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In reply to the discussion: Great News! Alzheimer's breakthrough hailed as 'turning point' [View all]jeff47
(26,549 posts)Ok, so someone is claiming that certain foods can cure a brain disease. Because they claim there are chemicals in the food that can fight it.
I say such chemicals can't get through the blood-brain barrier.
You say "Nuh-uh! Because when we digest food we break them down and make new chemicals!".
Now, if you take a minute to think about this, you might realize the problem. I'll wait.
Done? Ok, the problem is if digestion destroys the special chemicals that is supposed to cure the disease, then the blood-brain barrier doesn't matter. The special chemicals are already gone. If you are going to claim the far simpler chemicals that come from digestion are the cure, then eating a particular food would not matter, also destroying the original claim.
Making their chemicals magically survive digestion is a way to show the problem with their idea - otherwise they can come back with claiming an extract should be injected to bypass digestion.