Recently, I’ve been hearing from many patients who have read Dr. Perlmutter’s new book, Grain Brain, and are now concerned about their carb intake. In his book, Dr. Perlmutter suggests that dietary carbohydrates cause high blood sugar, inflammation, and other effects that lead to a “toxic brain,” which can then develop into neurological conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, depression, and others. Based on this line of causality, he recommends that everyone consume a very low carb diet (<60g per day) in order to prevent neurological disease.
First of all, I’d like to point out that very low carb (VLC) and ketogenic diets can be effective therapeutic tools for treating many neurological disorders. I touched on this briefly a while back in my podcast with Emily Deans, and initial studies on low-carb diets and mental health have shown promise. (1, 2, 3, 4) Because Dr. Perlmutter is a neurologist, it makes sense that he would be a proponent of low-carb diets for his patients based on these therapeutic effects.
Does eating carbs destroy your brain and lead to neurological disease?
However, recommending a low-carb diet as an intervention for sick people is very different from promoting it as a preventative measure for the entire population, which is what Dr. Perlmutter does in Grain Brain. His approach would be somewhat akin to recommending that everyone go on the Autoimmune Protocol to prevent autoimmune disease, which would be unnecessarily restrictive and unhelpful. It’s important to realize that just because a low-carb diet can help treat neurological disorders, doesn’t mean the carbs caused the disorder in the first place. While I don’t argue with the idea that refined and processed carbs like flour and sugar contribute to modern disease, there’s no evidence to suggest that unrefined, whole-food carbohydrates do. In fact, there are three compelling reasons why this is not the case.
#1 – We Evolved Eating Whole-Food Carbohydrates
The first reason it doesn’t make sense that carbohydrates cause neurological disorders is that we’ve been eating carbs for a very long time, and we’re well adapted to digesting and metabolizing them. For instance, fruit has been part of the human diet for longer than we’ve been recognizably human, and while starch hasn’t been part of the human diet for quite as long, it’s clear that we’ve evolved mechanisms to digest and utilize it efficiently.
Compared with most primates, humans have many more copies of the gene AMY1, which is essential for breaking down starches. (5) This gene is unusual in that the number of copies varies greatly between populations, with more copies present in populations that consume more starch. This indicates that starch played a significant role in our evolution, and some scientists have even argued that consumption of starch was partially responsible for the increase in our brain size.
In addition to possessing the ability to break down complex carbohydrates, our bodies require glucose to function properly and maintain homeostasis. The fact that humans can produce glucose from protein is often used as an argument that we don’t need to eat glucose, but rather than viewing this as evidence that that glucose isn’t important, we might view it as evidence that glucose is so metabolically essential that we evolved a mechanism to produce it even when it’s absent from the diet.
#2 – There Are Many Traditional Cultures with High Carb Intake and Low or Nonexistent Rates of Neurological Disease
If carbohydrates cause neurological disorders, one would expect to see high rates of dementia and similar diseases in populations where carbs constitute a significant portion of the diet. But as it turns out, many of the cultures that maintain the lowest rates of neurological and other inflammatory disease rely heavily on carbohydrate-dense dietary staples. For example, the Hadza of north-central Tanzania and the Kuna of Panama obtain a high percentage of their total calories from foods that are high in natural sugars, such as fruit, starchy tubers and honey, yet they are remarkably lean, fit and free of modern disease. (6, 7)
Other examples include the Kitava in the Pacific Islands, Tukisenta in the Papa New Guinea Highlands, and the Okinawans in Japan. The Kitavan diet is 69% carb, with a high reliance on starchy tubers such as yams, and sugary tropical fruits such as banana and papaya. (8) The Okinawan diet is even more carb-heavy at 85% carbohydrate, mostly from sweet potato. (9) Finally, the Tukisenta diet is astonishingly high in carbohydrate at over 90%. (10) All of these cultures are fit and lean with practically non-existent rates of neurological disorders and other modern chronic disease. (11)
#3 – Modern Research Does Not Support the Notion That ‘Safe’ Carbs Are Harmful
The claim that carbohydrates from whole-food sources cause neurological disorders is not supported by anthropological evidence. In addition, modern studies on the health effects of carb-dense foods such as fruit also fail to support Perlmutter’s hypothesis. In fact, studies overall suggest that eating whole, fresh fruit may actually decrease the risk of health issues such as obesity and diabetes, and that limiting fruit intake has no effect on blood sugar, weight loss or waist circumference. (12, 13)
As you may know if you’ve been following my website, there is plenty of modern research demonstrating that diets rich in refined and processed carbohydrates are harmful. However, this is not due to carb content alone, and there’s no evidence that whole-food carbs have the same effect. When an author or expert recommends excluding or severely limiting one of three macronutrients that humans consume, the evidence demonstrating harm should be strong—not only because of the inconvenience of following such a restricted diet, but because extreme diets (ketogenic or VLC diets in this case) are not always harmless. In my practice I’ve seen many patients who’ve worsened on long-term VLC diets, including those with adrenal issues and poor thyroid function. Long-term VLC diets can also lead to imbalances in gut bacteria due to a lack of prebiotic fiber, which can result in digestive issues.
