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Going veggie shrinks the brain
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September 12, 2008 06:45pm
SCIENTISTS have discovered that going veggie could be bad for your brain - with those on a meat-free diet six times more likely to suffer brain shrinkage.
Vegans and vegetarians — such as Heather Mills — are the most likely to be deficient because the best sources of the vitamin are meat, particularly liver, milk and fish.
Vitamin B12 deficiency can also cause anaemia and inflammation of the nervous system.
Yeast extracts are one of the few vegetarian foods which provide good levels of the vitamin.
The link was discovered by Oxford University scientists who used memory tests, physical checks and brain scans to examine 107 people between the ages of 61 and 87.
When the volunteers were retested five years later the medics found those with the lowest levels of vitamin B12 were also the most likely to have brain shrinkage. It confirms earlier research showing a link between brain atrophy and low levels of B12.
GO EASY ON THE BOOZE
Brain scans of more than 1,800 people found that people who downed 14 drinks or more a week had 1.6 per cent more brain shrinkage than teetotallers.
Women in their seventies were the most at risk.
Beer does less damage than wine according to a study in Alcohol and Alcoholism.
Researchers found that the hippocampus - the part of the brain that stores memories — was 10 per cent smaller in beer drinkers than those who stuck to wine.
And don’t inhale, cannabis has been shown to have the same brain-rotting effect.
EAT LESS
Being overweight or obese is linked to brain loss, Swedish researchers discovered.
Scans of around 300 women found that those with brain shrink had an average body mass index of 27
And for every one point increase in their BMI the loss rose by 13 to 16 per cent.
A BMI 25 to 30 is classed as overweight, above 30 is clinically obese. Calculate your BMI
Dr Deborah Gustafson of University Hospital in Göteborg says obesity increases the risk of high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease, which are both thought to contribute to brain drain.
She adds: “Obesity may also increase the secretion of cortisol, which could lead to atrophy.”
GET FISHY
The omega-3 oils found in fish reduce the risk of dementia and other mental disorders says Fernando Gómez-Pinilla of the University of California, Los Angeles.
He says they increase flexibility in synapses in the brain - the bits that transmit information - and boost memory and learning.
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Have Your Say
Latest Comments:
The answer is grow your own food prepare your own food and that includes raising livestock for your family and killing it when you need to to provide food for your family. Just like it was in the "olden" days...work for what you consume. You'll be too busy to bitch about others and we will all have what we need.
Posted by: The One Who Knows of States 8:28am November 10, 2008
"meet." I meant meat.
Posted by: Manuel of Lancaster 3:35pm September 30, 2008
"In fact, if one person is unkind to an animal it is considered to be cruelty, but where a lot of people are unkind to animals, especially in the name of commerce, the cruelty is condoned and, once large sums of money are at stake, will be defended to the last by otherwise intelligent people."--Leo Tolstoy How can we choose our own way of life when eating meet has been internalized?
Posted by: Manuel of Lancaster 4:20pm September 26, 2008
Katherine of Brisbane at 4:12pm, I think your attitude is appalling, what makes you think that eating red meat is the reason people are obese. I suggest you keep your ill informed, impractivcal and unrealistic nonsense to yourself! Maybe you've been eating too much grass!
Posted by: egan of Brisbane 9:25am September 25, 2008
Good comment Katherine of Brisbane, but have you ever been to an area where broad acre grain growing is carried out? The grain industry can hold it's own with destruction of the environment with the best of them. That not including the salinity problem caused by using too much ground water.Some beef is grain fed but the majority isn't.
Posted by: Bill Smith of Far North Queensland 8:12am September 25, 2008
They tell me that lettuces scream in agony when they are dragged out of the ground.
Posted by: Ronaldo of Clontarf Beach. 6:54am September 25, 2008
Read all 98 commentsPoor Katherine from Brisbane, she laments all the resources dedicated to the production of meat because they could be allocated to feed those that are hungry. As if there were some planned type of economy that actually feeds the poor--it's called socialism/communism and it doesn't work and it produces more hunger. I bet you a gallon of beer said Katherine from Brisbane, who obviously suffers from brain shrinkage, doesn't lift a finger herself to help the poor and the hungry. Eat a balanced diet, that includes tasty animals, shut your trap and move your ass, simple ain't it?
Posted by: JAQO of Miami, Florida 10:53pm September 24, 2008
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