Category Archives: The MIND Diet

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.

Not-so-white white sauce for the MIND diet

HOW TO, Recipes, The MIND Diet, ,

White sauce made with butter and white flour are not so good for the MIND diet. However, a few changes can make it healthier.  I set out today to make a white sauce with whole wheat flour and olive oil in place of the butter and white flour.

The first thing I did was search the web to see if anyone had done this. I found these 3 pages that at least used olive oil instead of butter:

The techniques were quite different, though. I decided to go with the “classic French sauce” because it is actually closest to the white sauce I have made in the past.

Not-so-white White Saucenot-so-white-sauce

  • 2 TBSP olive oil
  • 1 tsp onion flakes – or raw onion if you prefer – or omit
  • 2 TBSP white whole wheat flour
  • 2 cups 1% milk
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp pepper

Heat the oil. I put about a tsp onion flakes in the oil to rehydrate while it heats. Whisk in the white whole wheat flour and let it cook over medium heat a couple of minutes.  Add the milk all at once and whisk until all mixed.  Reduce heat to low and let simmer about 10 minutes, stirring and wiping down sides frequently.  Add the salt and pepper and any herbs you like.

PDF version to print

This makes a quite thin sauce, but it does finally thicken up a bit after simmering for 10 minutes. I was about ready to add some “Wondra,” but I knew that would not be the best for the MIND diet principles.  I might try using 1 ¾ cup milk next time.

If you use this for 4 servings, the calorie count is 125 calories per serving. You could cut that by using 1 cup milk and 1 cup chicken broth. I kind of wish I had.

Creamed Turkey
I was making white sauce today because I have some left-over turkey I want to use for supper. With 9 oz (about 2 cups) chopped, cooked turkey breast, this makes a little over 2 cups.  I will probably eat half of it, which comes to 391 calories.

MIND diet score for my meal:

  • 1 for primary use of olive oil
  • 1 for whole grain -the little bit in the sauce plus the whole wheat bread I will eat the creamed turkey on  ( did have two other servings of whole grain today)
  • 1 for poultry
  • 1 for the “other vegetable” -peas that I will be serving with the creamed turkey
  • 1 for the glass of wine that I will drink with it.

I had some baby spinach for lunch and almonds for a snack. No fish or beans today but I will make up for that another day this week. I will eat a dish of strawberries for a bedtime snack.  I am feeling good about sticking to the MIND diet today.

Chili con Pollo for the MIND diet

Beans, Olive Oil, Recipes, The MIND Diet

Chili con Pollo, of course, is chili made with chicken instead of beef. I love chili on a cold day! But, the chili con carne that I used to make contains lots of ground beef, which I limit because I am trying to follow the MIND diet. I have tried making it with ground turkey with mediocre results. Today, I tried it with ground chicken and it was oh-so-good!

I think one reason why it was so good was because of the olive oil that I browned the chicken in. I have been trying to use more olive oil in my diet. I had formerly been avoiding oil of any kind as much as possible, because of it calorie contribution. But, now I am reading about the benefits of eating olive oil, so I am trying to work a little more in. So, I started my chili by browning the ground chicken in olive oil. I don’t know if that is what made it taste so much better, but I am definitely going to try it again.

Chili con Pollo   4 servingsChili con Pollo

  • 1 lb ground chicken
  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  • *4 cups “canned tomatoes,” blended to liquefy
  • 1 15 oz. can pinto beans
  • 1 TBSP chili powder
  • 1 TBSP garlic powder
  • ½ TBSP cumin
  • ½ TBSP salt

Brown the chicken in 1 T olive oil and crumble.  This means to cook it so it is really brown, not just cooked.  Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the chili is as thick as you like it.  I simmered my test recipe a couple of hours.

PDF version to print

Myfitnesspal.com says one serving is 319 calories.

Of course, you are welcome to adjust the spices to your heat tolerance and add anything you like. Onion and pepper would probably be good. I think I will try using about half the chicken next time. This recipe comes out to 4 ounces of chicken per serving plus a whole serving of beans. I don’t really need that much protein, especially when eating it for lunch.

*”canned tomatoes” is not exactly what I used.  I grow a few tomato plants each summer and, when they are being quite prolific, I freeze some.  I just wash and cut out stems and any bad spots and throw then in a zip lock bag and put them in the freezer. When I am ready to use them, I run them under warm water for a few seconds and the skins come right off – not really peeling because no knife is involved, they just “slough off.” More about freezing tomatoes.

