Participants: Don Mackintosh (Host), Vicki Griffin
Series Code: HFAL
Program Code: HFAL000201
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00:01 The following program presents principles
00:03 designed to promote good health and is not 00:05 intended to take the place of personalized 00:07 professional care. The opinions and ideas expressed 00:10 are those of the speaker. Viewers are encouraged 00:13 to draw their own conclusions about 00:15 the information presented. 00:50 Welcome to Health for A Lifetime and I'm your 00:51 host Don Mackintosh. We're glad that 00:53 you're with us and we hope today as a result 00:55 of this program your mood improves. 00:58 We are gonna be talking about diet and how 01:00 it affects your mood and talking with us 01:03 is an author and a lecturer and just basically 01:07 a scholar in the area of nutrition, Vicki Griffin. 01:10 Vicki, we're glad that you're with us. 01:12 Thank you. And you lecture at the 01:14 Michigan State University. You're, you know finishing 01:17 some graduate work in nutrition now and you have 01:20 authored a great series of books, simple solutions 01:24 one of which is Foods for Thoughts, 01:26 nutrition linked with, what is it? Mood, 01:29 memory, learning and behavior. 01:31 Yes, in conjunction with some other researchers. 01:34 So great, so you've got a good team and. 01:37 Right. Putting out excellent material, 01:38 it's being used in different faith communities 01:41 and different churches across the country and 01:43 we're excited about that and 01:45 what's happening in people's lives. Right. 01:47 I mean as they see the connections here. 01:51 We hear a lot about nutrition in the news 01:53 of course and we hear about how it leads to obesity, 01:57 diabetes and heart disease and all these 01:59 different things, but what about the 02:02 connection between food and mood? 02:04 Well the real battle Don, is not for the bulge, 02:07 it's for the brain. It's not even about weight control. 02:11 It's about appetite control. So what we're 02:13 talking about in this book is healthy headquarters. 02:16 How to help your mental engine to purr instead 02:19 of ping, and sometimes the way we feel mentally 02:22 because of eating styles and other factors of course 02:25 drives those eating behavior that are contributing 02:29 to the lifestyle diseases. So I think that a good place 02:33 to begin would be with nutrition reviews that 02:35 substantiates the whole premise of our book 02:37 that nutrition has a very profound affect on mental 02:40 function. It says can what you eat influence your 02:44 mental function and the answer is certainly 02:47 affirmative. We ingest each day any number 02:50 of compounds that we know alter mental function. 02:54 So Nutrition Reviews of course is this very scholarly 02:57 review of all the nutrition type things that are written 03:00 and they're saying yeah, there's this great 03:01 connection. There is. There is a definite 03:03 connection between what you eat and how 03:05 you feel and your mood. 03:06 And we're not talking about the sort of the 03:08 fad stuff that's out there that says if you want 03:11 to be happy eat a banana. If you want to do well 03:13 on a test have a tuna sandwich. 03:15 This micro manipulation of food choices to get a 03:18 certain response. We're talking about the overall 03:22 long term choices what you're craving, 03:24 what you're eating, what your consistent patterns 03:26 of eating are. That are going to have a profound 03:28 affect on the structure, function and chemistry 03:30 of the brain. And I think its well stated by 03:33 Melvyn Werbach from UCLA School of Medicine. 03:35 He said, It is clear that nutrition can powerfully 03:40 influence cognition that's your thinking. 03:42 One lady at a meeting said, does it have something 03:44 to do with your ignition and I said well sort of. 03:45 Influence cognition, emotion and behavior 03:49 and then going on there. 03:51 It is also clear that the effects of just classical 03:54 nutritional deficiency diseases upon mental 03:56 function constitute only a small part of a rapidly 04:00 expanding list of interfaces or connections 04:03 between nutrition and the mind. 04:06 So in another words they're just discovering all kinds 04:08 of connections between what you eat, your mood, 04:10 your brain function and the list is just growing. 