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I’m a neurologist—to keep my brain safe and healthy, I never eat these 4 foods
CNBC ^ | August 05, 2025 | Dr. Baibing Chen, Contributor

Posted on 08/06/2025 7:54:12 AM PDT by Red Badger

Doctors will often tell you to avoid processed foods or foods that contain high amounts of sugar or saturated fat.

Their advice is sound, since consuming these foods frequently can increase your risk of developing chronic diseases, including neurological conditions like stroke and dementia.

However, as a neurologist, I can tell you that there are some other surprising and lesser-known foods you should avoid in order to prevent serious neurological issues.

I never eat these four foods:

1. Canned foods that appear damaged

If a can is bulging, cracked, or severely dented, it should raise an alarm. It might be a sign of botulinum contamination, which can cause botulism.

The botulinum toxin is one of the most potent neurotoxins known to science. It blocks the release of a neurotransmitter that helps your brain tell your muscles to move. The result can be limb paralysis, blurred vision, and, in severe cases, respiratory failure. Without an antidote, botulism can be fatal.

What makes this toxin particularly dangerous is that you can’t detect it by smell, taste, or sight. Unfortunately, heating the food in a contaminated can may not be enough to neutralize the toxin.

Remember this motto: “When in doubt, throw it out.”

2. Certain reef fish, especially in tropical areas

I love eating fish and I encourage my patients to consume varieties like salmon, sardines, and trout, which are high in omega-3 fatty acids and low in mercury.

However, I advise caution when it comes to larger tropical fish such as barracuda, grouper, sturgeon, moray eel, and amberjack. They may contain a neurotoxin called ciguatoxin, especially if they were caught in places with coral reefs like the Caribbean and the South Pacific.

I’ve personally seen a few cases of ciguatera poisoning, and symptoms can include a sensation of coldness, burning, tingling, dizziness, or even vivid nightmares. Because some of these symptoms are non-specific, it can be easily misdiagnosed, especially without a detailed patient history.

The kicker is that ciguatoxin is heat-stable, meaning that no matter how long you cook the fish, the toxin remains intact. And like the botulinum toxin, it doesn’t have a taste or smell.

Try to limit your intake of large predatory fish, avoid certain parts like liver, roe, and heads, and be particularly cautious in endemic areas.

3. Uncooked or undercooked pork

The risk here is neurocysticercosis, a condition caused by ingesting the eggs of the pork tapeworm. The tapeworm’s larvae can travel to the brain and cause a variety of symptoms, including seizures, increased intracranial pressure, and even dementia-like symptoms. Brain imaging typically shows multiple cysts in the person’s brain.

Neurocysticercosis is one of the leading causes of acquired epilepsy worldwide. And while it isn’t very common in developed countries, I have seen cases in the U.S.

So if you travel frequently to or spend significant time in developing countries — or anywhere with poor sanitation — cook pork thoroughly and practice good hand hygiene.

4. Unpasteurized milk

When milk is pasteurized, it’s treated with heat to eliminate microorganisms that can cause disease. The process does reduce the concentrations of certain vitamins, but the impact is minimal.

Raw milk, on the other hand, is a well-recognized source of pathogens such as listeria, E. coli, and salmonella. Drinking it causes approximately 840 times more illnesses and 45 times more hospitalizations than pasteurized milk, despite being consumed by a small minority of the population.

Current data shows that children, pregnant women, the elderly, and immunocompromised individuals are at highest risk for severe outcomes, including hemolytic uremic syndrome, miscarriage, and death.

I’ve personally seen cases of irreversible damage to the brain leading to seizures, meningitis, and coma that were caused by pathogens from unpasteurized products.

And claims that drinking unpasteurized milk lowers rates of asthma, cancer, or lactose intolerance? Those are unsubstantiated.

Of course, you should always consult with a health care professional before making any drastic changes to your diet. The key is to be more mindful and aware of what we put into our bodies, especially if it can be damaging to our brain health.

Baibing Chen is a double-boarded certified neurologist and epileptologist practicing at the University of Michigan. Find him on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.

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VIDEO at link..................


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Food; Health/Medicine; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: baibingchen; food; processed; trichinosis
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To: Red Badger

Good post; informative and actionable


81 posted on 08/06/2025 8:16:23 PM PDT by af_vet_1981 ( The bus came by and I got on, That's when it all began.=)
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To: Red Badger

Mainstream media article, Chinese doctor.

And the thread is chock full of known deep state posters saying how great the advice is.

