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A review by dajenny
Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers by David Perlmutter
2.0
Interesting book. Lots of facts and studies cited, which can be somewhat stupor-inducing at times. Certainly got me thinking about my eating choices and the connection between food and overall health. I know there are many people whose lives have been dramatically changed for the better because they've cut gluten out of their diet.
That said, I think he overstates his case at times. Human physiology is very complex, and brain science is just getting its start. He implies that all of our modern health and mental issues would just be solved if only people adopted a Paleo diet (though he never refers to it as such), and I don't think it's that simple. He made it sound as though dementia and Alzheimer's and schizophrenia and depression and autism and ADHD and all manner of other mental diseases can be cured by your diet. He promises control over our mental future - something we all long for, but ultimately, don't really have. (Yes, I do get that there are links. He has the research to prove it. I just think it's false hope to hold a grain-free diet as the cure.)
(Also, Scientific American had a rather lengthy article a year or two back that pointed out flaws in the Paleo diet. I think it applies here, as well).
Other complaints:
The book is pretty repetitive. By page two, I knew he thought gluten was the enemy of all things good, but he kept pounding it in, over and over and over again.
I didn't like the way he used statistics/studies. A couple of examples:
At one point, he stated that the average American adult (men and women) consumes 3300 calories per day. This seemed insanely high to me, so I did some looking, and the study I found on multiple sites said self-reported averages were 1785 for women and 2640 for men. One study found that women, on average, underestimated by about 25%. If that number holds for men as well, it bumps the averages to 2231 and 3300 calories per day. Which is not quite what Dr. Perlmutter said, and honestly makes me question some of the other things he stated in his book.
Many times, he made a statement similar to, "Study X found that, when people had low cholesterol, their risk of getting disease Y went up by 150%!". It would have been much more useful to have the actual hard numbers - that is, "For people with low cholesterol, the risk was X, while the control group's risk was Y." If the risk went from 0.001% to 0.0025%, it's a different thing than say, 1% to 2.5%. Saying it went up by 150% does have more "wow" factor, though, which is probably why he stated it that way.
I get it. He's trying to wake people up to what he sees as a very serious problem, and most of us could do with cutting back on carbs and making better choices overall. I accept that there are links between grains and mental acuity, inflammation, and obesity, and I appreciate the vast number of studies he cited. Still, I wish this had been written more as a scientific discourse and less as a diatribe against gluten.
That said, I think he overstates his case at times. Human physiology is very complex, and brain science is just getting its start. He implies that all of our modern health and mental issues would just be solved if only people adopted a Paleo diet (though he never refers to it as such), and I don't think it's that simple. He made it sound as though dementia and Alzheimer's and schizophrenia and depression and autism and ADHD and all manner of other mental diseases can be cured by your diet. He promises control over our mental future - something we all long for, but ultimately, don't really have. (Yes, I do get that there are links. He has the research to prove it. I just think it's false hope to hold a grain-free diet as the cure.)
(Also, Scientific American had a rather lengthy article a year or two back that pointed out flaws in the Paleo diet. I think it applies here, as well).
Other complaints:
The book is pretty repetitive. By page two, I knew he thought gluten was the enemy of all things good, but he kept pounding it in, over and over and over again.
I didn't like the way he used statistics/studies. A couple of examples:
At one point, he stated that the average American adult (men and women) consumes 3300 calories per day. This seemed insanely high to me, so I did some looking, and the study I found on multiple sites said self-reported averages were 1785 for women and 2640 for men. One study found that women, on average, underestimated by about 25%. If that number holds for men as well, it bumps the averages to 2231 and 3300 calories per day. Which is not quite what Dr. Perlmutter said, and honestly makes me question some of the other things he stated in his book.
Many times, he made a statement similar to, "Study X found that, when people had low cholesterol, their risk of getting disease Y went up by 150%!". It would have been much more useful to have the actual hard numbers - that is, "For people with low cholesterol, the risk was X, while the control group's risk was Y." If the risk went from 0.001% to 0.0025%, it's a different thing than say, 1% to 2.5%. Saying it went up by 150% does have more "wow" factor, though, which is probably why he stated it that way.
I get it. He's trying to wake people up to what he sees as a very serious problem, and most of us could do with cutting back on carbs and making better choices overall. I accept that there are links between grains and mental acuity, inflammation, and obesity, and I appreciate the vast number of studies he cited. Still, I wish this had been written more as a scientific discourse and less as a diatribe against gluten.