04:13 Right and just in 2000 the American Journal 04:16 of Clinical Nutrition underscored this by saying 04:18 in their investigations over the past 40 years, 04:21 several lines of study, epidemiological study, 04:24 studies of biology and chemistry, and genetics 04:28 have shown that the chemistry and function 04:31 of both the developing and mature 04:33 brain are influenced by diet. 04:35 So when you say developing and maturing that means 04:37 that this impacts both the young and the old. Right. 04:42 So my five year old and your twenty five year old. 04:45 And the 55 year old in your home. 04:48 All of those categories are profoundly affected 04:52 by consistent food choices. 04:54 Now you're saying your book, 04:55 that dietary changes affect your neurotransmitters. 04:59 What's a neurotransmitter? 05:00 A neurotransmitter is just simply a chemical messenger 05:02 that passes from nerve cell to nerve cell to convey 05:08 the messages of mood and memory and 05:13 various actions of the brain. 05:15 And you say it also affects the cell function 05:17 and structure. In another words if you eat cheese 05:20 your head is cheese like you know I guess 05:23 what's constantly at those cheese heads, is that? 05:25 Right. Well, one of the, a very amazing woman 05:28 wrote the forward to the our book, she. 05:30 Her name is Dr. Helen Kim; she is the Director of 05:33 Pharmacology and Toxicology. She runs a protein lab 05:37 at the University of Birmingham, Alabama. 05:41 And in her forward she shows, how the permeability, 05:46 the cell conductivity, the structure and function 05:49 and metabolism of the cells are affected by various 05:53 dietary constituents. You can have a diet that makes 05:57 your head stiff as well as your arteries, 06:00 it makes it very difficult for to, very difficult for 06:05 neurotransmission to take place. The cells can become 06:07 impermeable and inflexible, but by contrast with 06:10 the healthy diet why you can have better 06:13 responsivity of cells, better neurotransmission, 06:16 you can have more responsive synapses, 06:19 so that thinking can take place at a better level. 06:22 So you don't have to be the victim of moods swings 06:25 and all these different things, 06:26 that's what research is finding? 06:28 Well Elizabeth Somers who wrote a book called 06:30 Food and Mood. She is a researcher in this area. 06:33 She had a very interesting statement. 06:35 She said repeated poor food choices and again 06:39 we're talking about the continual patterns of dietary 06:43 choices can set fundamental patterns in the production 06:46 of brain chemicals. Now when a fundamental pattern 06:48 is set that means genetic expression is being altered. 06:51 That regulate appetite and mood, 06:54 so that you become a victim of mood swings, 06:56 food cravings and poor sleep habits and other 06:59 emotional problems because of your eating habits. 07:02 So if you repeatedly eat stiff food, 07:05 you're gonna have a stiff brain. Have you repeatedly 07:08 eat all these different kind of foods that negatively 07:11 affect your mood. You're gonna be moody, 07:12 all these different things. You are what you eat. 07:15 Well that is true and we're not saying, 07:18 let me say what we are not saying. 07:19 We are not saying that food cures everything. 07:21 A person can be a vegetarian and still be mean. 07:23 However, however. That's true, 07:26 I think I have met some. You have met some. 07:28 However there is a tremendous responsiveness 07:33 with nutrient content, fiber content on appetite 07:37 regulatory hormones, genetic expressions, 07:40 structure of brain cells. All of these factors 07:43 are profoundly influenced by nutrition. 07:46 So in other words food's not the only answer, 07:48 but it certainly is one we can't just dismiss, 07:50 because it's something we just put in everyday. 07:52 I mean people usually eat, that's right. 07:54 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10 times a day or more or more, 07:57 so you've got to have the right kind of foods. 08:02 Now you say that there's a, you have your list. 08:04 You have this hit list that I've heard you talk about 08:07 before and seen in your books, 08:09 that is the negative list. Right. The one that 08:12 can really set you up for bad mood and all 08:14 those different things. Yes, you will have 08:15 transmission trouble with this list. 08:17 Okay, yeah. What is this list? 08:19 I call it the chips, chops and lollipops lifestyle 08:21 and it includes the very hard stiff saturated fats 08:25 that people typically consume in large amounts. 08:29 So saturated fat like red meat and butter? 