When I use my frozen tomatoes in chili, I cut them in quarters and run them through the blender with a little water. Sometimes, I heat them a little first to soften them. For this recipe I used 4 medium tomatoes and about 3 cups water. I think that makes an equivalent to about two 15 oz cans  or 1 28 oz can of canned tomatoes. You could probably just put the quarters in the chili and the simmering would soften them up, but my kinds never liked chunks of tomatoes in anything so I always blend them, even when using diced tomatoes from a can.

So, I hope you will try my chili con pollo.  It has four of the recommended foods for the MIND diet and none of the “avoid these” foods.

  • other vegetable
  • poultry
  • olive oil
  • beans

While there are not really any of the foods to avoid, I do need to make an improvement. You might notice that my photo show some oyster crackers in my chili. I love oyster crackers in chili, but I have not found any whole grain oyster crackers yet, at least locally. I did see some on Amazon, but I would have to buy a couple of years worth.  I might have to resort to making my own. That might be my next post.

By the way, I knew that the Spanish word for chicken is ‘pollo’ because I have taken some Spanish in school. However, those classes didn’t prepare me to speak or understand spoken Spanish.  I have now started on a quest to be able to speak and understand Spanish. My main reasons for doing this are because I always wanted to and there are an increasing number of Spanish-speaking people in our area. A bonus is that there is some evidence (or perhaps more hypothesizing) that learning a new language may help prevent cognitive decline. This i just one of the articles that describes why this might work.  While I am not convinced that there is strong research support for this connection, I am enjoying the process and might find it useful.  I am sharing this with you because I am assuming that if you are reading this post, you are interested in preventing cognitive decline.

Hasta la vista

 

 

 

 

Cheezy Sauce for the MIND diet

Cheese, Olive Oil, Recipes, The MIND Diet

Cheese is almost a no-no on the MIND diet. You have to eat it less than once a week to get the point for cheese. This has been one of my biggest struggles. It’s a good thing you don’t have to be perfect to reap at least some of the benefits.

One of my first posts was ‘No Queso Quesadillas’ in which I omitted the cheese altogether. That was OK and I tried to not miss the cheese, but I still would prefer cheese.  A couple of weeks ago a reader posted a comment on this recipe that nutritional yeast makes a substitute for cheese. I started googling and found other sites that agreed. So, I decided to try it. It look like it is a vegetarian staple.

My grocery store doesn’t carry nutritional yeast and it’s not very good ayeast packaget special requests, so I shopped for it on Amazon.  There were several options, but I decided to try the one from Bob’s Red Mill.

I got 8 oz. for $13.37. The package says that the contents contain about fifteen ¼ cup servings.

I decided to start with a cheezy sauce.  There are several recipes on the web, but since I bought Bob’s Red Mill brand I decided to start with the Red Mill recipe, with a few changes. This is my version, optimized for the MIND diet:

Cheezy Sauce for the MIND diet   Printable version

  • 1/4 cup Nutritional Yeast
  • 1/4 cup White Whole Wheat flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup cold water
  • 2 TBSP olive oil – light flavor
  • 1/2 tsp Dried Mustard

Instructions:

  • Mix the first 3 ingredients in a sauce pan. Add the water and whisk until smooth.
  • Cook over medium heat (6 out of 10 on my stove) until thick and bubbly – whisking frequently
  • Let simmer about a minute
  • Remove from heat and add olive oil and mustard

Makes about 1 ½ cup. Use immediately or refrigerate.cheezy sauce in pyrex

Cheezy sauce is about the right consistency when just off the stove to use on cauliflower or nachos.  When refrigerated, it thickens and looks kind of like Velveeta. The color is a bit more mustardy (even before you add the mustard). I am thinking that next time I will make it with 1% milk instead of water and that might tone down the color a bit.

So, how does it taste??

Straight off the spoon — not bad, but not great. Reminiscent of cheese, but a little off and it leaves a bit of an aftertaste.

One of the reasons that I had decided to try a cheezy sauce is that I recently made Rotel Cheese Dip for a party. You know – the kind with Velveeta Cheese and Rotel Tomatoes. I knew that was bad, but I ate some anyway. I wanted to find a way to make that taste “legal.”

So, I mixed 2 TBSP of my Cheezy sauce with 2 TBSP Rotel tomatoes.cheezy dip
That was edible but kind of runny. The second time I made it I drained most of the juice off the tomatoes and that worked a little better.  It’s still kind of runny. It might be less so if I had used butter or margarine instead of olive oil, but that would not be MIND diet friendly. The taste is not as strongly cheese as the original dip.  When I make it again, I think I will add less of the tomatoes.

