reach my goal of 1 Tablespoon per day. 

Enough for today.  I can see that my next task is to figure out how to add a little more olive oil. I have lots of ideas for this, but I have been reading that cooking with olive oil (or any oil?) is not such a good idea.  I don’t know how research-based this is, so I am going to spend some time figuring it out before I go too wild with cooking.

Any ideas? I would love to hear them.

Am I consuming enough Olive Oil on the MIND diet?

References:

Estruch, R., Ros, E.;, Salas-Salvadó, J., Covas, M.-I., Corella, D., Arós, F., . . . Martínez-González, M.A. (2013).   Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease with a Mediterranean diet. New England Journal of Medicine, 368, 1279-1290. Whole article available at http://www.nejm.org/doi/pdf/10.1056/NEJMoa1200303

Martínez-González, M.Á., Corella, D., Salas-Salvadó, J., Ros, E., Covas, M.I., Fiol, M., . . . Estruch R.  (2012). Cohort profile: Design and methods of the PREDIMED study. International Journal of Epidemiology, 41, 377-385. doi: 10.1093/ije/dyq250. Summary at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21172932

Martinez-Lapiscina E.H., Clavero P., Toledo E., Estruch R., Salas-Salvadó J., San Julián B., . . .  . . Martinez-Gonzalez M. Á. (2013). Mediterranean diet improves cognition: the PREDIMED-NAVARRA randomised trial. Journal of  Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 84, 1318–1325.  Summary at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23670794

Morris, M. C., Tangney, C. C., Wang, Y., Sacks, F. M., Barnes, L. L., Bennett, D. A., & Aggarwal, N. T. (2015). Mediterranean-dietary approach to systolic hypertension diet intervention for neurodegenerative delay diet slows cognitive decline with aging. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association, doi:10.1016/j.jalz.2015.04.011

‘Snot Cheese for the MIND diet

AVOID these foods, Beans, Cheese, The MIND Diet

Cheese is almost forbidden on the MIND diet — the rule is to eat it less than once a week. So, I have been trying nutritional yeast for a healthy substitute.  My sad conclusion is that ‘It’s NOT cheese.’ Maybe I haven’t tried the right recipes yet, but I am throwing in the towel.

First, I tried to use it to make a Cheezy Sauce, kind of like Rotel Cheese Dip. It was edible, but not really worth the effort.  Then, I tried using the remaining sauce on cooked cauliflower and I really preferred the plain cauliflower.

cheeto-chickpeas
Garbanzos with “cheese” AKA nutritional yeast

Today, I tried making Cheetos-style Chickpeas.  I followed the recipe pretty closely so I am not going to repeat it here. I didn’t  have sea salt so I used regular table salt. Again, edible but not worth the effort. And, definitely not cheese. I think I will continue to eat my chick-peas on salad from now on. As far as cheese goes, I will either go without or eat a little now and then and hope that it doesn’t harm my brain too much.

I think I have learned my lesson about using ‘weird’ ingredients. I am going to go make some Whole Wheat Blueberry Muffins.

Tuna Casserole and a Perfect Day on the MIND diet

Recipes, The MIND Diet

I love tuna casserole. It is about the only fish dish that I really like. So, I decided to upgrade my current recipe to include the foods recommended on the MIND diet.

I started as usual by looking to see if others had done this. What to my wondering eyes should appear but a recipe by Martha Stewart – not specifically for the MIND diet, but it uses olive oil in the white sauce. It’s really very similar to the recipe that I used to use before I started being lazy and using canned soup.

Here is my adaptation:

Tuna Casserole for the MIND diet           Print version

Tuna Casserole for the MIND diet
Tuna Casserole for the MIND diet
  • 2 cans tuna – 5 oz. chunk light in water ( I use Chicken of the Sea)
  • 4 servings* whole grain noodles (2 cups dry)
  • 1 cup frozen peas, cooked most of the way

“White” sauce:

  • 2 TBSP olive oil -I use a lighter tasting oil
  • 2 TBSP white whole wheat flour
  • ½ cup chicken broth
  • ½ cup 1% milk
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp pepper
  • 1 tsp onion flakes
  • 1 tsp garlic powder

Topping:

  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • 1 slice whole wheat bread

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

  1. Cook the noodles as directed on the package, or maybe a bit shorter time.

*I use Kroger wide egg noodles made with 100% whole grain. The package says that 1 cup dry is a serving, but that much is 210 calories. So, I use ½ cup as a serving.