08:32 Yes, red meat, butter, the high fat cheeses that 08:34 kind of thing. The trans fats, the omega 6 fats that 08:37 we find in the fries and cookies and in the chips 08:42 that type of thing that we, that we see. 08:44 And then the refined foods. 08:46 Yes, we can probably all, pretty well figure 08:48 out what those are. 08:49 White bread, pot, pastries, snack, mix 08:51 and what else is on your list, refined sugars, 08:54 candy bars, ice cream and pie. 08:56 Boy, you've taken away all the fun foods 08:59 and animal products. Alcohol, right, and all of 09:01 these things is very interesting because these 09:03 types of foods of course are implicated in the 09:06 development of metabolic syndrome and other 09:08 lifestyle diseases, but there's also a metabolic 09:11 mayhem mentally that occurs when you have a 09:13 course of consistently eating these types of foods 09:16 and those syndromes elevated blood pressure 09:18 uncontrolled, elevated cholesterol, 09:20 metabolic syndrome, insulin resistance. 09:23 These syndromes are associated with increase 09:26 levels of depression, fatigue, attention, 09:28 lower levels of mental processing and so when 09:32 a person feels that way. They're more inclined 09:35 to crave these kinds of foods just simply 09:37 because their mental engine is just throttling 09:40 at a low level and so there is a kind of a 09:42 vicious cycle that's created by these foods. 09:45 Well you know it's really easy to point out these 09:48 bad foods and that list is saying so easy to read 09:50 through, but I'm sure people are just gasping. 09:53 Oh man, I'm just so used to having my nice 09:58 little hot fudge sundae before my second one. 10:01 Right. But how you change these habits, 10:04 you know once you get into these patterns. 10:05 Well there are some, some very significant challenges, 10:08 because eating styles really do become habits 10:11 and those habits change the architecture of the brain 10:13 and make it very hard for the body to detect 10:16 that I'm satisfied signals that the whole system 10:19 becomes just regulated, the food addictions occur 10:22 and cravings then and then you have the impaired 10:25 mood which at in higher stress sensitivity which 10:28 makes it harder to handle challenges, 10:30 so you're just driven to these nurture foods. 10:32 And so breaking that cycle takes concentrated effort, 10:36 it takes focus and it takes a choice. 10:40 There is a lack of understanding because 10:41 of all the mixed media messages. 10:43 We have people touting high protein diets, 10:46 we have a beer. You can get beer with fiber 10:48 in it now. It's been touted as a health drink, 10:50 so there's just an awful lot of mixed media 10:54 messages out there, and so I had some really 10:58 interesting conversations with a wonderful scientist 11:00 who has done research in this area. 11:02 His name is Dr. Antonio Convit and he has studied 11:06 the affects of high fructose corn syrup on the brain 11:08 and on appetite regulation. And in a phone conversation 11:12 with me he said this. He said, 11:14 we have studied the effects of insulin resistance 11:16 on the pancreas, the retina and other organs. 11:19 But what about the brain? No one thinks 11:22 about the brain. That's true, I mean a lot 11:24 of our media messages are saying we're gonna 11:26 get heart disease or this or that if we eat this. 11:28 Right. But they don't talk about, 11:29 yeah you're gonna a dud because your brain is. 11:31 That's right and you're gonna suffer from more 11:33 tension, depression, fatigue and these are the kinds 11:36 of moods and syndromes that drive people to 11:38 those eating behaviors, so breaking that cycle takes 11:41 a deliberate choice. We believe that we need to help 11:44 people recognize what is going on and how the 11:47 brain's internal supervisor that keeps control 11:51 of food choices and motivated behavior is being 11:55 hijacked by these habits and so we want for people 11:59 to learn the steps of overcoming those food 12:02 cravings and addictions that are creating the very 12:06 syndromes that drive them to eat 12:07 these foods even more. 12:08 Now you know, you go around the country, 12:10 you lecture in different churches, you go different 12:12 venues all over the place and you've written 12:15 this book which you know we're just getting just 12:17 a tiny scratch at the surface here, 12:20 but people can resource this and other things 12:23 on your website, Lifestyle Matters. 12:26 I'll spell it out, lifestylematters.com and this 12:30 as well as other resources are available. 