Grain Brain Book Summary - Grain Brain Book explained in key points

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Name: Grain Brain
Rating: 4.3 (215 reviews)
Author: David Perlmutter

David Perlmutter

The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar – Your Brain’s Silent Killers

4.3 (215 ratings)

21 mins

Topics

Diets Weight Loss

Table of Contents

Grain Brain
Summary of 9 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 9

What’s in it for me? Eat fewer carbs and be healthier.

For the past few years, people who want to lose weight have cut down on carbohydrates. It’s only logical: fewer carbohydrates equals fewer sugars, which equals, hopefully, less fat.

But carbohydrates also pose a more frightening threat: brain damage. What if those delicious pastas and breads we love aren’t only bulging our bellies, but paving the path to chronic illnesses like Alzheimer’s and diabetes, two of modern medicine’s most formidable foes?

These blinks describe how eating carbohydrates isn’t only bad for you – it’s actually dangerous.

In these blinks, you’ll find out

how celiac disease was discovered during a Dutch famine;
how you can encourage your brain to grow; and
why we should be eating more like our human ancestors.

Inflammation is closely linked to our diet – and it can lead to multiple diseases.

You’ve probably had a headache. Or maybe you suffer from knee pain? Such irksome ills are often caused by inflammation. But inflammation isn’t just bothersome – doctors and scientists now know it’s linked to numerous chronic diseases.

Here’s how: When the body undergoes stress – from, say, a bug bite or a sprained ankle – it responds by defending itself against what it perceives as something harmful. We experience this as inflammation, manifesting as swelling or pain.

This is supposed to be a short term reaction; when the fight persists, however, the body keeps producing toxic chemicals to fight the irritants. Those toxic chemicals can eventually travel through the bloodstream, damaging healthy cells in addition to the irritants. In this way, inflammation can lead to chronic diseases in the body and the brain – like arterial disease and Alzheimer’s.

This process, where inflammation leads to knee pain as well as brain damage, is called oxidative stress. It’s a form of gradual corrosion that occurs naturally in the body, but it can be deadly if it goes unchecked. People who have high levels of inflammation also have high levels of oxidation: that’s what leads to brain damage.

But inflammation is also a symptom of other chronic diseases, such as diabetes.

People with diabetes often have high blood sugar from consuming too many carbohydrates, especially sugar. When they’re bombarded by sugar, cells become desensitized to the sugar-delivery system we call insulin. That leads to the need for more insulin, just to get the sugar delivered to the cells, which leads to more desensitization. This cycle culminates in type 2 diabetes.

What’s more, overproduction of insulin leads to too much insulin in the bloodstream, which eventually becomes an irritant – leading to an inflammatory reaction and all the chronic inflammatory issues listed above.

This is why more research is now being conducted on the relationship between Alzheimer’s and diabetes. Some researchers have even started calling Alzheimer’s “type 3 diabetes.”

Wheat products are full of inflammatory ingredients that harm the nervous system.

It might be hard to believe that a bowl of pasta or a baguette could cause a brain disorder; however, wheat and grain products contain a dangerous protein called gluten, which can cause health problems ranging from headaches to depression to, as mentioned earlier, Alzheimer’s.

A common health problem caused by gluten is celiac disease, which results from extreme gluten-sensitivity in the small intestine. A doctor discovered it in the early 1900s after finding that some children had a better toleration for fat than they did for carbohydrates.

Despite the myths, fat — and especially cholesterol — is the healthiest thing for your brain!

You can live quite well without eating that many carbohydrates. Fats, on the other hand, are essential: we can’t survive long without them.

The body fundamentally needs a low-carb, high-fat diet. Fat is the brain’s secret love.

Sugar can also shrink your brain and impair your cognitive functions.

You probably know that consuming lots of sugar isn’t going to shrink your waistline. What you might not be aware of is how dangerous all sugar is to your entire body, including your internal organs and brain.

Let’s start with fructose, the sweetest of all sugars. Naturally found in fruit and honey, it’s known to biochemists as the most fattening carbohydrate.

A healthy diet can cause your brain to produce more neurons, resulting in higher cognitive functioning.

You might think that cognitive decline is an inevitable part of aging, like wrinkles or bad vision. But this is simply untrue.

The fact is that we’re not genetically built for the lives we lead nowadays, and many common diseases stem from this disjunction between evolution and lifestyle. The good news is that DNA can still change, and it can still return to its original formation.

Sugar and gluten have an influence on common behavioral and psychological disorders.

Carbohydrates are so inflammatory that they don’t just increase your risk of dementia – they’re also linked with neurological conditions like ADHD, anxiety disorder, Tourette’s syndrome, migraines and even autism!

Pediatricians often diagnose children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and attempt to treat it with powerful medication. A colleague of Perlmutter’s once worked with a woman who was having trouble with her four-year-old son, a victim of the disorder. He ran a simple test for gluten-sensitivity on the boy and found that he was 300 percent more sensitive than normal.

Fasting can provide detoxification, reduce inflammation and increase production of healthy antioxidants.

There’s a special feature of the human brain that sets it apart from the brains of other mammals: it can use alternative sources of calories during times of deprivation.

There’s a common misconception that fasting lowers your metabolism and forces your body to hold onto its fat. In reality, fasting is quite healthy when it’s done correctly. It boosts energy production, improves brain functioning and promotes bodily reactions that can accelerate weight loss.

Physical activities – even simple tasks like taking walks – are very healthy for your brain.

Here’s another important tip for your health: simply moving your body can help your brain as much as eternal nights of diligent study.

Exercise has a number of healthy effects on your brain. Aerobic exercise, for instance, activates the genes associated with living longer. It also targets the gene that codes for BDNF, the neurogenesis gene.

Sleep is essential for avoiding brain decay and keeping our minds and bodies healthy.

You might be feeling overwhelmed by all the nutrition and health information you’ve read over, so here’s the single most important tip: sleep more. High quality sleep improves almost every system and organ in the body, especially the brain.

Sleep can determine our dietary needs, the rate of our metabolism, how quickly we gain or lose weight, the strength of our immune system and even our creativity! It also influences how we cope with stress, process information, learn new things and store and organize our memories.

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What is Grain Brain about?

Grain Brain (2013) outlines how what we eat can cause or mitigate serious brain disorders like anxiety, ADHD and depression. Eating well is crucial to your brain’s functioning well, and these blinks tell you why.

Who should read Grain Brain?

People interested in nutrition
Anyone who wants to keep their brain sharp and healthy
Those who want to learn more about carbohydrates, sugar and gluten

About the Author

David Perlmutter is a neurologist, writer and the president of the Perlmutter Health Center. He contributes regularly to the Huffington Post, the Daily Beast and Mind Body Green. Grain Brain is his first New York Times bestseller.

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