Nutrition Offers Hope Against Alzheimer’s Disease
The Paleo diet can prevent Alzheimer’s disease and other brain disorders, neurologist Dr. David Perlmutter told US News & World Report last week. Dr. Perlmutter, author of the bestseller Grain Brain, said we can prevent — and even reverse — Alzheimer’s, diabetes, obesity, heart disease and ADHD by following the low-carb, gluten-free Paleo diet.
The Paleo diet emphasizes high-quality animal proteins, healthy fats, vegetables and fruits, and excludes gluten, sugar, dairy, legumes, starches, alcohol and processed foods.
Dr. Perlmutter said the wheat-centric, high-carb diet dogma long promoted by the USDA is what has fueled the alarming nationwide epidemics of obesity, heart disease, diabetes and Alzheimer’s.
“The idea that people are nutritionally deprived because they don’t eat grain has no scientific basis,” he said.
Dr. Perlmutter explained that a high-carb diet causes blood-sugar surges, which destroy brain cells and the entire body. “Carbs are devastating for the brain,” he said.
Perlmutter, who follows the low-carb ketogenic diet, said restricting carbs and eating high-quality fats — which both the Paleo and ketogenic diets advocate — curbs aging, promotes weight loss, and protects the brain.
” ‘Grain Brain’ closely resembles the Paleo diet, which mimics our ancestors’ eating habits and is comprised of foods people have eaten for two million years – mainly plants, fruits and meat,” said Perlmutter.
Numerous studies have shown that consuming high-quality saturated fats (such as wild salmon, extra-virgin olive oil, grass-fed meat and avocados) prevent dementia and other diseases. “Fat is your friend,” said Perlmutter. “The brain thrives on a fat-rich, low-carbohydrate diet.”
Dr. Perlmutter, a runner who looks fit at 59, is also a proponent of the Paleo exercise regimen, which involves walking, sprinting and weight-lifting to stimulate the brain with aded blood and oxygen.
Exercise not only makes you look good, but promotes the growth of new brain cells, he said. “There’s no prescription that can do this,” he said. “All you have to do is exercise.”
