How to Become Smarter (13 page)
You can prepare the
wheat extract
as follows: mix 2 kilograms (~4.5 lbs.) of whole-grain wheat flour (it is grayish in color, not white) with 5 liters (~1.3 gallons) of water to homogeneity. Allow extraction to occur for ~12 hours at 4°C (in the fridge). Decant the brownish supernatant (this is the wheat extract) and reextract the solids in a similar fashion using 2 liters (2 quarts) of water one more time. If somebody wishes to manufacture it on a large scale, they can sterilize the wheat extract by ultrafiltration [
245
]. Boiling or pasteurization give it an unpleasant taste and cause the wheat proteins to curdle. You can store the wheat extract at 4°C (in the fridge) for 1-2 days or at minus 20°C (in the freezer) in plastic bottles indefinitely. It is best to store dry whole-grain wheat flour in the fridge because it can change taste when it stays at room temperature for several months. In a similar fashion, you can prepare water extract from buckwheat flour, shredded whole wheat, or steel-cut oats. These extracts have a pleasant taste according to my experience. The water extract of grains contains all of the soluble proteins, vitamins, and carbohydrates present in whole grains, but it excludes starch, gluten, and insoluble fiber. This change seems to reduce the amount of gas in the digestive tract compared to raw whole grains (soaked in water). The wheat extract may also be an acceptable type of food for people who must consume a gluten-free diet. Some percentage of the population is allergic to wheat. The proteins that are responsible for the allergic reaction are water-soluble. Therefore, the water extraction approach will not make consumption of wheat safer for this segment of the population. Inclusion of the water extract of grains is optional in all of the diets described in this book. Nonetheless, this food makes diets more balanced and diversified.
Preparing the wheat extract on a regular basis takes some time and effort. If you, like me, prefer to spend as little time as possible on food-related matters, you may consider making a large amount of wheat extract in a large vat (20-30 liters or 5-8 gallons). This way you can do this tiresome procedure less frequently. Alternatively, you can avoid the wheat extract altogether. If you must consume a high-protein diet (which may require a dietary fiber supplement), you can use other, less labor-intensive fiber supplements such as psyllium husks instead of wheat extract. You can also avoid high-protein diets and meals most of the time.
The use of wheat extract instead of whole-grain products such as bread or soaked raw wheat seems to reduce the problem with flatulence.
A1
This is not a big problem but it is common to all grains [
112
,
246
-
249
] and especially raw grains.
The wheat extract is one possible source of raw protein and another good source is milk. Raw milk and pasteurized milk have identical effects on mental state and mental abilities, based on my experience. There is no evidence that pasteurization causes any undesirable chemical changes in dairy products. Therefore, it is best to avoid raw milk and to consume pasteurized milk or other pasteurized dairy products because they are safer.
Raw nuts are also rich in protein, but they are a difficult type of food. They tend to lower mood or cause nausea if I eat them in large amounts, consistent with some studies [
252
-
254
]. The mechanism of this negative effect of nuts is unknown. Although large amounts of nuts can make you feel bad, I would still add small amounts of nuts to the diet. They have a beneficial effect on attention control as described in Chapter Three. In summary, there are several good sources of raw protein: pasteurized milk (or cultured milk), wheat extract, and small amounts of nuts.
Now that you are familiar with the wheat extract and other good sources of protein, we can discuss the “smart diets” proper. You may recall that this book defined the ancestral diet as follows: a 100% raw diet that consists of fruits, vegetables, nuts, fish, and ground meat, and excludes all artificial ingredients. My experiments with the ancestral diet suggest that it can improve mental abilities.
D
This diet, however, is not safe and may cause serious illnesses. (
Warning
: Readers should avoid consuming raw animal foods due to serious risks to health; see
Table 1
.)
I have developed several
safe
diets that have intelligence-improving effects that are similar to the effects of the ancestral diet. How did I measure the improvement of mental abilities? One approach was Graduate Record Examinations (GRE) tests since some versions of the GRE General test correlate well with valid IQ tests [
20
-
22
]. Another approach was internet IQ tests. These are not as valid as proctored IQ tests, but may serve as a rough approximation. Improvement in academic grades can also serve as evidence of improved intelligence (see
the end
of Appendix VI). I also used a subjective measure called “ease of learning complex material.” I developed the
mental clarity questionnaire
recently and in the past I used the four aforementioned methods in order to assess changes in intelligence.
To give an example, if I use a regular modern diet for several weeks, then I find it difficult to understand some college-level lectures and textbooks. The same is true of graduate-level courses (it would be relevant to mention here that I have a Ph.D. degree and an equivalent of a Master’s degree). When I am on the regular modern diet, my intelligence is average or perhaps somewhat below average, judging by my academic performance in high school (1988-1990) and my first time in college (1990-1992). I had mediocre grades in high school, and they booted me out of college for poor academic performance (see
the end
of Appendix VI). Although I experimented with vegetarian and vegan diets in high school, they did not improve my academic performance.
The “smart diets” described below increase the ease of learning complex material, just like the ancestral diet, but they are safer. When I use one of these diets for several days, I find it easy to understand any lectures and any textbooks, such as those offered in college or in graduate school. After I started experimenting with the “smart diets” around 1993, my academic performance improved. I graduated with honors from Novosibirsk State University (NSU), Russia in 1999, where my grade point average was 4.88 out of 5.00. After that, I was a straight A student at the George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where I attended graduate school (see
the end
of Appendix VI). In fact, my academic credentials, including GRE scores were so good upon graduation from NSU, that the admissions office at GWU awarded me with a Presidential Merit Fellowship in Biomedical Sciences. In summary, “smart diets” can improve intelligence, judging by general aptitude tests and academic grades.
