Genre: Nutrition and Wellness
Rating 4.5/5
How many times have we heard over the years that eggs are bad for us because they raise our cholesterol? How many people do you know who are on Statins? What about saturated fats? Aren't they artery-clogging nightmares? This book debunks some myths about fats and carbohydrates and has one major message: Your brain thrives on fats! While the focus is in on wheat and gluten, the book also talks about the effect of the American high-carb diet on the body and brain.
I began looking into the Paleo lifestyle after I had my first child, and it helped me lose weight. I read
The Paleo Approach by Sarah Ballantyne and learned a lot about how grains can cause inflammation.
Grain Brain explains in greater detail how that happens and also posits that many people may have gluten sensitivity even if they don't have full-blown celiac disease. There is inflammation going in the brain that cannot be felt when we consume gluten (there are no pain receptors in the brain!) Grain affects not only the gut but also the brain in many ways. The correlations between grain consumption and Alzheimer's and other brain disorders is fairly shocking. I was impressed by the success stories he shared about patients with a wide variety of issues who regained their health by cutting gluten. It's not just about weight loss -- that seems to be just a nice perk. Cutting gluten seems to really help lots of people with ADHD, depression, autism, diabetes, and more. In the case of diabetes, Perlmutter believes it is in fact a brain disorder rather than anything else.
One of the main reasons he gives for cutting grains is that, because of selective breeding and GMOs (although he never says the word "GMO"), the amount of gluten in our grains has increased dramatically over the past century or so. We are consuming WAY more gluten than people hundreds or thousands of years ago. Our food, very simply, is different in many ways. He gives good explanations for why he believes we would be better off without grains (and, in fact, most carbs) and better off consuming more fat.
I recently read
Spark by John Ratey, which is about how exercise affects the brain, so there was a little overlap.
Grain Brain has a chapter about exercise and the brain. Even though exercise doesn't deal directly with gluten, it does have a lot to do with brain health in general, so I was glad this section was included.
Although he is a doctor, he doesn't recommend all kinds of medications. This is very much a holistic, nutrition-and-lifestyle-based book. He does, however, recommend certain supplements. Americans tend to be deficient in Vitamin D, for example. He recommends other things like turmeric since we don't get as much of that in our food as people from other countries. He gives great explanations for the supplements, and they are in no way "required" in the plan, just recommended for better overall health.
At the end of the book, Dr. Perlmutter outlines a four-week plan for cutting gluten and implementing an exercise regimen (or if you already exercise, increasing your exercise regimen). There are also recipes included in the print version. He provides examples for substitutions as well.
There was only one major thing I disliked about this book. One is the "hype" aspect of it. The author kept saying things like: "I'll prove it to you." "This will change your life." "You can solve your problems by following this plan." Although I do believe in the concepts and philosophy of this book, I feel like the book and the research should speak for themselves. I know a lot of people bristle at the thought of cutting "an entire food group," but his explanations are so thorough and convincing, that I hope people will give this book a chance.
I would recommend this book to anyone who is serious about changing their health and skeptical of the USDA high-carb recommendations. Those following the Atkins diet, a keto diet, or the Paleo diet will gain a deeper understanding of the concepts of their diet.
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