12:32 Are a lot of people responding to that, 12:34 a lot of different faith communities, 12:36 a lot of different groups using these materials 12:37 Oh yes, not only Faith Communities, 12:39 but we've had opportunities to share at Bariatric 12:42 Symposiums where people that have the gastric 12:44 bypasses and different types of things and the 12:47 National College of Nurse Practitioners and at the 12:50 medical school for medical students, 12:52 because people are very aware that just getting 12:56 information about their pancreas or about their, 12:58 their vessels is not helping them to achieve longer term 13:02 compliance with meds or with lifestyle and so 13:06 there are other factors that are involved 13:08 that we need to address. 13:09 They need to understand this mood connection 13:10 and all this. Exactly. So that once that's changed 13:12 then a lot of these other things could be addressed. 13:14 We wanna help people to plug in and start to pay 13:17 attention to what happens to their mood a couple 13:20 of hours after that fast food choice, 13:22 because it dives. And there are some very real changes 13:25 that takes place and it creates the scenario 13:28 for ingestion of more these kinds of foods. 13:30 So when they begin to make healthy choices, 13:33 then you begin to see the mental engine just begins 13:36 to throttle up, you have more ability to meet 13:39 the challenges that have been driving you to 13:41 the vending machine and this is what 13:43 we wanna work on. Driving you to the 13:44 vending machine. Well you know and that 13:46 sounds funny, but it is really true. 13:48 We're talking with Vicki Griffin. She's an author 13:51 and she lectures in many different venues and her 13:54 material is available to us in this program today. 13:57 We're gonna come back and talk about some 13:59 good news as it relates to mood and food. 14:02 Join us when we come back. 14:06 Are you confused about the endless stream 14:08 of new and often contradictory health 14:10 information with companies trying to sell new drugs 14:13 and special interest groups paying for studies 14:16 that spin the fact? Where can you find a common 14:19 sense approach to health? One way is to ask 14:21 for your free copy of Dr. Arnott's 24 realistic 14:25 ways to improve your health. 14:26 Dr. Timothy Arnott and the Lifestyle Center 14:29 of America produced this helpful booklet of 24 short 14:32 practical health tips based on scientific research 14:35 and the Bible that will help you live longer, 14:37 happier and healthier. For example, 14:39 did you know that women who drink more water 14:42 lower the risk of heart attack. Or the 7 to 8 hours 14:45 of sleep a night can minimize your risk of ever 14:47 developing diabetes. Find out how to lower your 14:51 blood pressure and much more. If you're looking 14:53 for help not hike, then this booklet's for you. 14:56 Just log on to 3abn.org and click on free offers 14:59 or call us during regular business hours. 15:01 You'll be glad you did. 15:06 Welcome back we're talking with Vicki Griffin. 15:08 We're talking about foods and how they can affect 15:10 your mood. They don't just affect your body, 15:12 they just don't lead to heart disease and to cancer 15:15 and to diabetes although those are very bad, 15:17 but the real issue is headquarters our guest 15:21 tells us today your head, the brain. 15:23 Vicki Griffin, we're glad that you're with us. 15:25 Thank you. And you know you have an exciting life. 15:27 Lecturing to you know medical students and to 15:30 different groups and churches across the 15:33 Michigan Conference around the Country. 15:34 You work with a great team putting together great 15:36 materials to help people and we've talked about food 15:41 and the affect it can have, I mean food is not 15:45 the answer to everything, but it's really big 15:47 because we eat so much of it, we do it everyday. 15:50 Most people that are watching have probably 15:52 already chowed down a couple times today and 15:55 it's very significant, you've talked about some 15:58 bad things, the chips, the pop, the lollipops that kind 16:01 of diet and what it does to your neurotransmitters 16:04 and makes these mood swings come and all that. 16:07 You looked at some of the research with us, 16:09 but what are some foods that really can get our. 16:12 What would you say our mind purring 16:14 instead of pinging? Well the high fiber plant 16:18 foods that are very rich in antioxidants and vitamins, 16:22 minerals. phytochemicals which are non-nutritive 16:25 substances that helped to add to the color, 16:27 flavor and texture of the foods that we love 16:30 from the produce department. Okay. 16:32 Those have some very real affects on the brain 16:34 as well as other parts of the body. 16:37 Will play positive. Very positive affects. Okay. 16:38 Right, and we call the produce department, 16:41 the department of defense. Okay. 16:42 And so, yes, there vare a list of types and 16:46 categories of foods that we wanna make 16:48 sure that we have. So you say plenty of fresh 16:50 vegetables is the first thing on your list. Absolutely. 