  1. While the noodles are cooking, make the “white” sauce. Heat the 2 TBSP olive oil in a medium sauce pan. Add the 2 TBSP white whole wheat flour and cook for about a minute over medium heat.

I use King Arthur white whole wheat flour, which is just as much a whole grain as regular whole wheat flour. It is just a bit lighter, although it doesn’t quite make a white white sauce.

  1. Add the chicken broth and the milk and cook over medium heat about 5 minutes, until thickened. Be careful that it doesn’t boil over if you pan in small. Stir frequently. Add the Salt, Pepper, Onion flakes, and Garlic.
  2. Open and drain the tuna. I have the handiest gadget for doing that. Add the tuna and the peas to the white sauce. Drain the noodles and add the noodles, mixing well.
  3. Pour this mixture into a prepared 8 inch square pan (prepared, of course, with olive oil spray).
  4. Make the crunchy topping. Toast the slice of whole wheat bread and cool. Actually, it works well to do this a couple of hours ahead and then let it sit and dry for a couple of hours. I usually don’t think to do that. Put the 2 tsp. olive oil in a medium fry pan and crumble the toasted bread into it. Mix to coat it as much as possible and sauté over medium heat for a few minutes. You could probably skip this because it will brown on top of the casserole.

Sprinkle the topping over the prepared casserole. Cover it with foil. Now that you have almost every pan in your kitchen dirty, you can finally put the casserole in the oven.

  1. Bake the casserole for about 20 minutes; remove the foil and bake another 10 or so.

Now that I look back to see how much I “adapted” from Martha’s recipe, I see there are quite a few changes. I used whole wheat noodles, whole wheat flour, and changed the topping, omitting the cheese (a MIND diet food to avoid). I used quite a bit less chicken broth and milk, but I learned when I made white sauce not to use so much liquid.

Makes 4 servings.   Calories as calculated by Myfitnesspal.com= 321

Thoughts on this recipe and my almost perfect MIND diet day

All in all, I thought this was an acceptable tuna casserole. My husband even chose a left-over serving for his lunch the next day and there were lots of other good things to choose from. But, it is not quite as good as the tuna casseroles I have had that contain cream cheese or lots of other cheese.

I do feel really good about my almost perfect MIND diet day! I ate all 10 of the MIND diet recommended foods, although some not in quite enough volume to be a full serving (whatever that is). This is what I ate:

  • Tuna Casserole – contained fish, a serving of whole grain*, olive oil, and an “other” vegetable.
  • Salad made of red leaf lettuce, dressed with light balsamic vinaigrette made with olive oil
  • A 5 oz glass of wine
  • Breakfast was a Strawberry Oatmeal Muffin (made with oatmeal and olive oil) and a Yoplait lite Blueberry Yogurt
  • Lunch was Chili con Pollo (poultry, beans, other vegetable)
  • Snack was ½ oz of almonds

So, I had at least some of all the recommended foods, but I might have been a little short on 3 servings of whole grain and a whole serving of berries. I did go a little over my 1000 calorie limit.

The MIND diet recommended foods:

  1. Green, Leafy vegetables,  6 or more servings per week
  2. Other vegetables, at least 1 serving per day
  3. Berries, especially strawberries, 2 or more servings/week
  4. Nuts, 5 or more servings/week
  5. Olive Oil, use as primary oil
  6. Whole grains, 3 or more servings/day
  7. Fish, 1 or more servings/week
  8. Beans, more than 3 times/week
  9. Poultry, 2 or more servings/week
  10. Wine, 1 glass/day

Delaying Alzheimer’s

By the way, if you are interested in delaying Alzheimer’s and other cognitive disorders, brush your teeth!  It sounds funny but that’s the advice in a recent PsyBlog post. Actually, it is more like take good care of your teeth and gums because “A number of studies have shown that having few teeth, possibly as a consequence of earlier gum disease, is associated with a greater risk of developing dementia.”

PsyBlog posts are short synopses of ideas and findings from studies, which are usually cited. Cognitive decline is a frequent topic.