On the other hand, I had some health problems during the last few months of high school (in 1990) and several years afterwards. Among other things, my weight ballooned to the level of obesity and I felt fatigued most of the time. Thus, an alternative explanation to the above results can be that I am unusually smart by nature, but this episode of illness impaired my mental abilities temporarily. This impairment resulted in poor academic performance during my senior year in high school and the first time in college. Therefore, the higher than average results obtained later (1994 and on) had nothing to do with smart diets. Supposedly, those results represent my natural abilities when I am healthy. This alternative explanation is unlikely to be the case because throughout middle school and high school my grades were mediocre, despite good health (
Appendix VI
). I did well on some subjects, such as math and physics, but was not good at others. On the other hand, from 1994 and on, my grades were near the top of the class in college. The GRE scores that I obtained in 1998 are huge, even by the standards of native speakers of English (my mother tongue is Russian). I got straight ‘A’s in grad school at GW (1999 and on), which further supports the notion that I was smarter after 1994 than I was before. Therefore, starting from 1993, the “smart diets” did improve my intelligence, which was otherwise about average.
Without further ado, the first “smart diet” on our list is what I call the “
antidepressant diet
” (Chapter Four). It has the following composition (percentages represent proportions by weight):
- low-fat milk, kefir or buttermilk (free of dietary supplements) and unprocessed unsalted cheese: 25-75%;
- raw water extract of grains: 0-40%;
- fruits and vegetables and juices (free of additives): 10-25%.
People who are lactose-intolerant or allergic to cow milk may consider using special lactose-free dairy or milk from other species, such as goat milk. You can cook up to 90% of fruits and vegetables by boiling or steaming if this diet contains significant amounts of the raw wheat extract. Nuts, cooked grains, and legumes are not allowed. This diet also does not allow spices, salad dressings, seasonings, and any artificial ingredients (except indigestible fiber supplements).
Just like the ancestral diet, the antidepressant diet improves internal mood, when it is depressed (we will talk about this in more detail in Chapter Four). Understanding of lectures and textbooks is excellent, but attention control is somewhat worse than with the ancestral diet. There is a tendency for procrastination. Nonetheless, the attention function is sufficient for concentrating on lectures or audiobooks and on moderate amounts of reading. The antidepressant diet and the other “smart diets” have another beneficial effect in that they reduce the amount of personal problems. As a result of that change, life seems simpler and easier than usual. The antidepressant diet cannot elevate internal mood directly (when it is normal), but may do so indirectly by increasing the amount of positive life events. This diet does not increase activity level. As for scientific evidence, there are several studies showing that increased consumption of fruits, vegetables, or dairy correlates with better cognitive abilities [
838
,
876
,
892
,
899
,
901
,
940
], including one randomized controlled trial [
887
].
This diet may have the following undesirable effects: procrastination with respect to school- or work-related writing tasks; slightly increased physical fatigue; if you consume milk incorrectly in the context of this diet, this may cause upset stomach (more details in Chapter Four); the person may look and feel happy but may laugh less than usual. (I attribute this to the development of a more refined sense of humor. This effect is characteristic of all smart diets, and we will discuss this in more detail in the “Potential adverse effects” section of this chapter.)
Rare
side effects include symptoms of hypomania: internal mood may become persistently elevated and this may reduce motivation for work; overexcitement may cause insomnia and disorganization of sleep. Readers should not stay on this diet longer than one to two weeks.
We can modify the antidepressant diet in order to enhance attention function. If you add cooked meat and fish and raw nuts to this diet, then what we have is the “
modified high-protein diet
.” We will talk about this attention-enhancing diet in more detail in Chapter Three. If all of the following conditions are true, then this diet will not lower mood and will not cause apathy:
- you cook meat and fish at moderate temperatures (by steaming or boiling);
- meat contains sufficient amounts of fat (at least 10%; 15-25% is best);
- the amount of low-fat milk (or unsalted unprocessed cheese, kefir or buttermilk) is at least the same as the amount of the cooked meats by weight.
I do not have a good explanation for why addition of dairy to cooked meat reduces the negative effects of the latter. This may be due to possible changes in how the liver processes mutagens from cooked meat.
E
It is best to grind nuts using a manual or electric meat-grinder because they are tough on the teeth. The composition of the diet is as follows (proportions by weight):
- water extract of wheat: 0-25%;
- low-fat milk, cultured milk, and unsalted unprocessed cheese: 25-50%;
- cooked ground poultry and red meat: 25-35%;
- ground nuts 2-5%;
- fruits and vegetables (raw or cooked): 10-25%.
Cooking temperature does not exceed the boiling point of water and the diet does not allow any artificial ingredients (food additives and dietary supplements). The recommended ratio of poultry to red meat is 1:1. You can eat fish from time to time or you can exclude it from the diet altogether.
Just like the ancestral diet, the modified high-protein diet improves the ability to understand and concentrate on complex texts. The modified high-protein diet is most useful when you have to perform large amounts of reading, for example if you are studying in college. Understanding of lectures (or audiobooks) is also excellent. The modified high-protein diet provides a slightly lower information processing speed than the ancestral diet, but the same or better speed compared to a typical mixed diet. The modified high-protein diet has no effect on mood or activity level. Some studies support the beneficial effects of this diet. In addition to the studies of fruits, vegetables, and dairy cited above, there are reports suggesting that addition of meat and fish to the diet can improve cognitive abilities or academic performance [
822
,
841
,
851
,
881
,
890
,
900
], including randomized controlled trials [
839
,
887
,
888
].