16:52 And then fresh fruit variety. Especially greens. 16:55 Greens. We want especially. 16:57 Greens are best for the mind okay. 16:58 Throttle up on those greens. Spinach, papaya. 17:01 Yes, they're very rich in magnesium which 17:04 is a major anti stress mineral. They have not only 17:07 magnesium, but calcium, boron, the B-vitamins. 17:10 These are all very stress protective. 17:12 I mean some people probably don't know what 17:14 that all mean, but those are good for the brain. 17:16 They're good. Whole grains. That's right. 17:17 That would be like what brown rice versus white rice, 17:20 that kind of thing. Exactly, yes, 17:22 whole grain bread instead of white bread. 17:23 Let's read through the rest of list and we'll come 17:25 back maybe talk about a couple of beans and legumes, 17:28 nuts, seeds, olive oil, plenty of water between 17:31 meals,B12 and then vitamin D if you're in those northern 17:36 climates or climes, right. 17:37 Yes, you need to pay attention to B12 needs 17:39 and like I said vitamin D is important especially 17:43 to those in the Northern climates. 17:44 Fatty acid intake is so important, 17:46 people don't realize at times how important 17:49 it is to get those helpful fatty acids. 17:51 Olive oil for instant, extra virgin olive oil is very 17:54 rich in antioxidants. 31 different antioxidants and 17:57 hydroxytyrosol which makes vessel walls more 18:01 supple that includes the brain, 18:02 and in the aging brain that's especially important. 18:05 Well I think, probably also you know I have 18:07 seen a number of cases of vitamin B12 deficiency. 18:11 Oh absolutely. And of course that kind of affect 18:15 those that are, that doesn't come usually 18:17 from plant sources. It doesn't come from 18:19 plant sources, so it's very important if you have 18:22 a plant based diet to make sure that you have 18:23 a source of B12 in your diet. 18:25 But when you eat these kind of foods. 18:27 You really just start humming and you've got 18:29 some pep in your steps, some spunk in your trunk 18:32 and you know. We've had people tell us 18:33 that within a matter of several days, 18:35 they feel like a fog has lifted from their brain. 18:38 They had redoing things two or three times. They 18:40 just didn't seem to able to process Merrill Elias, 18:44 who is an epidemiologist and statistician has done 18:47 learning a memory test with seniors and he found 18:50 a very positive correlation with 36 different aspects 18:55 of learning and memory and mental impairment with 18:57 poor food choices and metabolic syndrome versus 19:01 having a healthful diet and so. 19:02 So you keep, metabolic syndrome 19:04 is this like what is that? It's a clustering 19:07 of symptoms that includes obesity, 19:09 high cholesterol, high triglycerides, 19:11 high blood pressure. So that's the result of eating 19:14 the wrong things and then also pays a big 19:17 price in the brain. That's exactly right. 19:19 It makes it very much harder to adopt and stick 19:22 to a program, because you feel so bad mentally. 19:24 So you, there's some other ways you have listed here, 19:27 so you can have pep in your step and your eyes 19:29 can pop and your jaw can drop, all those different 19:31 things. Let's go through that list now and look again 19:35 at ways to improve brain energy appetite called 19:39 control and eating habits. One is exercise, 19:42 another is water, then rest and then attitude. 19:46 Well talk to me about water. 19:48 Well water is very important because it juices 19:49 the brain, it literally helps to deliver those nutrients 19:52 to the brain and when you have the fresh fruits 19:54 and vegetables, you've got the antioxidant crew 19:57 that's sweeping up those dead cells and clearing up 19:59 the circulation and making those vessels more, 20:01 more supple, and it's helping the entire. 