Next, I am going to try it on cooked cauliflower and probably some nachos.

Do you have any ideas how to use nutritional yeast to make a yummy cheese-like dish? Or, another way to substitute for cheese?  Please comment.

 

 

Impossibly Easy MIND diet recipe conversion

Recipes, The MIND Diet, Whole Grains

I have to admit that I have always liked using Bisquick, especially the Impossibly Easy Pie recipes.  I actually have a whole cookbook devoted to them.

However, when I reviewed the ingredients in the original Bisquick and even the HeartSmart Bisquick, they didn’t look to me like they fit the MIND diet very well.  Both have refined flour instead of whole wheat.  The main difference in the HeartSmart type that might make it a tweak healthier is that it has canola oil instead of Partially Hydrogenated Soybean and/or Cottonseed Oil.

So, I decided to look for or concoct a healthier substitute. I found that I wasn’t the first with that idea – at least to make a substitute with whole wheat. There are lots of recipes out there, but the one decided would work best for me is this one for a “small portion.” Granted, this defeats the purpose of having a mix on hand to whip up something fast, but without the preservatives, I thought it would be better to make it when I need it.

Yikes, it has whole wheat, but also Crisco!  That seems kind of silly since the original and heart-smart Bisquick contain oils. For the MIND diet, I really wanted to use olive oil. I have run into this problem before when I made Pecan Cinnamon Scones. The original recipe called for butter or margarine, but I found lots of sites that said using 3/4 as much olive oil as butter or margarine works in most recipes.

So, this is now my version:

1-cup Bisquick substitute (B-sub) for the MIND diet                    PDF version 

  • 1 cup of whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 3/4 TBSP olive oil  (2 1/4 tsp)

Mix the olive oil into other ingredients with a pastry blender or put it in other liquids in the recipe in which you are using the B-sub.

 

For the first test of my new concoction, I decided to adapt this Impossibly Easy French Apple Pie from Betty Crocker.  Here is my version:

Impossible French Apple Pie for the MIND diet                         PDF version

Filling

  • 3 cups sliced apples – I peeled mine, but I have made this kind of recipe with the peels
  • 1 tsp cinnamon – I omitted the 1/4 tsp nutmeg because I really don’t like it
  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/8 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup of Splenda (granulated) -the kind you buy in a big bag
  • 1/2 cup 1% milk
  • 1 1/2 TBSP olive oil (the 3/4 TBSP for the Bisquick sub and 3/4 TBSP for the recipe)
  • 2 eggs

Struesel:

  • 1/2 cup whole wheat flour ( I didn’t add the rest of the Bisquick ingredients here)
  • 1/4 cup chopped pecans
  • 1/8 cup brown sugar (2 TBSP)
  • 1/8 cup Splenda granulated (2 TBSP)
  • 1 1/2 TBSP oil

Slice the apples into a 9 inch pie plate. Sprinkle with cinnamon and mix in a bit.
Mix the filling and pour over apple mixture.
Mix the struesel and sprinkle on the top
Bake 40 minutes at 325 degrees.  Cool a bit before cutting.  Store left-overs (if there are any) in the refrigerator.

Impossibly Easy MIND diet recipe conversion

I have to admit that I have not tasted the pie yet. I made it this afternoon and my tasting panel (my husband and son) gave it the thumps up, even after I told them how I adapted it.

This pie was firmer than I remember fruit-based Impossible pies being. It made it easy to cut! My son said it was more like an apple bread, but he liked it. Maybe I could cut down a bit on the flour next time.

I am saving my piece for breakfast in the morning. I can’t really eat something like this as dessert because it has almost as many calories as I eat in a meal (237 calories). If you have read my post on eating dessert for breakfast, you know this is my strategy for eating dessert foods once in a while. I often make just one serving so I am not tempted by left-overs, but I know the left-overs of this pie won’t last long.

This is only the beginning. There are a jillion “Impossibly easy” recipes out there.

 

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Misleading information about the MIND diet

The MIND Diet

Be careful about information published about the MIND diet and related diets. I saw two examples lately that I thought were rather misleading.

The first was on a Prevention.com web site.  The site describes a bit about the MIND diet and quotes the statistics that it “may reduce the risk of developing Alzheimer’s by 53%.”  Note that the articles about the MIND diet state that it may “slow cognitive decline” which is not quite the same as reducing the risk.

The part that I thought was misleading was that the article went on to describe 4 foods as key players in the MIND diet. Remember that there are 10 recommended foods, but the others were not mentioned.

