Your Brain On... Cheese

Ayesha Sherzai (0:00)

Welcome to Your Brain On podcast with your hosts, Doctors Ayesha and Dean Sherzai. We're so excited to be back after a break.

Dean Sherzai (0:06)

It was a memorable break. We had a remarkable year last year. Lots of good and bad things, but this year is going to be absolutely amazing. We have some incredible topics ahead of us.

Ayesha Sherzai (0:17)

Yes, the year was packed and we had our ups and downs, but we are energized to be back and be connected with you all. Today's conversation revolves around an interesting nutrition-related topic, which is, does cheese and cream protect your brain from Alzheimer's disease?

Dean Sherzai (0:38)

Pretty interesting topic, yes.

Ayesha Sherzai (0:39)

It is. And so this was published in a high-rank journal, the Journal of Neurology. We call it the green journal in our field. It's a very reputable journal with a good peer review process. And the paper was published at the end of December, around Christmas time. And it just blew up. It became viral. And we saw these headlines all over, including BBC, CNN, New York Times, KTLA.

Dean Sherzai (1:07)

Everyone was talking about it.

Ayesha Sherzai (1:09)

And it was essentially not even a question. It was a statement that high-fat cheese and high-fat dairy products, including cream, can prevent dementia based on this research, which was interesting. And what did you feel when you saw those headlines?

Dean Sherzai (1:23)

I'm always thrown aback when in the face of decades of information, a new piece of information that comes that's completely contrary. I'm one that actually is very open to paradoxes, to altered states of data, of altered realities, of looking at things at completely different perspectives. That's the whole concept that we as a family have grown around. Science is changing in the face of new data. You also have to be somewhat incredulous because science doesn't work with a sudden jolt. Science is patterns. Science is directions. In general, yes, somebody can come up with a quantum theory for the first time and things of that nature, but in slow sciences like nutrition and psychology, patterns matter more than the sudden discoveries. So you always have to be incredulous. You always have to be open to looking at the data and see what was it that demonstrated this kind of a finding, which is in the face of decades of contrary data.

Ayesha Sherzai (2:27)

Yeah. Whenever there's a headline about a food or one vitamin or one micronutrient protecting the brain or damaging the brain, I always find it almost comical because we now know from lots of research that we don't eat one food, we eat multiple different foods, and it's the interaction between them that matters. And one food driving such a strong relationship, I was like, okay, let's just hold on. Let's look at the entire thing.

Dean Sherzai (3:01)

But at the same time, though, I mean, we have to be very aware of our own biases. One thing that is critical for all of us in society to incorporate into our, I'm afraid of the word inculcate, because I've used it so much, embed, instill into our consciousness is looking at the data as much as you can be devoid of bias. Now, the reason I say that is because we don't eat cheese. And we haven't eaten cheese in a while.

Ayesha Sherzai (3:32)

The animal, dairy-based cheese.

Dean Sherzai (3:34)

Animal, exactly. But even within plant-based cheese, we try to go very healthy.

Ayesha Sherzai (3:38)

Oh, I make it, remember.

Dean Sherzai (3:40)

Exactly. You make it. And the homemade cheeses. Healthy as far as what we consider, which is saturated fat, low saturated fat.

Ayesha Sherzai (3:46)

And once in a while when we go out to eat a veggie burger, maybe a melted veggie cheese or a plant-based cheese, it's not that bad.

Dean Sherzai (3:54)

I'm the only one that stays clean.

Ayesha Sherzai (3:56)

Yeah.

Dean Sherzai (3:56)

And I'm having the lettuce and the tomatoes. You guys are just porking out.

Emily Sonestedt (4:00)

Junk foodies.

Dean Sherzai (4:01)

But reality is that we have to be aware of our biases.

If there's anything that I want us as a society to incorporate is to make sure that we don't do... The statement is people love hearing good news about their bad habits. And habits are not like children. You can't just throw love at them and hope for them to change. You throw love at bad habits, they become worse. Sometimes with children it's the same. But in general, you have to be very aware of your biases. And that's what we should all start with. So with that said, we wanted to kind of check ourselves. And we're open to changing our views and changing mind. So we went into it full force.