Brain Food

Three years ago Andrew Scarborough was fit and active, working as a personal trainer, and studying at university. Then, his life changed. A brain haemorrhage and diagnosis of brain cancer left him searching for ways to improve statistically poor prospects. He spoke to Louise Wates about blogging and his ongoing self-experimentation with diet and new treatment

- Louise Wates

Before Andrew Scarborough left our offices, he took from his bag some bread made from cricket flour, eggs and coconut oil. With a little trepidation, I tried a tiny bit — it was the first time I had (knowingly) eaten crickets — but, surprisingly for me, it was fine. It was bread. He explained how he makes the cricket flour. First, he blitzes the crickets before sieving them to get the legs out. I’d already switched my voice recorder off so quickly switched it back on. “Why didn’t you tell me that when I was recording?” I asked. Andrew gave a little sigh and a smile before saying, not without some here-we-go-again-fatigue: “People always focus on what I eat but what I don’t eat is really important as well.”

If he isn’t fasting, which he does every now and then, there isn’t much that Andrew does eat. This is because after suffering from a brain haemorrhage and being subsequently diagnosed with brain cancer, he has been following a strict ketogenic diet.

A high-fat, medium-protein and low-carbohydrate diet, the ketogenic diet has traditionally been used to treat epilepsy in children. More recently, however, it has been investigated for its potential as a complementary treatment for brain cancer. (Optimum Nutrition, Spring 2016.)