As I’ve always maintained, you need to find out what works for you and tailor your diet to your specific health goals, rather than follow a canned approach. This is exactly what I’ll teach you to do in my book, Your Personal Paleo Code (published in paperback as The Paleo Cure in December 2014), which is coming out at the end of December.
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OMG and WOW. I wanted to check out feedback on Brain Grain by Dr. Perlmutter and discovered the longest blog I have seen in my life. Such interested reading comments. First off “Thanx” to everyone who took the time to blog. OK so I am 54 with a history of kidney disease in my family and some diabetes. My Kidney Doc said I have 50% usage of my kidneys after doing ultra sound. That was ten years ago. My Creatine is stable and I feel great with lots of energy and a 163 LB frame after reading Wheat Belly last year and going gluten free. I am confused because I eat really well. We only buy organic, free range poultry, meats, wild caught fish and no gluten. Almost zero processed foods too. I do like goat yogurt once or twice a week and eat mostly berries and nuts each day with some fruit mixed in plus lots of juicing. Carbs are really low to keep my weight down. Where I need helps is that being of kidney disease I am seeing all research indicate a high carb diet and very low protein intake. If I follow that then I can’t keep my weight down. If I gain weight then my blood press and cholesterol goes up and I will be depressed. Now I am in the best shape of my life and my creatine levels have been stable for years, low cholesterol, low blood pressure and todays physical make my internist very happy. SO any feedback as I am so freaking confused how to stay trim and prevent kidney disease. Thanx…
It’s terrific that books like these come out and help us question what we do.
I agree that we need to use common sense and research.
Wheat and grains have been used for a very long time. The changes in the last 50-70 years to mass produce foods and process them may be a much great culprit than the food itself.
Orange juice from and orange sounds healthy using common sense.
Once the juice is squeezed and stored in gigantic vats, they start removing oxygen. Why? Because removing oxygen from the juice allows the liquid to keep for up to a year without spoiling. But! Removing that oxygen also removes the natural flavors of oranges. Yeah, it’s all backwards. So in order to have OJ actually taste like oranges, drink companies hire flavor and fragrance companies, the same ones that make perfumes for Dior, to create these “flavor packs” to make juice taste like, well, juice again.
So I think processes like these which permeate our food supply really cause problems our bodies weren’t designed for…
I have one criticism of using isolated groups of people to demonstrate their results from consuming carbs. Those people probably don’t sit a desk all day like many of us do in the western world. Like you said, the diet needs to be structured toward the individual. I think reducing carbs might be a good idea for those of us who do not burn a lot of calories in a day. I have been trying the diet myself and I have lost weight, my digestion has improved and I don’t get that bloated feeling after meals. I still eat some carbs like fruit but I have cut out starches like bread, potatoes, rice and pasta. I have also noticed I don’t get those blood sugar ups and downs during the day. I eat because it’s time to eat not because I feel like I am going to pass out. Maybe I’m pre-diabetic. I also find eating protein instead of carbohydrates curbs my hunger.
