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Burgess COMMENTARY Peter Burgess | ||
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Long life depends on this: Gary Wenk at TEDxColumbus
189,124 views TEDx Talks Published on Oct 14, 2012 Do you know what will really keep you living and thinking clearly for a long time? Dr. Wenk does. His research explores the intersection of food and drugs and will challenge your biases on what makes a long life. His talk will explore why what we eat, and how much we eat, is the single most important daily decision we make that impacts how we age and how long we live. In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations) Category Science & Technology ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Thomas 4 years ago Keep in mind his audience for this presentation. Most of his listeners aren't going to have a good or even general understanding of metabolism, so this presentation is, accordingly, 'dumbed down.' Everything he is saying is based on research, so none of it is incorrect, and I think some of you may be taking what he is saying too seriously. So even though a banana and donut may have similar caloric value (perhaps a very small donut) in theory, they are chemically distinct and the body does not catabolize them in the exact same manner. Also, the donut will have precursors for the acetylcholine anabolism pathways that the banana does not have to offer, therefor increasing some executive functions in the brain. Acetylcholine transmission is antagonized by adenosine, and caffeine, an adenosine agonist, can serve to increase acetylcholine transmission via disinhibition, therefor increasing attention, memory, etc. Also, colorful foods do contain antioxidants, so I do not see the problem with him saying that. Lastly, it is well documented, in animal studies especially, that lower calorie diets lead to less disease, there is no arguing that. It's not like he is saying that the only way to live your life is to eat coffee and donuts for breakfast everyday followed by a light lunch consisting of 2 blueberries, a hershey's kiss and a joint. He is just advising you to be mindful of what you are eating, and presenting to you the relationships between certain foods and their effects on the body supported by current science. Perhaps he could have illustrated the negative side effects of some of his recommendations (refined sugars from the donut and acute side effects of marijuana), but overall, nothing he said was untrue. I advise those of you who have a disdain for Dr. Wenk to read some of his research before sharing your possibly uninformed opinions (you can find plenty of it for free at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed - just search his name). His science is a little flashy for me too, and even this presentation could have probably included more data and less fancy graphic art, but he is a pretty respected researcher. So maybe after you have spent some time at Johns Hopkins University and the National Science Foundation as a program director (As Dr. Wenk has, himself), then you can criticize Dr. Wenk's presentation using such words as 'absolute rubbish'.
| The text being discussed is available at | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SvkaK2Al0o and |