Chris Kresser has a great post today for folks concerned about David Perlmutter’s new book Grain Brain, and its assertion that we should eat a ketogenic (i.e., very low carb) diet to avoid Alzheimers and other neurological diseases.
In Do Carbs Kill Your Brain? Chris suggests that Perlmutter’s is an “unnecessarily restrictive and unhelpful” approach:
It’s important to realize that just because a low-carb diet can help treat neurological disorders, doesn’t mean the carbs caused the disorder in the first place. While I don’t argue with the idea that refined and processed carbs like flour and sugar contribute to modern disease, there’s no evidence to suggest that unrefined, whole-food carbohydrates do.
Chris points out three “compelling reasons” that unrefined carbs aren’t the problem:
- We evolved eating whole-food carbohydrates.
- There are many traditional cultures with high carb intake and low or nonexistent rates of neurological disease.
- Modern research does not support the notion that ‘safe’ carbs are harmful.
Like Chris, I think people should follow an approach that works for them. If that means ketogenic, great. But I suspect many would likely find that cutting out refined and processed carbs first might be just as beneficial and a whole lot more flexible than going very low carb.
Please go check out the full post for more.
Photo credit: SteffanyF
Weight Maven is written by Beth Mazur. Beth believes that obesity is more symptom than cause and that the real problem is our Western diet -- especially sugar, refined grains, and industrial oils. Beth writes about nutrition, ancestral health, & food policy. And cats! 
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