Yes, it does demonstrate the problem with trying to draw conclusions from international health statistics. I.e. Japanese eat rice and live long — but the WAY they eat rice bears no resemblance to the way Americans eat rice — i.e. a quart at a time with pork and pineapples, swimming in sweet-sour sauce made up of corn syrup and corn starch.
The French do love bread but they don’t eat foot-long Subway rolls or giant stacks of waffles and syrup. The Italians do eat pasta but not a freaking pound at a time — if you visit Italy and frequent non-tourist restaurants, you’ll notice pasta portions are like a QUARTER of what you see at Olive Garden — let alone the free refills.
Did anyone else catch Chris on Dr. Oz today? He was great; really cute too, his photo does not do justice 🙂
The big news…the diet he described today was IDENTICAL to the one Dr. Perlmutter prescribed for me over a year ago. Both recommend limited legumes and dairy- unusual for Paleo. Both recommend limited starchy veg, like sweet potatoes. But, what almost knocked me off my treadmill, was when Chris warned against potatoes, rice, corn, grapes because they were too high in glucose! EXACTLY what we’ve been saying for months now. Yes, some whole foods DO raise blood glucose.
If you missed it, you can catch the flip on Dr. Oz’s site tomorrow, It was honestly hard to reconcile the man I saw on TV today with this blog post. Could our message have finally gotten through? Ladies and gentleman, dare I say…our work here is done. LOL.
Yes Julie, glad to hear Kresser is talking about blood sugar because that is the single most important thing people should be aware of.
I’ve been reading obsessively on health and food for close to five years and most of the big questions have really not been answered — with one big giant exception.
There is one thing that seems to be to be incontestable — there is so much data and it all points in the same direction on this. And that is the need for everybody to be aware of blood glucose and not live in a way that they are constantly spiking it.
In a way it is easier for those of us who have a tendency to put on weight. If you are eating too many things that spike your blood sugar, you will see the extra pounds on the scale and that will inform you of the need to change.
Unfortunately, people who are naturally thin don’t get that feedback from their bodies, but they should watch their blood sugar too because there is so much data indicating elevated blood sugar leads to inflammation, and those two things raise the risk of just about every nasty disease — heart problems, autoimmune disorders, cancers, brain disorders.
The difficulty in all this is there is no way to test your blood glucose in real time other than finger pricks. The fasting glucose test you do for your doctor is only going to flag very serious problems. So, in the absence of testing, you just have to generally avoid what raises blood sugar and try to do things (primarily exercise and fasting) that lower blood sugar.
I think if everybody would try to get a little of the mindset of a diabetic, we would all be significantly healthier for it.
We definitely not evolved to live a lifestyle where our blood sugar is perpetually elevated (i.e. no exercise and living on abundant starches and fruits/sugars).
No single blood sugar spike will kill you. You should enjoy the occasional smoothie or banana or bread or pastry — even the occasional white potato or burrito or bowl of gnocchi or bowl of Cheerios.
But think of each blood sugar spike as similar to, say, a single puff of cigarette smoke. The danger is lifetime cumulative exposure. The more exposures to high blood sugar over a lifetime, the higher your risk for for so many health problems.
That’s a complex message unfortunately, but if I were king of the world, that would be what I would put in place of the food pyramid.
I am reading this because of a friend touting Perimutter’s diet. New information automatically prompts me to search for the most intelligent-seeming counterpoint. I appreciate Chis Kesser’s remarks, but I do have one, perhaps silly, question: If Kesser is a doctor, why doesn’t he use the title? I never met a bonafide physician who didn’t put Dr. in front of his name or MD after it. Just seemed odd to me.
You can write a “danger” story about every single food. The most people killed by a food in the last two decades was the 70-some people in Europe who died from e coli they got from — bean sprouts.
