Embrace the Changing Message

Over the past 15 years I have written several books including LifeGuide, BrainRecovery, The Better Brain Book, Raise a Smarter Child By Kindergarten, Power Up Your Brain, and now Grain Brain – The Surprising Truth About Wheat Carbs and Sugar, Your Brain’s Silent Killers.

Without question, the key dietary messaging over the years that I have put forth has clearly changed, and with good reason. Science is dynamic. And my mission is to remain at the leading edge of science and bring the very best and most current knowledge to public awareness.

Looking back over the years there was a time when, for example, it was thought that a diet containing whole grain foods represented a good recommendation for various health considerations. But clearly, where we are today in terms of our understanding of grains, particularly gluten containing grains like wheat, makes including whole grain, gluten containing foods a recommendation that no longer has any validity.

What’s even more compelling even beyond the level of scientific support for a gluten-free, low carbohydrate, high “good fat” diet is the simple fact that this is basically the type of diet we have been consuming for hundreds of thousands of years. This is the diet that most resonates with our paleolithic genome.

The foods we consume interact at a deep level with our DNA. Challenging our DNA with foods to which it has never been exposed sets the stage for maladaptive gene expression that opens the door to every medical malady we most fear.

So I will continue to refine my nutritional and other lifestyle recommendations as we move forward, together, on this journey.

Respectively, and in health,
David Perlmutter, MD, FACN, ABIHM
November 15, 2013