Looking to make a resolution that will help you improve your health and feel better overall? One thing you could do is consider cutting out gluten and carbohydrates from your diet.
In Dr. David Perlmutter’s book The Grain Brain, Perlmutter, a neurologist, makes two specific points
- Gluten is bad for all human beings in spite of what people may think or say. In fact, all humans have difficulty digesting gluten.
- Sugars in general are not good for you – specifically, complex carbohydrates, things like bread, pasta and pie crust.
Dr. Popp said the body ultimately breaks down anything of grain origin into sugars, including glucose and fructose. Glucose is talked about the most often and is the ultimate fuel of the cell.
“In order for glucose to be transported into the cell, you have to generate insulin. That’s because insulin is what carries glucose to the cell. We don’t have to eat sugar or carbohydrates to generate glucose. There is a different pathway by which you can take free fatty acids to burn fat and create glucose,” explained Dr. Popp.
Too Much
He said Dr. Perlmutter’s premise is that we eat too much sugar and glucose; too many carbohydrates which goes beyond the gluten issue. “You stimulate insulin and you become fat because there’s too much sugar. When that happens your body can then become resistant to insulin,” said Dr. Popp. And that’s one foothold into diabetes.
Another concern addressed in the book is the effect of sugar consumption on brain activity. The presence of high sugar in an individual causes certain substances to become glyconated and this can damage cells.
Eating too much gluten and sugar can lead to neurologic diseases including epilepsy, dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Dr. Popp said The Grain Brain offers a step-by-step process for those who want to eliminate sugar and gluten from their diets completely. “Reducing gluten is a little easier than getting rid of or lessening carbohydrate consumption,” Dr. Popp said.
Want to learn more about gluten? Click the link here. A sharper mind and a healthier body await.