We have little choice but to rely on mass-produced food. But things weren’t perfect before mass-produced food either. Life comes with risks. This thread contains a lot of good information that people can put to use trying to improve their odds, as well as some bizarre claims. We have to sort through.
BTW I like bean sprouts and have no intention of giving them up. If chickens are “fed arsenic,” that is certainly bad news but I’m not giving up chicken either.
Hi all!
I don’t really think it’s accurate to say that vegans are “deafeningly silent” on the dangers of industrial fruits and vegetables. I think they just sort of take it for granted that it’s best to buy organic/local where possible. They are obviously more adamant about industrial meat, because one of the reasons underlying their dietary choice is the issue of cruelty.
I am not a vegan and I don’t intend to become one, but I am currently experimenting with a plant-based diet in attempt to lose some weight and feel better (so far the results are encouraging!). One of my major hobbies has long been reading diet/nutrition books and for a long time I have been exclusively reading books from the paleo/low-carb world. As I’m sure some of you know, some of these books offer extremely compelling arguments and, like most of us, I don’t look up and analyze the citations. So needless to say I was totally sold.
Then recently I decided to do a bit or reading on the other side of the nutritional divide, as a way to get ideas on how to do a plant-based diet correctly and stay motivated. Low and behold, the books I have read are also very compelling, although in many cases they draw the opposite conclusions as in the Paleo world, with an equal number of supposedly solid citations.
I don’t know about ya’ll, but I don’t have the time/energy to sift through thousands of citations and weigh the evidence. I’m leaving that to Denise Minger (I highly recommend her book, and am looking forward to subsequent posts/books from her!).
I actually think it’s time for people to start talking about what the plant-based (vegan) movement and the paleo movement have in common with each other, rather than bashing each other (I am totally not suggesting that Bruce was engaging in vegan bashing with his respectful comment, only that there is a lot of bashing going on out there).
That’s why I think this is such a great thread. We even had a fruitarian stop by! I mean, where else could a fruitarian and a ketogenic paleo (“caveman”) diet adherent actually have a discussion?
Well folks (Americans) look no more. If you want answers to the epidemic of sickness in your country it is far from “carbs”. This explains it all.. A horrifically tainted meat supply. This is mind-blowing stuff. It probably explains why my vegan and vegetarian friends in the US are doing so well. This is nothing short of genocide.
https://www.salon.com/2014/02/12/6_nasty_drugs_your_meat_is_on_partner/
Beaker, next task is to Google “tainted vegetables”. That too is an eye opener. I am not sure why vegans are so quick to point out the issues with industrial raised animals, but are deafening silent on industrial raised fruits and veggies. You really can’t eat that carrot guilt free if it came from a supermarket.
Very true. Google “budnip” and see what most people don’t even realise is added to potatoes, kumara, etc. I try to get a bulk of my produce from local organic or spray free farms close by. Several have prominent stalls at the local farmers market here in NZ. Is it perfect? Probably not but likely better than mass produced grocery sources. My ultimate dream is to see vertical farming take off. Indoor growing towers that use LEDs to grow 24/7, no sprays used and water quality is monitored. This is a ways off unfortunately. We are quickly heading to a point that we eat poison and get sick, so all we can really do is hope for good cures with minimal side effects for the sickness. A contaminated food supply is another nail in the coffin of nutritional science though. How can we truly base studies on foods when those foods are poisonous?
Food in the USA is rarely “poisonous”
Factory meat has the wrong ratio of omega 6 to omega 3 fats and the anti-biotics add to our load unnecessarily.
Those are problems, not absolute stoppers that prevent investigation of proper nutrition to go forward.
Organic veigtables from a known source, with lots of added grass fed butter is fine. So is grass fed or naturally fed meat.
Store bought meat is good enough if replaces too many carbs in your diet. You can do things to help fix the fat ratios.
Too many carbs are the main villain, not the anti-biotics shot into animals. It’s a concern but a secondary concern IMHO
It sounds like you did not read the article. Antibiotics were merely one of the 6 concerns. The others clearly indicate the meat is poisonous. You mention farm grown grassed meats, these can cost up to 4x as much so I doubt everyone on LC*HF* are eating quality meat. The article also missed out #7 Arsenic.. American chickens are fed arsenic which is making it into the human system via ingestion.
