The grilled chicken chunks on Lois’s plate glisten with the olive oil, herbs and spices we always use to marinate them before we set the skewers on the grill. Juicy chunks of red pepper, green pepper and onion punctuate the spaces between the tastefully charred chicken bites. Nestled in a bed of brown rice, the whole thing looks like she just lifted her plate from the cover of Bon Appe´tit magazine. Mine, not so much. We are on Day Two of the two-day pre-test elimination diet for an Alzheimer-related clinical trial. More accurately, I am. Researchers are testing an ancient medicinal herb to see how long a specific dose of this extract lasts in my system. In animal studies, a very concentrated tea they’ve made from this plant produces cognitive improvement in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. They hope it will have that effect in humans.