Grain Brain Quotes

“The simple act of moving your body will do more for your brain than any riddle, math equation, mystery book, or even thinking itself.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“Researchers have known for some time now that the cornerstone of all degenerative conditions, including brain disorders, is inflammation. But what they didn’t have documented until now are the instigators of that inflammation—the first missteps that prompt this deadly reaction. And what they are finding is that gluten, and a high-carbohydrate diet for that matter, are among the most prominent stimulators of inflammatory pathways that reach the brain.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“if you cannot control your hunger and appetite, good luck managing your blood chemistry, metabolism, waistline, and, in the bigger picture, the prospect of crippling your brain.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“I’ve had plenty more patients come through my doors and leave with a pain-free head, thanks to the adoption of a gluten-free diet.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“Test Ideal level • fasting blood glucose less than 95 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) • fasting insulin below 8 µIU/ml (ideally, below 3) • hemoglobin A1C 4.8 to 5.4 percent • fructosamine 188 to 223 µmol/L • homocysteine 8µmol/L or less • vitamin D 80 ng/mL • C-reactive protein 0.00 to 3.0 mg/L • gluten sensitivity test with Cyrex array 3 test”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“To cure disease after it has appeared is like digging a well when one feels thirsty,”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“Increasing numbers of studies are confirming the link between gluten sensitivity and neurological dysfunction.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“The origin of brain disease is in many cases predominantly dietary. Although several factors play into the genesis and progression of brain disorders, to a large extent numerous neurological afflictions often reflect the mistake of consuming too many carbs and too few healthy fats.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“Archives of Internal Medicine revealed that postmenopausal women who were put on statin drugs to lower their cholesterol had a nearly 48 percent increased risk of developing diabetes compared to those who weren’t given the drug.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“As is the case for diabetes and cardiovascular disease, central obesity [belly fat] is also a risk factor for dementia.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“We used to think that eggs were evil and margarine was magical, but now we know that eggs are among the world’s most nutrient-dense foods and that margarine contains deadly trans fats.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“one molecule of vitamin C is oxidized by one free radical. (This one-to-one chemistry is called a stoichiometric reaction by chemists.) Can you imagine how much vitamin C or other oral antioxidant it would take to neutralize the untold number of free radicals generated by the body on a daily basis?”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“In the normal process of producing energy, each mitochondrion produces hundreds if not thousands of free radical molecules each day. Multiply that by the ten million billion mitochondria that we each possess and you come up with an unfathomable number, ten”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“omega-6 fats fall under the “bad fat” category; they are somewhat pro-inflammatory, and there is evidence that higher consumption of these fats is related to brain disorders. Unfortunately,”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“We’ve known since the late 1970s that gluten breaks down in the stomach to become a mix of polypeptides that can cross the blood-brain barrier. Once they gain entry, they can then bind to the brain’s morphine receptor to produce a sensorial high. This is the same receptor to which opiate drugs bind, creating their pleasurable, albeit addicting, effect. The”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“Eating high-cholesterol foods has no impact on our actual cholesterol levels, and the alleged correlation between higher cholesterol and higher cardiac risk is an absolute fallacy.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“we’re going to explore what happens when the brain is bombarded by carbohydrates, many of which are packed with inflammatory ingredients like gluten that can irritate your nervous system. The damage can begin with daily nuisances like headaches and unexplained anxiety and progress to more sinister disorders such as depression and dementia.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“Beyond calories, fat, protein, and micronutrients, we now understand that food is a powerful epigenetic modulator—meaning it can change our DNA for better or worse.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“U.S. Army researcher Dr. F. Curtis Dohan was among the first scientists to notice a relationship between postwar Europe’s food scarcity (and, consequently, a lack of wheat in the diet) and considerably fewer hospitalizations for schizophrenia.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“By far the most important fat for brain energy utilization is beta-hydroxybutyrate (beta-HBA), and we’ll explore this unique fat in more detail in the next chapter. This is why the so-called ketogenic diet has been a treatment for epilepsy since the early 1920s and is now being reevaluated as a very powerful therapeutic option in the treatment of Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s disease,”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“We are designed to be smart people our entire lives. The brain is supposed to work well until our last breath.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar - Your Brain's Silent Killers

“POP QUIZ! WHAT’S GOING TO MAKE YOU SMARTER and less prone to brain diseases? Is it A. solving a complex brainteaser, or B. taking a walk? If you guessed A, I won’t come down hard on you, but I will encourage you to go for a walk first (as fast as you can) and then sit down to work on a brainy puzzle. The answer, it turns out, is B. The simple act of moving your body will do more for your brain than any riddle, math equation, mystery book, or even thinking itself. Exercise has numerous pro-health effects on the body—especially on the brain. It’s a powerful player in the world of epigenetics.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“he gave the first modern-day description of the condition in children in a lecture at a London hospital in 1887, noting, “If the patient can be cured at all, it must be by means of diet.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“Those who experience symptoms complain of abdominal pain, nausea, diarrhea, constipation, and intestinal distress. Some people, however, don’t experience obvious signs of gastrointestinal trouble, but they could nevertheless be experiencing a silent attack elsewhere in their body, such as in their nervous system.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“The gene that turns on BDNF is activated by a variety of lifestyle habits, including physical exercise, caloric restriction, following a ketogenic diet, and the addition of certain nutrients like curcumin and the omega-3 fat DHA.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“You can improve insulin sensitivity and reduce your risk of diabetes (not to mention all manner of brain diseases) simply by making lifestyle changes that melt that fat away. And if you add exercise to the dieting, you’ll stand to gain even bigger benefits.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“So what happens if you restrict your cholesterol intake, as so many people do today? The body sends out an alarm that indicates crisis (famine).”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers

“Por desgracia, la mayoría de los médicos alópatas no está dispuesta a buscar la explicación para dichos trastornos motores en la alimentación ni están al tanto de los descubrimientos más recientes.”
― David Perlmutter, Cerebro de pan: La devastadora verdad sobre los efectos del trigo, el azúcar y los carbohidratos

“No es coincidencia que la gente obesa tenga más riesgo de padecer impedimentos en la función cerebral, y que quienes tienen diabetes sean doblemente propensos a desarrollar Alzheimer.”
― David Perlmutter, Cerebro de pan: La devastadora verdad sobre los efectos del trigo, el azúcar y los carbohidratos

“Anyone who’s already been diagnosed with high cholesterol and prescribed a statin will be in for a rude awakening: I’m going to explain what’s really going on in your body and tell you how to remedy this condition easily, deliciously, and without drugs.”
― David Perlmutter, Grain Brain: The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar--Your Brain's Silent Killers