> Since changing my diet to a high fat high protein, low carb, I have experienced a significant reduction of migraines.
Yes, the whole less-carbs more-fat less-inflammation thing really seems to make sense based on what I’ve experienced and read. Blood pressure drops quite a bit — sometimes so dramatically that people feel faint while their body is adjusting.
After years of requiring antacids at night, my reflux simply disappeared — within the first week. Dr. Eric Westman at Duke says this is common — reflux simply goes away, often within a few days of starting low carb.
My breathing passages are so much more open, I don’t snore any more. My wife and I (we are both low carb but not super strict) were just talking the other day about how much less Kleenex gets used in our house. We don’t get stuffy noses, we hardly ever get colds. I can go on and on. It’s just amazing how many things are different when you just cut the carbs.
And of course the blood lipid profile improves so dramatically. My family doctor asked how I had lost 20 pounds; I broke the news I was eating high fat low carb, and she said, no, you shouldn’t do that. And then when we looked at my blood lipid workup, it was the best I had ever had — all the key markers improved significantly. The doc didn’t like the diet at all but couldn’t argue with the results.
I suffer from migraines. Since changing my diet to a high fat high protein, low carb, I have experienced a significant reduction of migraines. Additionally, I have lost body fat and increased muscle mass.
Julie,
I truly respect how you are taking charge of your health. Your limited study on APOE4s should prove interesting. I think Perlmutter’s research is especially useful for people with your genetic predisposition. I have a close friend whose parents both died of Alzheimer’s and she is terrified by it. I mostly take issue with Perlmutter’s sweeping recommendation that this diet is good for everyone. I don’t believe in a one size fits all approach to diet. But, I can understand being in your position, and thriving on the diet would make me feel differently about it.
I think we tend to focus on what we should eliminate from our diets (carbs), when in fact a body that is in balance and nourished (with cholesterol, adequate antioxidants, plenty of fats, and balanced gut flora) can operate quite well without manifesting disease. For me, the key is focusing on nutrient density. A nourished body doesn’t become inflamed as easily. I know Perlmutter focuses on brain foods (grass fed beef, eggs and avocado). But I just don’t see how he can also advocate “garnishing with meat” and a say that it’s possible to do Grain Brain Diet as a vegetarian. I don’t think one could attain the necessary level of cholesterol and an appropriate Omega balance without eating plenty of meats, stocks and animal fats. I think it’s far wiser to focus on nourishing.
Anyway, I thought you might find the following links interesting. Just something more to consider. Seneff is a senior researcher at MIT, she focuses on deficiencies as pathways to disease- including Alzheimer’s. Sulfate deficiency, Vit D deficiency, Cholesterol deficiency as a result of
statin drugs, lowfat diets and sunscreen. That APOE4s have an impaired ability to transport cholesterol and fats to the brain. She advocates a keto diet. Do you think it’s possible that VLC diets work not because people have drastically reduced carb consumption, but because by doing so, they dramatically increased their fat consumption (which most of our bodies are starved for)?
https://www.westonaprice.org/vitamins-and-minerals/sulfur-deficiency
And
https://people.csail.mit.edu/seneff/alzheimers_statins.html
Best of luck on your journey.
There are plenty of places to look up glycemic load; here’s a good starting one:
https://www.health.harvard.edu/newsweek/Glycemic_index_and_glycemic_load_for_100_foods.htm.
Just to cherry-pick one example, which would you guess has the higher glycemic index — a banana or a Snickers bar? Look it up.
I agree most of this thread is supposition and theory, and we are years if not decades from knowing the answers definitively.
But if we can’t agree on very simple factual things, it is hard to have any useful dialogue. Some people are clinging very hard to belief. (And btw one person posting is simply trolling at this point and should be ignored)
Here’s the wikipedia entry on fructose, which is as good a starting point as any. It is fairly simple chemical compound. Whether you get it from bananas or corn or maple syrup, it is the same chemical compound.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructose
I’m not arguing that fructose is any worse or better than other forms of sugar.
