Lynn D.

Lynn’s journey to take back control of her health started with the release of Grain Brain, and it’s incredible to read about the results she has been able to achieve thus far. – Dr. Perlmutter

Although I was an active, recreational runner, I started gaining weight with each pregnancy. The teaching for healthy eating during this phase of my life included lots of whole grains, low-fat, and low-cholesterol foods, along with antioxidant nutritional supplements. I developed gestational diabetes with my third pregnancy at age 40, which I controlled by a rather intensive walking program. At that time, I was supplied with a glucose monitoring machine and supplies. In recent years my fasting blood sugar began to rise to the 115 to 125 range, which is a very unhealthy trend, but the gestational diabetes was a harbinger of it, so I was on the lookout.

Neal Boortz had Dr. Perlmutter on the radio one morning in early October, and I tuned in to hear him. I ordered and received Grain Brain October 8, and started reading and applying some of the ideas at that time, namely a drastic reduction in gluten and carbohydrates, and an increase in healthy fats, such as those found in good eggs, raw walnuts and almonds, and meat. I’m also consuming a lot more water.

To date, my weight has dropped about 9 lbs, thanks to the decreased addiction I have to snacks. This decreased compulsion means I am able to wait hours between meals, and not binge at night. My fasting blood sugar, which was in the 120 range, was down to 102 a couple days ago. I have more weight to lose and this is early on in the game for me, so I am looking forward to fasting glucose numbers below 95 soon. I donated blood today. My blood pressure, trending toward hypertension, was also down to very near 120/80, when tested prior to donating blood. There are more benefits I could list, but this should suffice.

I bought into the whole-grain-low fat-eggs-are-bad-for-you doctrine years ago, and feel very grateful to find a book which presents some of the latest scientific findings on why that is so wrong. It appears to me that what is happening in my case is the breaking of an addiction to harmful substances.

As an aside, years ago I noticed some joint swelling in my fingers, and for some reason decided that the margarine I was using was to blame, and switched to butter at that time. That was years ago. It helped, so my gut feeling must have been correct. I now understand that what was most likely happening was an ingestion of the wrong kinds of oils, namely those classified as omega-6. Grain Brain reminded me of this incident in my life, and confirmed to me that my hunch back then was right, contrary to the conventional nutritional wisdom of 20 years ago.

–Lynn D.