Diet fads are exhausting. The latest and greatest diet crazes have become a virtual staple of today’s pop-culture. If you want to fit in and be able to contribute anything to the conversation among friends or coworkers, you had better know the gist (or at least the name) of the latest seven or so diet trends.

I’m as frustrated as you are, but I would also argue that the combined trajectory of the last decade or so of nutritional research seems to be pointing in a generally unified direction. At least in terms of body image, carbohydrates have become a near-unanimous nominee for food source most likely to add to our waistlines.

But our brains? For some reason we’ve always viewed our brains as a fixed quantity. Either you’re born with a great big powerful one or you’re stuck a shriveled lump of genetically-mutated neurons and synapses destined for disease. You were born with ADD or you weren’t. Your family’s predisposed to Alzheimer’s or they aren’t. Or not? [Read more…]