I’m merely trying to point out the cognitive dissonance taking place when someone tries to claim that the sugar in fruit isn’t really sugar, or that the fructose in corn syrup is somehow different from the sugar in grapes or oranges.
Or that the sugar in a Snickers bar is bad but the sugar in a banana is good.
I you think soda may be harmful because of the amount of sugar it contains, you should pay attention to the sugar in fruit juice and high sugar fruits.
Claiming that soda is bad and, say, Odwalla juice is good is the same kind of marketing hooey that leads people to believe that white flour bagels are bad but “multigrain” bagels are magically healthy. Most “multigrain” and “whole wheat” products are basically white flour with a little ground up chaff added for color (Michael Pollan discusses this at length in his latest book, “Cooked.”)
Yes the fiber in whole wheat (or a banana) does slow the blood sugar impact, but not a whole lot, and there is not proof that the slower impact is better.
In fact some experts argue the slower, more sustained impact that happens because of the fiber could actually be a bad thing because it keeps your blood sugar high for a longer period of time. I.e. the banana might be worse than a glass of sugar water because you get an extra half-hour of elevated blood sugar.
There is a brand of expensive pasta called Dreamfields that marketed to low-carb eaters and diabetics claiming to be better because it bound up the starches in fiber to slow the glycemic impact.
The technology was real, but when diabetics with their blood glucose meters started checking it out, they found out that Dreamfields pasta still slammed their blood sugar — it just took much longer for the hit to happen, and once the blood sugar was elevated, it stayed elevated for a longer time. So there was no benefit.
Anyway, I believe Dreamfields has been pretty well exposed by now. But the same arguments that company was making are the same arguments made by the American fruit industry as well as the breakfast cereal industry — that fiber magically renders the sugar less harmful. That is an unsupported assertion and people should be very wary of who is making these claims — there are a lot of dollars at stake.
Julie,
One more question: are their people in the HC group that are grain-free? Are some eating low-fat, meat free?
In other words, it would be really interesting to have more information about what the different groups are eating specifically!
Hi Julie,
Wow, this is really interesting. How many people are in this group that you are part of, and how many people are HC/LC? When you say chronometer data, what does that mean?
Have you noticed other differences between the whole foods HC and LC groups? Are people tracking insulin levels through other tests? If people are tracking blood glucose, does that seem to correlate with this LPIR score?
Of course I would love to know what is going on with me disease-risk-wise now that I have transitioned to a whole foods HC diet (at least temporarily), but the only thing I could really track on my own is blood glucose, and I’m not sure if that would be useful.
My main concerns are CVD and cancer, as my father had early CVD and I have had symptoms that suggest I could be affected, and there is lots of cancer on the other side of my family. On these two points, the plant-based diet doctors are still saying basically the exact opposite of what the paleo community is saying in terms of fat/cholesterol and animal foods (and then we have Gary Taubes admitting that we don’t really know anything for sure based on the poor state of nutritional science), so it gets VERY, VERY confusing!
As for Brittdoc, I think she “exited gracefully”–ha ha! Perhaps she decided instead to go harangue the people in her personal life who may (or may not) deserve it.
Brittdoc, aren’t you just a girl with a theory? Where is your evidence, my friend? We don’t throw titles around here; rather, we respectfully share ideas.
I don’t have a controlled medical study, but I DO have an interesting observation to share that begins to refute Chris’s point that whole food carbs are harmless. As some of you already know, I come to the conversation at very high risk of Alzheimer’s by carrying two copies of the Apoɛ4 allele. I’ve banded together with a group of other ɛ4 carriers. We are pooling data, comparing and contrasting our lipid and glucose responses to dietary interventions via LipoScience’s NMR LipoProfile test.