Each of the 4 key foods was illustrated with a nice photo.  Also, the research referred to was only partly from the MIND diet study and some of it was different.  For example, in promoting fish, an article that recommended eating fish 3 times per week was described.  This is probably what turned me off. I am not really a fish lover, but I can tolerate fish once a week.  If I thought the MIND diet required me to eat fish 3 times per week, I would immediately shut down any further thought of following it.

Anyway, the article only partially describes the MIND diet. It doesn’t say anything that would hurt anyone, unless it turns them away from a diet that might help them.

The second article I saw was worse. It was in a Women’s World newspaper dated August 10, 2015, page 21. I never read this paper except for the front page when waiting at the cash register in the supermarket, but I saw this in the waiting room at a doctor’s office.

The MIND diet was not actually mentioned, but the Mediterranean Diet was described as helping to “stave off dementia.” That was attributed to Dr. Audrey Chun. I could not find a source for this but Dr. Chun does seem to be a legitimate authority on aging. It was the following sentence that caught my attention: “And the great news is, you don’t have to completely change your diet: Just 1/3 cup of nuts and 5 Tbs. of olive oil daily was shown to boost brain health!”

Do you know how many calories that is?  According to http://nutritiondata.self.com , 1/3 cup of walnuts provides 255 calories and 5 Tbs, of Olive Oil provides 595 calories. That would be 850 calories daily.

I am assuming that Tbs. stands for Tablespoons. It must be a misprint??  Who could eat that many calories in just oil and nuts and have enough left for the other healthy foods.  If you have read my previous post on my struggles to follow the MIND diet within 1000 calories per day, you know that I can’t eat anywhere near that much oil and nuts.

The source of that information was not clear in the article. The words ‘was shown to’ indicates there was a study involved, but the source was not cited.  Although it was in the same article as the information attributed to Dr. Chun, it didn’t really connect to her either.

Anyway, be careful what you read.  I was careful to give the recommendations described in the MIND study articles accurately.  If you don’t have access to a library at which you can obtain the research articles, you can obtain them through the Alzheimer’s and Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer’s Association site.  Unfortunately, you will have to pay $30 each.

These are the articles and links at which you can access them:

  • MIND diet slows cognitive decline with aging

http://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(15)00194-6/pdf
I think this one has the clearest table of foods and frequency of servings – the scoring plan for the study on page 3.

  • MIND diet associated with reduced incidence of Alzheimer’s disease

http://www.alzheimersanddementia.com/article/S1552-5260(15)00017-5/pdf

Trouble keeping calories down on MIND diet

The MIND Diet, Weight Loss,

Four of the ten foods that are recommended on the MIND diet are ones I have tended to limit due to their calorie content:

  • Whole Grains
  • Beans
  • Nuts
  • Wine

Now, I am trying to eat more of them to meet the MIND diet requirements.  However, that increase is wreaking havoc with my attempt to lose weight.  I am trying to eat about 1000 calories per day. If I eat more than 1200 calories, I gain weight.

So, I decided to see how many calories those 4 recommended foods are costing me:

recommended
per week		 average cal/
serving		 average cal/
per week		 based on these foods and serving sizes
Wine 7 120 840 Franzia Moscato 5 oz
Beans 4 55 220 1/4 cup black beans
Nuts 5 191 955 1/4 cup walnuts
Whole grains 21 90 1890 oroweat whole grain bread
weekly total= 3905
average total
per day:
557.86

This analysis shows that these 4 foods constitute over half of my desired calorie limit every day. That doesn’t leave many calories for other foods. Let’s see how much they add up to.

This is based on what I think I should be eating. The additional fruit and the low-fat dairy are not mentioned on the MIND diet, but they are in other health-related articles. I hate to give them up.  The MIND diet does not mention an amount of olive oil, just that it should be the primary oil used. I think 1/2 TBSP per day is about a minimum for salad dressing and spreads.  Note that I am including only 3 oz of meat, fish, and poultry.  I think I am getting pretty close to a “plant-based” diet. Maybe that is the plan.

my target
per week		 average cal/
serving		 average cal/
per week		 based on:
Green leafy vegetables 7 10 70 red leaf lettuce
Other vegetables 7 30 210 average of gr beans and peas
2 Fruit, including berries 14 60 840 average of strawberries & orange
olive oil 1/2 TBSP 7 50 350 1/2 TBSP olive oil
2 low-fat dairy 14 90 1260 8 oz 1% milk & 1 light yogurt
3 oz beef, chicken, fish 7 150 1050 average of lean beef, chicken, salmon, etc.
weekly total= 3780
average total
per day:
540

That about tells the story.  558 + 540 = 1098 calories.  No wonder I can’t hit all these and my desired calorie intake of 1000 calories. I think I am going to have to adjust either number of servings or serving size. The MIND diet is presented as “one size fits all” and doesn’t really give serving sizes. I have been trying to figure out what average serving sizes are, but I think I need to focus on serving size for someone my size and age.

