Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar - Your Brain's Silent Killers
by David Perlmutter, MD
Rating: **** 1/2 (4 1/2 stars)
Book Length: 336 pages
Genre: Health, Nutrition, Neuroscience, Science
I loved this book! I really wanted to give it a five-star rating, however, there were two things that held me back. I will get to that in a bit. First, why do I love this book? Grain Brain combines all the research on the impact of gluten and carbs and presents it from a neurological perspective. While the main topic of the book seems to be about preventing dementia and Alzheimer's he also provides examples about Tourette's and ADHD. There is even a small section about autism and mood disorders (bipolar).
When I was in graduate school the general consensus was that there is no research to support the gluten-free diet for children on the autism spectrum. While Dr. Perimutter provides anecdotal evidence from his neurology practice to support the claims he is making, he thankfully continues to back up his claims with peer-reviewed journal articles. While the research specifically on autism spectrum disorders and the effects of gluten may be sparse, there is research showing the effects of gluten on the brain in general. Dr. Perimutter claims that everyone will be better served by adopting a low carb, gluten free diet. However, there are people who are unknowingly more susceptible to gluten, and many of these individuals have conditions such as diabetes, ASD, mood disorders, schizophrenia, or ADHD, to name a few.
The book also contains great information on the impact of fasting. He also explores how sleep, or the lack of sleep, affects our cognitive abilities. There are also a few easy recipes in the back of the book mostly geared towards individuals who have never eaten gluten free before.
Why did I take off half a star?
The first reason is that I do not think that Dr. Perimutter made his claim on the harm of sugar to the brain. He continually mentions the impact of sugar, lumping all sugar including fruit together. Then he shortly says well if you are going to eat sugar then fruit is a lot better than processed sugar. However, even then he does not really provide the evidence to back up his claims. From my own experience I completely agree with him - however, that is not much good without the evidence to back it up. Then when he creates his list of what to eat and what not to eat he never mentions the acceptability of honey and completely outlaws agave. I admit that agave is pretty controversial, specifically for individuals eating Paleo. What I want is evidence about why it is bad for you, or good for you. And why no honey but you are allowed to occasionally put cow's milk in your tea or coffee? That makes no sense to me.
Which brings me to the second problem that I had with the book. He turned it into a fad diet book. I would say that 80% of the book is evidence from a neurological perspective. Then in the last 10% he adds a pretty lamb and skimpy diet outline and points you to his website to buy supplements and tests. It is hard to ignore the sale out factor of this. My advice - ignore this section of the book and focus on everything that came before. After all combined it is really only worth a half a star drop in rating.
If you read no other non-fiction book this year then make it Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers. It is a great way to start of your new year for a new you.
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