For those who don’t know, ɛ4 is a relatively rare ApoE genotype. Researchers guess that 25% of the population carries one copy of the allele, while only 2% carry two copies. ɛ4 predisposes us to both Alzheimer’s and CVD in a dose dependent fashion. This ApoE group is an excellent one to observe as we tend to respond quickly and decisively to dietary interventions.
Now, to my observation. We have two subsets of folks both eating only whole foods. One is low carb; the other is high carb. The low carb (LC) group is eating ala “Grain Brain” (less than 100 grams of daily carbs.) The high carb (HC) group is eating apples, bananas, beans, rice, sweet potatoes, broccoli, etc. (We have chronometer data on both groups.) Very consistently, the HC group is demonstrating LPIRs that are in the yellow to red zone. See at the bottom of this reference meant for physicians. https://www.liposcience.com/sites/default/files/content/downloads/Understanding_Direct_Report.pdf
For anyone unaware, LPIR is a measurement of insulin resistance that often predicts metabolic syndrome years before actual diagnosis. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3409454/#!po=2.77778 Those following the LC diet have numbers in the single digits. My last LPIR was 5. This is far from proof, but certainly demonstrates that whole food CAN push one towards metabolic derangement.
Yes I think lost in the din of discussion about Perlmutter is that his actual diet recommendations are fairly mainstream — nothing radical at all.
He’s saying avoid gluten (i.e. wheat and wheat products), and corn products, avoid sugar, eat low-carb (but not no-carb or even very low carb). Eat healthy fats, oily fish — rich in omega 3, DHA etc. Eat eggs. And of course lots of non-starchy vegetables. Really who (besides dogmatics like Brittdoc, Coke and Pepsi and the processed food industry) could argue with a diet that follows those general principles?
Seems to be there would be almost no downside risk to eating the way Perlmutter (and, for that matter, Atkins) recommends. You keep your blood sugar lower, it helps you maintain healthy weight, you improve your cardio risk factors. And the bonus: even if there’s just a reasonable chance that Perlmutter is right, that you’re reducing your risk of Alzheimer’s 20 or 30 years from now — well that is quite a POTENTIAL bonus.
Eating this way doesn’t cost you anything. And falling off the wagon once or twice a week probably doesn’t hurt you. I happily enjoy beer or bread or pretzels or pastry from time to time — I’m just aware of making those times count.
BTW I think CDW’s point about low-sugar fruit is a great one. Even fruit advocates probably agree that low sugar fruit (i.e. berries) is desirable.
Low sugar fruit gives the benefits of fruit (micronutrients, fiber) without the downside (the blast of fructose). Just like low-starch vegetables like broccoli, snow peas, leafy greens, cauliflower give you fiber and great nutrients without a lot of starch calories.
I have read Grain Brain and many other similar schools of thoughts such as GAPS and SCD. All of them advocate the same thing – poly- and bi-saccharide carbohydrates, in the portions that we currently consume them, are fundamenally bad for us. And they are, not matter how we look at them. We do not consume complex carbohydrstes in small portions with no additives and added sugars like many “traditional cultures”. When we start eating the wholefood diet of “traditional cultures”, then we too would have no neuroligical conditions. Our carbs and their carbs differ fundamentally!
In addition, in my understanding, Dr Perlmutter does say do not eat carbs from whole-food sources. What is considered whole food? Bread, muffins, potato? We get plenty of crbs from whole-food sources such as pumpkin, marrow, mushrooms, etc. In addition, Dr Perlmutter says carbs like rice and quinoa are fine on an irregular basis, not as a default filler on a daily basis. In fact, if you read the recipes he has at the back, several include rice.
He also doesn’t say don’t eat fruit. Drinking one glass of freshly squeezed orange juice is the equivalent of 4 to 5 oranges. That is a lot of sugar. Pumps up the glyceamic index sending your body into insulin overdrive. He recommends eating low sugar fruit occasionally as opposed to being the four-times a day “healthy” alternative to a McD burger.
