Main Presentation: Brain and Body Nutrients in Popular Diets by Steve Blake, ScD, Doctor of Science, Nutritional Biochemistry

There are many popular diets that people try, often to lose weight. Many of these diets contain low enough calories to initiate weight loss. I am going to answer the question: which of these diets supply the essential nutrients needed by humans? Another excellent question is: do these diets supply excess amounts of potentially damaging dietary components.

A few beneficial nutrients that protect our brains and bodies will be discussed:

• Folate and vitamin B12
• Vitamin E
• Carotenoids
• Minerals- zinc, copper, manganese, and selenium
• Vitamin C
• Polyphenols and Anthocyanidins
• Calcium, protein, sodium, and bones
• Fiber

Which diets are healthiest for our brains and bodies? Clearly, the whole-plant diets most closely approximate our human needs for nutrition. This is in agreement with the research showing that those following whole-plant diets have the lowest rates of disease—especially the major killers, such as heart attacks, cancer, and strokes.

About Steve Blake, ScD

Steve Blake, ScD is research director for the Neuroscience Nutrition Foundation (http://neurosciencenutrition.org/). He has offered many classes at the University of Hawaii. He has designed the Hawaii Dementia Prevention Trial, a clinical study at the Hawaii Alzheimer’s Disease Center. He has been personally involved in conducting this clinical trial using dietary changes and with nutrients found in his targeted nutritional supplement Brain and Body Food.

Steve Blake is author of the 2008 McGraw-Hill college textbook Vitamins and Minerals Demystified. He is also the author of Mastering Migraines, Parkinson’s Disease: Dietary Regulation of Dopamine, How NOT to get a Heart Attack, Arthritis Relief, Nutrients for Dementia, Stop Strokes before they Start, and Fats and Oils Demystified. He has written Mosby’s Alternative Remedies and is co-author of Mosby’s Drug Guide for Nurses, 4th edition.

Steve Blake authored the Diet Doctor, software for analyzing dietary nutrients. This software allows detailed analysis of your dietary fats, tocopherols, carotenoids, and many other nutrients. He has also maintained one of the world’s largest databases of plants used medicinally, called the Herb Doctors.

Steve Blake studies scientific research on the connections between food and disease. He sees himself as a translator of the medical literature into understandable, science-based language. Steve Blake attended the University of California. He is a research specialist in nutritional biochemistry. He lives on a solar-powered, organic farm on Maui with his wife Catherine.  Email: steve@DrSteveBlake.com. Website:www.DrSteveBlake.com and www.NeuroscienceNutrition.org.

Short Presentation: Update on Vitamin D by William Grant, PhD

Vitamin D is a vitamin that improves most of the contributing factors to chronic disease including inflammation and oxidative stress. It has been shown to be beneficial in conditions such as autism, diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular disease, depression, psoriasis, osteoporosis, respiratory tract infections, cancer, Alzheimer’s Disease, food allergies, as well as pregnancy and birth outcomes.

About William Grant, PhD

William B. Grant has graduated wiht Ph.D. in physics from the University of California, Berkeley (1971). He had a 30-year career in atmospheric sciences with an emphasis on laser remote sensing of atmospheric constituents such as ozone and aerosols, with positions at SRI International (1973-79), the Jet Propulsion Laboratory/California Intitute of Technology (1979-89) and NASA Langley Research Center (1989-2004).