I am also going to figure out the most low-calorie foods that meet the MIND diet recommendations. There is a big difference between the 90 calorie Oroweat bread that I listed and 1 cup of breakfast cereal with the same amount of whole grains.

I know that activity level is a factor here also and important for preventing/stalling Alzheimers. I have been trying to hit 5,000 steps per day with 30 minutes of active exercise.  I think before I cut back on the recommended foods that I will increase my goal to 7,500 steps per day.

 

 

Desserts for breakfast on the MIND diet

Recipes, The MIND Diet

The other day I made oatmeal cookies with oil instead of butter and enjoyed a couple for lunch with my cottage cheese and blueberries. They were really good, but the recipe made 15 cookies and my husband didn’t care much for them. That left me with 13 cookies staring at me, the original COOKIE MONSTER.

The next day I discovered that 3 of those cookies made the perfect breakfast. Not much different, ingredient-wise, than eating oatmeal with sweetener and cinnamon, but a more appealing texture.  I didn’t even count them as one of my 4 pastries and sweets per week allowed by the MIND diet.

But, having those sitting around made me get into problem-solving mode. I also still have Pecan Cinnamon Scones and Whole Grain Blueberry Muffins in my freezer from earlier recipe tests.  I either have to stop testing new recipes or eat more than I should or waste food.  Then, it occurred to me that the answer is easy, single-serving recipes based on recommended MIND diet foods. I have tried a couple so far and I must share them.

My first inspiration came from Betty Crocker’s Build-Your-Own Microwave Mug Cobbler.  Of course, the strawberries and blueberries caught my attention, but I didn’t want to have to work on a whole grain substitute for Bisquick, so I looked around. I found an almost perfect recipe in this Single-serving Fruit Crisp.  The recipe said to cook it in the oven, but I used the cooking instructions from Betty Crocker and cooked it in the microwave. I also added some slivered almonds to get in another recommended food. This was the result:

Blueberry Crisp in a Mug                     PDF version

Mix in a mug:blueberry crisp in a mug

  • 1/2 cup blueberries (I used fresh, but frozen should be ok)
  • 1/2 TBSP agave (or sugar or sweetener, if you prefer)

Mix separately in a small bowl:

  • 3 TBSP oatmeal (I used old-fashioned)
  • 1 TBSP whole wheat flour
  • 1 TBSP agave (or sugar or sweetener to taste)
  • 1/8 tsp cinnamon

Spread this mixture over the blueberries. Top with:

  • 1 TBSP slivered almonds

Bake in microwave about 2 minutes until the berries bubble up over the topping a bit (My microwave is 700 watts; if you have a more powerful one, try 1 minutes first. Or, if you use frozen blueberries, it might take longer.)

This was a yummy breakfast! With the almonds, it was 258 calories and it kept me satisfied until noon. It was easy and I didn’t have any left-overs to worry about.

 

And then, another inspiration came along. On the Today Show, they mentioned French Toast in a Mug. They didn’t really give a recipe, but my first thought was: “I have to try that.” So, today I did and it was yummy.

Pecan french toast in a mug

French Toast in a Mug with Pecans
PDF version

Combine in a mug:

  • 1 egg
  • 1 TBSP milk (I used 1%)
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 TBSP syrup (I used Kroger Sugar-Free)

Cut into ½ inch cubes:

  • 1 slice whole wheat bread

Add bread to mixture in mug and mix up so all bread is moistened.  Let sit while doing next step.

Chop:

  • 4 pecan halves (about 1 TBSP)

Put pecans on top.

Microwave on high about 1 ½ minute, until bread is no longer moist.

Top with:

  • 1 TBSP syrup (I used Kroger Sugar-Free)

Let cool a couple of minutes or maybe 5. It is really hot.

With the pecans, this was 242 calories. The pecans were 47 calories, so it would be less than 200 without them.

This was my best creation yet. It might have been more like bread pudding than French Toast?  Or, actually, it was kind of Like a Pecan Roll!  And, I don’t even feel the need to count it against my Pastries/Sweets quota.