I think every singly one of us could stand to seriously improve our diets with eating more really WHOLE food such as vegetables and nuts and cut down on our western diet desperately dependent on grain-based carbohydrates. The quantities and quality of grain-based carbohydrates we eat are seriously dangerous for us. Wake up before it is too later.
Please note, he called the book Grain Brain. Not Carbohydrate Brain.
Hi all,
Thanks Tom for the link–fabulous stuff from Gary Taubes. Really made my morning. And I know you don’t want to get into it with Brittdoc, so I will point out the obvious: He so needs to read that article! Maybe he will deign to have a glance despite his utter confidence that mountains of irrefutable evidence supports his views given that the article is in the New York Times (not just anybody, they have degrees and such, no?)
Bob, welcome to our discussion! I think it’s actually quite funny that you really think Chris is actually moderating this. What is he, crazy?–it’s up to almost 500 comments! If you really feel strongly that we are polluting his thread you should e-mail him about it. If he prefers we take the discussion elsewhere he can tell us that (he has our emails).
Marc, thanks for the very interesting information about orthodox diets and fasting (as well as the nice rant about why we can’t trust our doctors for nutritional advice–so true!). Maybe I should consider something like that for myself. I live in Montreal in the same neighborhood as a Greek Orthodox community, so I would feel right at home!.
Beaker, yes it’s all so interesting. Reading about nutrition has actually been a major hobby of mine since I was young. I am glad I found this discussion, as it helped me try a new style of eating after years and years of low carb (which worked marvelous for me when I first adopted it, but then stopped working). I have actually lost 4 pounds after about two weeks of my tweaked version of the Eat to Live diet. Actually, though, I suspect that the major effect is from the complete lack of snacking between meals (which that diet prohibits) and my acceptance that I just may have to feel a bit of hunger now and again if I want to lose this weight…
Yes, all my exentricies are coming to together in the same place.
Something similar happened a few months ago. I was searchng for something written by Dr. Chris Masterjohn, the nutritionist for the Weston Price Foundation and all these Orthodox links and pictures came up. It turns out that he is also Orthodox.. Crazy. He promises to write an article about Orthodox fasting and eating “Healthy”.
One or two more words about it. When vegitarians point to what can be eaten during fasting days or the long fasts like Lent, they see “No Fish” on the list and may think it is all vegitarian.
Define “Fish”
What is meant is no Fish with a backbone. Other seafood is eaten even during the fasts, like octopus, shrimp, squid and yes lobster. Also, some fast days allow wine or oil or “fish” . Somedays all of them. You need an Orthodox Calander to tell you which foods are Lenten for which days..and a buddy who knows what he is doing.
I have no objection to people designing a diet around some of these patterns. Just keep in mind this is part of a very serious religious practice “Prayer and Fasting”, so handle with care.
(Can’t seem to find Brittdoc’s reply to Mary, so am replying here)
Tut tut, Brittdoc, remember your bedside manner. It is not helpful to be so dismissive of other people. As for this biochemistry background of which you keep reminding us, how about sharing some of the knowledge and data you have. Just because I am not a biochemist doesn’t mean I can’t follow. any lucid arguments or evaluate data.
People on this thread are for the most part genuinely interested in improving their lives and the lives of people around them.
Please help, and add something concrete to the discussion. Explain to us why you believe some of us have it wrong. We are all on the same quest.
Wonderful article in the New York Times today about the dismal state of nutrition science, why bad science and dogma is getting in the way of efforts to address our obesity/diabetes/heart disease/cancer epidemic. Here’s the link:
https://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/opinion/sunday/why-nutrition-is-so-confusing.html?hp&rref=opinion&_r=0
I want to add one more comment about the Monks of Athos and their diet.
As I said Orthodox Bishops are all monks but they don’t live on Athos. They eat the same diet as the Monks on Athos minus the stress free lifestyle. A fair share are Obese. They get heart disease and diabetes and dementia and have normal longevity. Same diet… Different stress level. Less very fresh fish and premium olive oil perhaps.. Different longevity outcome.
I have regular contact with two Metropolitan s ( High ranking Bishops)..Both are obese..