20:04 And the water just flushes them out. 20:05 The water flushes it away and delivers nutrients 20:07 to the brain. Exercise is important because 20:09 it throttles up that executive function and also 20:14 there's something called cerebral lateralization 20:16 that takes place, that sort of lowers the anxiety, 20:18 neurotransmitters and it elevates the good mood, 20:22 so that you will have less cravings. 20:24 You know as much as you get down on life. 20:25 You probably exercise quite a bit. 20:27 Don't you? Did you walk here all the way from Michigan? 20:29 I did not walked from Michigan, 20:30 but we did on this long, long drive, 20:32 we made it a point to do two special stops 20:35 along the way in a mall, 'cause the weather was poor. 20:38 And then attitude, things that improve brain 20:41 function is the attitude. Yes, negative thinking, 20:43 when a person is a ruminator, when they put things 20:45 in the crock pot and just stew over it all day long. 20:48 It has such an amazing affect on the brain's ability 20:53 to learn and meet new challenges that it creates 20:56 a terrible environment for learning and learning 21:00 new things and adopting change. 21:01 We have to remember that a positive and a negative 21:03 thought cannot coexist and a bad attitude 21:06 is like a flat tire, you're not gonna get very 21:08 far until you change it. Alright so yeah this is that 21:10 what they call that cognitive behavioral therapy 21:13 where they say hey look stop thinking that way. 21:15 Well we do need to take note of what our thought 21:18 patterns are tending to, where they're leading us 21:21 and interrupt that process and replace it with 21:23 a better thought. Now you've, you've 21:25 written this book and other books they're available 21:27 on your information about them and the other 21:31 resources that you and you have a team, don't you? 21:34 Yes. How many people work on your team? 21:35 Well, we have a staff of people, we have several 21:38 researchers. We have physicians and a dietician 21:40 who is our nutrition director and then we also 21:42 have our development staff to make the materials 21:44 very attractive. We have DVDs and educational 21:48 materials for those that would like to teach 21:50 this topic and hold seminars. 21:52 So all the things are available on your website 21:54 at lifestylematters.com and, an excellent resource 21:59 by the way. I've enjoyed visiting the website. 22:02 How soon can these changes that you have described 22:06 occur in the brain? You know you go hey man, 22:08 I'm feeling really, I'm ready to listen. 22:10 I'm listening to the program today and I want to 22:12 have some good moods and let the good times roll. 22:16 How soon can this happen? 22:17 Well, reversing the architecture of the brain 22:21 or changing the structural problems that have occurred 22:24 through years of wrong choices takes time, 22:27 but some of the affects and results of positive 22:29 choices can take place in as little as few days 22:33 and we know that, that even changes in blood vessels 22:36 begin to take place in a few days and so, 22:39 so the changes in part depend on how much 22:42 damages has done, how much atrophy has occurred 22:45 in certain parts of the brain that maybe affected 22:47 by poor lifestyle, but there is just positive, 22:51 positive change that does occur for 22:54 most people very, very soon and it begins 22:57 to improve as time goes on. 22:59 And you said that there's even a possibility 23:00 of changing dementia. What is dementia and what 23:05 is the research you're talking about in terms 23:08 of dementia actually change? 23:09 Well a good diet can slow the progress of dementia. 23:12 So what is dementia? I don't know that it would 23:14 reverse it. Now, dementia most people associate 23:17 dementia with memory loss, but that's actually the end 23:20 stage by the time that level of destruction or atrophy 23:25 has taken place about 23 percent of brain function 23:28 has been lost. So the very subtle encroachment 23:32 of dementia begins with impaired reasoning, 23:34 failure to follow through with lists. 23:38 There's a very subtle process that keeps, 23:40 that begins to occur years before the actual 23:44 forgetfulness and. I see. The more standard. 23:48 So that can be definitely retarded. 