I received this book, Grain Brain, for Christmas. The giver is generally a pretty rational person, but seems to have an issue with carbohydrates.
The synopsis from Amazon:
Right off the bat I’m suspicious because the book (and its author) received a glowing review from Mehmet Oz. Moreover, on page 16, there’s a short quiz (you can see this quiz using Amazon’s “Look Inside” function), with a bunch of true/false diet questions along the lines of “I eat bread” (that’s the actual first question). At the end of the quiz, he helpfully opines in part that “if you answered true to one question, your brain - and your entire nervous system - is at greater risk for disease and disorder than if you scored a zero.” Which sure sounds like a scare tactic designed to apply to everyone who reads the book. The author seems to particularly have it in for gluten, and claims that modern grain is dangerously different from what we used to grow.
So what’s the deal? Is this guy peddling total woo? Is he exaggerating a non-negligible-but-relatively small hazard? Or is he wisely sounding the alarm for a real problem? Do I need to read this book cover to cover, or should I just politely say thanks and then tuck it away in long-term storage?
Sounds like a weirdo to be honest, and I’m pretty open minded. Dr. Oz is a joke. I hate fad diets and these anti-bread, anti-gluten for trend sake (not for actual life or death sake) “Paleo diet” people drive me nuts. That’s my opinion.
Gerard E. Mullin: Director of Integrative Gastroenterology Nutrition Services and director of Capsule Endoscopy at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Link.
And a few others that seems to have solid credentials.
Some quick google results:
Dietary ketosis enhances memory in mild cognitive impairment. Link.
Ketosis happens when you do low carb.
The only negative study I found for low carb diets was in children due to a still developing brain. Kids need more carbs.
What I never understood is why people have such a hard time believing that low carb is good for you. Until recently (historically speaking that is), humans ate meat, fruit and veggies as the default diet small amounts of carbs. Joe Caveman wasn’t eating bread, chips, potatoes and pasta on a daily basis.
The research seems pretty clear, low carb works for a lot of people and has positive health benefits. Link.
I am currently reading Grain Brain so I searched for a thread here on the subject. I also read Wheat Belly. that was interesting because I had no idea the wheat raised and sold now is extremely different than what was eaten up until recently.
for one thing, it has a much bigger affect on your blood sugar, a bad affect I mean.
I am bumping this up hoping to get more posts while I’m reading the book.
and let me just add that Dr. Oz, whatever else he might say, thinks people should eat less sugar and more vegetables. so that MUST be wrong because he’s all WOO!
seriously, don’t read the book because Dr. Oz endorsed it?
You really need to read this article. Ultimately, what we did in the hunter-gatherer days doesn’t have much to do with finding the optimal modern diet. The hunter-gathers that still exist have quite varied diets.
We as humans have adapted to be omnivores, and can handle quite a few diets. That’s probably the biggest problem some people have: they have problems entertaining the idea that we can handle so much variation. They’ve seen the low-fat diets or even vegan diets work, and so assume that must be the “correct” way to eat. So high-fat, low carb must be bad.
The human diet is much more complicated than all that.
Ketosis is the only way I’ve ever successfully lost weight and maintained the loss long term. It works! I’m doing Adkins but they’re all basically the same. It’s whole unprocessed fresh food. No one’s cutting out any food groups. And ketosis is not the same thing as ketoacidosis. The myths are abundant. There are naysayers because there’s tons of money dependent on our carb consumption both in the medical and food industries.
As for Oz… Just ignore his endorsement altogether. It’s just a way for the author to get onto yet another book list and sell more books.
The Atkins (oops, I misspelled earlier) packaged products are not a part of the original diet books that Robert Atkins wrote and will just stall one’s progress with sugar alcohols.
Atkins can be great for losing weight, although I think it’s difficult to maintain long-term.
Even so, though, that’s a world away from claiming that carbs are responsible for a whole laundry list of ills and unhappinesses. It’s that “one simple fix will cure dementia, ADHD, depression, insomnia, erectile dysfunction, back pain, carpal tunnel, and dry skin” sales pitch that marks it as nonsense, in my view.
Besides, as one data point, I feed my dog a grain-free diet, and she’s still as dumb as a sack of hammers. Very sweet temperament, though.
Low carb works well for some people. More power to 'em. Stating that it can work well for some people is one thing. Stating that “whole grains can cause dementia, ADHD, anxiety, chronic headaches, depression, and much more” is peddling woo.
The simple fact is very well established that complete diets that include lots of whole grains, along with vegetables, fruits, protein, and certain fats, low in refined carbs, added sugars, and processed meats, are strongly associated with beneficial heath outcomes, including mental health ones. Let’s just focus on the first claim, dementia …