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   Health   
      
   How carbs are destroying your brain   
      
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   Written by Barbara McMahon, The Interview People	   
   Sunday, 26 January 2014 12:16	   
    Grain-Brain-Dr-David-Perlmutter   
   Leading neurologist David Perlmutter says our low-fat diet is causing brain   
   disorders -- but the damage can be reversed. When it comes to preserving our   
   brain's health and our mental faculties, we tend to think that it is not   
   really up to us. It's a    
   matter of luck whether we become senile or not, because it is down to our   
   genes.   
      
   But in a provocative new book that is topping bestseller lists, neurologist   
   David Perlmutter argues that the opposite is true and that we have much more   
   control over our brain than we think. The origin of brain disease such as   
   dementia is predominantly    
   dietary, he says, and the result of us consuming too many carbohydrates   
   (particularly wheat-based bread and pasta as well as sugar) and too few   
   healthy fats. If we change our eating habits, we can dramatically reduce the   
   risk of debilitating brain    
   disease in the future and keep our gray matter healthy, vibrant and sharp.   
      
   Researchers have known for some time that the cornerstone of brain disorders   
   is inflammation, he says. Gluten -- consumed through wheat and other grains --   
   and a high carbohydrate diet are among the most prominent stimulators of   
   inflammatory pathways    
   that reach the brain, the Florida-based doctor says. "When the brain is   
   bombarded by these inflammatory ingredients that irritate the nervous system,   
   the damage can start with daily nuisances like headaches and unexplained   
   anxiety and progress to more    
   sinister disorders like depression and dementia."   
      
   While digestive disorders and food allergies are easier to spot because   
   symptoms such as bloating, pain and constipation or diarrhea emerge relatively   
   quickly, the brain may be under assault because of what we eat and we do not   
   know it. "Unless you are    
   nursing a headache or managing a neurological condition that's clearly   
   evident, it can be hard to know what's going on in the brain until it's too   
   late. Once the diagnosis is something like Alzheimer's, there is no   
   treatment," says Perlmutter, who has    
   been studying brain disease for 35 years and whose neurological clinic has a   
   year-long waiting list.   
      
   All the latest science points to gluten triggering not just intestinal   
   disorders but headaches, depression, dementia, schizophrenia, epilepsy, ADHD   
   and even decreased libido, he asserts in his book Grain Brain: The Surprising   
   Truth About Wheat, Carbs and    
   Sugar -- Your Brain's Silent Killers. The respected neurologist calls gluten   
   sensitivity "the greatest and most under-recognized health threat to humanity"   
   and says it is not just an issue for the minority of the population that has   
   celiac disease. As    
   many as 40 percent of us cannot properly process gluten, and the remaining 60   
   percent of us could be at risk. All of our brains are sensitive to gluten, he   
   thinks.   
      
   Perlmutter, a Fellow of the American College of Nutrition, says we should   
   forget the idea that a low-fat, high-carb diet is good and cholesterol is bad.   
   Instead we should follow a highfat, low-carb diet. He says people currently   
   consume about 60 per cent    
   carbs, 20 per cent protein and 20 per cent fat. He thinks it should be 75   
   percent fat, 20 percent protein and 5 percent carbs.   
      
   "There is no need for grains in human physiology whatsoever," he says   
   emphatically. "For 99.9 per cent of our time on this planet, we have been   
   grain-free, high-fat and low-carb. We haven't eaten grains until very   
   recently, when agriculture began about    
   10,000 years ago. We've been here for 2.5 million years, not eating grains,   
   and there's nothing offered in grains that can't be made up by having a very   
   healthful diet.   
      
   "Show me the scientific evidence of the need for grains. It doesn't exist."   
      
   We all know that refined flours and pastas are bad for us, but even so-called   
   healthful grains, such as whole wheat, stoneground and whole grain, are   
   associated with carbohydrate surges. "They have a fairly high glycaemic index,   
   which raises blood sugar,    
   and even mild elevations of blood sugar are devastating for the brain because   
   it dramatically increases inflammation," he says.   
      
   Fats and cholesterol are also good for the brain, he says. In essence, his   
   argument is that cholesterol acts as a facilitator for the brain to   
   communicate and function properly and serves as a powerful anti-oxidant that   
   protects the brain from damaging    
   chemicals called free radicals. The brain also considers fat a "superfuel."   
      
   "Fat is the brain's friend. In fact, the risk of having dementia in   
   individuals consuming the most fat is actually dramatically reduced, compared   
   to those who consume carbohydrates," he says. "Good fats, certainly not   
   hydrogenated trans fats, but good    
   and healthful fats like olive oil, avocado, nuts, seeds, grass-fed beef and   
   wild fish -- these things actually tend to reduce inflammation within human   
   physiology."   
      
   For most people, the thought of giving up many favorite foods by going on a   
   low-carb diet is terrifying, he acknowledges, but they can be replaced with   
   other foods that we have been told to avoid such as butter, meat, cheese and   
   eggs.   
      
   "As soon as you shift your body's metabolism from relying on carbs to relying   
   on fat and protein, you'll not only start to safeguard your brain but you'll   
   see other positives like sleeping better, gaining energy, losing weight   
   effortlessly and enjoying a    
   better sex life," the neurologist writes encouragingly in the book.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)