23:50 So, how wonderful to begin to restore the resiliency 23:54 and the plasticity or malleability of the brain 23:56 before those final steps that you can't change 24:00 begin to happen. You have four steps you say that 24:03 a person can take to you know put their mental engine 24:08 back on the road. Right. The highway, the fast lane. 24:11 That's it. So we wanna look at those four stages 24:13 and then we'll come back and talk about and the first 24:15 one you have done here is to replace refined junk 24:18 food with more fiber and antioxidant rich foods 24:22 to replace sedentary habits with exercise everyday 24:25 to replace soda and coffee with water and to replace 24:30 TV with stimulating mental challenges. 24:33 That's right. So what are the, 24:34 some of the stimulating mental challenges 24:36 you're involved in? Well I love, I love learning 24:40 new things and so the brain loves novelty 24:43 and the love of novelty can become an addiction 24:46 if you're just focusing on the same thing all over 24:48 the time and so it's really a good thing for us 24:51 to challenge our brains. I try to read books that are, 24:54 that are in challenging new areas, 24:57 I'm getting a hobby book on physics. 24:59 I know very little about physics, 25:01 but I want to learn and that's gonna 25:02 be one of my vacation books this year, 25:04 so I try to involve myself in those kinds of mental 25:07 challenges. I also try to learn new social responses 25:11 and make new choices. What's a social response? 25:14 Well for instance, I come from a pretty bad 25:16 background and I was a bulimic and runway 25:19 for many years and didn't handle stress well and 25:23 never was taught those kinds of things, 25:24 so I practice new behaviors, when I see someone 25:27 doing something that's really an affective 25:30 communication style. I try and copy it and 25:32 model that, because that's a good thing 25:35 and so that actually increases the ability of my 25:38 brain to handle challenges later on in life, 25:41 so that's one of the ways that I increase my 25:43 neuronal neighborhoods is by just observing 25:45 better behavior than I have and try to copy. 25:48 Increasing your neuronal neighborhood. 25:49 That's what I do. So all those neurons 25:51 are coming together, so you know challenging 25:54 or stimulating mental challenges someone once 25:57 told me that reading the book of Proverbs 25:59 or the book of Daniel does that. 26:01 Daily Bible study is just amazing. 26:03 It's an amazing discipline. 26:05 It's a wonderful thing and I make sure that 26:07 I do that each day because I need the power 26:10 that God has. I need his plan in my life 26:12 and I also needed the challenge of the mental 26:15 stimulation, so I don't, I don't spend time with 26:17 television. I spend time with more challenging 26:20 activities and it is a decision, because 26:22 it's an easy thing to do to fall into a rut 26:24 and just do what doesn't require much processing. 26:30 So for the person who's out there and that's 26:31 in a bad mood, that's kind of in the doldrums today. 26:34 Right. But they're saying hey maybe there 26:36 is some hope, there is some help here. 26:37 What's your parting piece of advise to that 26:40 person who's watching today? 26:41 Okay my parting piece of advise is to just remember 26:45 how God has made your brain for, 26:46 to rebuild and to recover and restore those 26:50 lost connections, and so my parting advice 26:52 is to immediately begin to get entranced and 26:55 captivated with good high fiber foods, 26:58 replace the junk foods with some fresh fruits 27:00 and vegetables and whole grain breads. 27:01 Go out for a walk in the morning and get that 27:04 exercise. Get to bed on time, 27:06 because that's gonna have an affect on mood 27:08 and stress levels and blood sugar control 27:09 the next day. So remember that the lifestyle 27:13 that God has given us is not restrictive, 27:15 it's protective. So begin to implement some 27:17 of those tools, get involved socially and with 27:19 positive people that you can model better behavior 27:22 after and this will slowly, but certainly throttle up 27:26 the ability to meet challenges and deal 27:28 with stress and it will help to break those 27:30 craving, you'll be able to meet challenges 27:32 and won't be so driven to those junk foods. 27:35 Thank you so much for what you do there 27:36 at the Michigan Conference and for putting 27:38 these books together. Thank you for taking time 27:40 to come here and talk with me and to talk 27:43 with the 3ABN family and those that are watching. 27:46 And thank you for joining us today. 27:48 Thank you for taking the time to learn things 27:52 that can improve your health. 27:54 We hope as a result of today's program your 27:56 mind will be sharp and you'll be able to 27:58 do everything God wants you to do. |
Revised 2014-12-17