Yesterday I was speaking by phone with a tech support person, and he mentioned that his father had died of Alzheimer’s. This often happens to me when I need help figuring out my website: Technicians or developers see the topic of my book and inevitably say they know someone who’s suffering from or has died of the disease. He has been forgetting words lately, he continued, and worries about himself. Don’t we all, those of us on the cusp of late middle age? You scramble to justify patches of mental fog: It’s stress, lack of sleep or too much sleep, and so on. But lurking just beneath those comforting rationalizations is the fear of an insidious demise occurring within our brains. Most of us are more afraid of Alzheimer’s disease than we are of cancer.

. . . The chemicals in blueberries helped protect the brains of rats mechanically plunged into a demented state by Tufts researchers, probably wielding very tiny instruments. The rats who ate blueberries still found their way through mazes. The ones that didn’t, didn’t. A 2007 (but still relevant) Neuroscience Press Conference in San Diego featured side by side slides of cortical neurons in aged rats fed a blueberry enriched diet and rats fed regular rat food. It requires nothing more than normal vision to see the difference.

This morning I discovered that ground walnuts are not good in grits. But neither, for northern readers, is maple syrup. Grits are good with butter and red-eye gravy. Walnut oil, however, when mixed with apple cider vinegar, a dash of Dijon mustard, and whatever fresh herbs you have on hand makes a terrific salad dressing.

I’ve been coming across information lately (not all posted by the coconut industry) about the brain benefits of non-hydrogenated coconut oil. Dr. Mary Newport has one of the most compelling personal stories. She discovered coconut oil while on a personal mission to help her husband, diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, and has written a book: Alzheimer's Disease: What If There Was a Cure? The Story of Ketones.

A widening stream of credible research is making the connection between diet, exercise, and Alzheimer’s disease. The idea that we can perhaps delay or prevent the whole terrible process of cognitive collapse is comforting and should be compelling. So why isn’t it, for us Americans, struggling as we are with the physical consequences of a less-than-optimum diet? Why aren’t we all eating mainly organic vegetables and fruits, healthy fats, walnuts and almonds, non contaminated fish, unsweetened yogurt and other healthy foods? Why are we still reaching for the cheese puffs, microwave popcorn, soft drinks, packaged cookies, and chicken nuggets?

For this blog, I’m posting the 'recipe' for the shake I drink for lunch, since a few people have emailed for more specific information than I gave in my December 15th blog (see the thumbnail photo of French fries). This blog was based on a Harvard/Tufts study in which people were coached into craving bran cereal and cardboard chicken.