I think what stands out as suspect is the advice about unpasteurized milk.

Was the pasteurization process mostly after the Rockefellers took over western medicine?


82 posted on 08/06/2025 8:17:23 PM PDT by reasonisfaith (What are the personal implications if the Resurrection of Christ is a true event in history?)
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To: Bob434; Red Badger; All

Yeah, wild game (pigs/hogs, bears, etc.) get Trichinosis from consuming flesh of other animals (rodents mostly, but also the “tail biting” & cannibalism that pigs do).
More info. here:

https://www.merckvetmanual.com/generalized-conditions/trichinellosis/trichinellosis-in-animals#Clinical-Findings-and-Diagnosis_v3275386

https://honest-food.net/on-trichinosis-in-wild-game/


83 posted on 08/06/2025 8:38:14 PM PDT by Drago
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To: Drago

Thanks. Domestic pigs do eat things .ike rats, mice, dead birds etc. A farmer near us used to raise chickens above pigs, and as the chickens died, he’d brush them to openings in the floor for the ligs to feed on. That was back in the 70’s. While rare now, trichinosis I imagine might still be acquired from even domestic pork but it’s mostly eradicated. I still can’t get my mind to accept lower Temps for cooking it though.

Thanks for the links. Reading them now


84 posted on 08/06/2025 9:03:29 PM PDT by Bob434 (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: reasonisfaith

The answer is yes because the Rockefellers took over medicine around 1906 I think it was.


85 posted on 08/06/2025 9:13:40 PM PDT by reasonisfaith (What are the personal implications if the Resurrection of Christ is a true event in history?)
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To: Drago

The second d article talks about what I mentioned about sous vide and the time factor- very interesting g article- while tnings like chi ken cooked to 135 a d held for an hour at that temp would kill the nasties, i still, souldnt trust it- I might try it at 150- maybe- but bear meat? Nope- not for me, 165 for me.

anyways, here’s the snippet:

“You can also kill any trichinae parasite by heat. And the “kill temperature” is a helluva lot cooler than you might think. The origin of the odd USDA mandated internal cooking temperature of 160°F appears to be the government trying to account for inaccuracy and idiocy. (That temperature is more relevant for salmonella than trich.) The actual temperature that kills the trichinella parasite is 137°F, which happens to be medium-rare.

But be forewarned: Every iota of meat must hit that temperature to kill the parasite, and cooking bear meat to medium-rare isn’t a guarantee of that. In fact, Steve Rinella and his crew ate rare bear meat in Alaska recently and most of them got trichinosis. Steve did a video about the experience here.

You can certainly make medium-rare bear meat safe using the sous vide method, but you’d need to hold the meat at 137°F for an hour or so to make sure — and then you’d want to sear it on the outside to kill any possible bacteria that survived that low temp. As for me? I like to sous vide bear at about 145°F for an hour or more, which is still a lovely tender and pink piece of meat, and is safe to eat that way.

Unfortunately, the two trichinella species most associated with bears are immune to freezing. These are T. nativa, the Canadian and Alaskan species, and T-6, the dominant species of parasite from a line stretching from about Washington state across to Maine down to the Rockies, the Great Plains, the Midwest and the Northeast — really where all the good bear hunting is. Only southern states appear to be immune to this species. (Here is a map from a Stanford study.):”


86 posted on 08/06/2025 9:16:27 PM PDT by Bob434 (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: Bob434

Yeah, that is an interesting article...I didn’t know about the freezing @ -5 deg. F. for 20 days angle, and the salt/salami info..


87 posted on 08/06/2025 9:43:25 PM PDT by Drago
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To: Drago

Me either. I’ve eaten bear before, a couple of times. Wish I wou,da known about freezing it first. I’m a T ill not sure Bout the salami though- rather have it from meat that doesn’t have trichanosiz potential. Though I wouldn’t mind it fried. I do like bear meat- maybe freezing the meat for 20 days. Then making salami would be ok-


88 posted on 08/06/2025 10:54:47 PM PDT by Bob434 (Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana)
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To: Allegra

Yes

The texture lol

I don’t go looking for them but I’ll eat em on a dare east

Sauce helps

A


89 posted on 08/06/2025 10:58:25 PM PDT by wardaddy (I am older but I try to be polite )
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To: Sirius Lee

😁...............................


90 posted on 08/07/2025 5:46:37 AM PDT by Red Badger (Homeless veterans camp in the streets while illegals are put up in 5 Star hotels....................)
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