Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food.
—HIPPOCRATES, THE FATHER OF MODERN MEDICINE
SEVERAL YEARS AGO OUR beloved terrier, Teako, began losing his fur, so my wife and I decided to take him to the veterinarian. The first question the vet asked in the exam room was simply, “What are you feeding your dog?” As my wife responded, I was struck by that insightful question. Few of us are surprised when our vet asks what we are feeding our pets because we readily accept the notion that the foods they consume play a significant role in their health and wellness (and, conversely, in their risk for illness and disease). What dawned on me was how unusual it is for a doctor to similarly ask an ailing human patient, “What are you eating?” No doubt, most people would be taken aback by such a question, and some might even consider it offensive. They expect queries about their medications and symptoms, not inquiries about their dietary choices. Sadly, they also anticipate more drugs to add to their daily regimen, with no mention of what kinds of modifications they could be making in their eating and lifestyle habits to treat their health conditions.
Food matters. I believe that what we eat is the most important decision we make every day in terms of our health and our ability to resist and combat disease. I also believe that the shift in our diet that has occurred over the past century—from high-fat, low-carb to today’s low-fat, high-carb trend, fundamentally consisting of grains and other damaging carbohydrates—is at the root of many of the modern scourges linked to the brain, including chronic headaches, insomnia, anxiety, depression, epilepsy, movement disorders, schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and those senior moments that quite likely herald serious cognitive decline and full-blown, irreversible, untreatable, and incurable brain disease.
The idea that our brain is sensitive to what we eat has been quietly circulating in our most prestigious medical literature recently. And what cutting-edge research is finally revealing, to the bewilderment of many, is that the human brain is far more responsive to nutritional choices than we ever imagined. While it’s common knowledge now that “heart smart” diets can help support the cardiovascular system, and that we can prevent osteoporosis by getting plenty of calcium and vitamin D in our diets, it’s not universally appreciated yet that we can indeed affect the fate of our brain’s health—for better or worse—by what we put in our mouths. Hippocrates got it right thousands of years ago when he said that food should be our medicine and medicine our food.
I covered this topic at length in my 2013 book Grain Brain, in which I detail how and why food impacts brain health. And I devote a lot of space in that book to explaining that we can employ the power of nutrition to prevent what’s perhaps the most dreaded brain condition of all—Alzheimer’s disease, an affliction for which there is no meaningful remedy whatsoever. A bold, aggressive statement to make, I know, but the science is finally here to show how this is possible. In 2013, the New England Journal of Medicine published the results of a new study showing that the costs for dementia care in 2010 were estimated to be as high as $200 billion, roughly twice that expended for heart disease and almost triple what was spent on cancer. By some estimates, 2.7 million Alzheimer’s patients in America today might not have developed this disease, which robs its victims of their ability to respond to the world around them, if only they and their families had learned that food matters. If only my father, once a renowned neurosurgeon, had known this decades ago before his own brain plunged down the path to advanced Alzheimer’s. Indeed, my mission is deeply personal. But it isn’t just about ending Alzheimer’s disease.
I’ve been a practicing neurologist for the past thirty-odd years, dealing with a wide array of brain disorders and dementia on a daily basis. I work in a medical system that’s unfortunately still trying to treat patients with strong drugs rather than cure them through prevention. In today’s world, we’re told that we can pretty much live our lives, come what may—and then, if our health is affected, we just turn to doctors to provide us with “magic pills” that (might) alleviate the problem. But you often can’t take a pill to cure a brain condition. And while drugs exist to address symptoms, they won’t necessarily eradicate the source of the problem. This is true whether we’re talking about anxiety or migraines, depression or dementia.
One of the examples I highlight in Grain Brain is the incidence of ADHD in this country, which shows just how reactive rather than proactive we’ve become in healthcare. In the past decade, diagnosis of ADHD has increased 53 percent. I’m not convinced ADHD is a medical condition that should be treated with powerful drugs; I believe this increase is almost certainly due to what we’re feeding our children. But our medical establishment too often convinces parents that the “quick fix” of medication is the best option. Indeed, 85 percent of all ADHD medications produced in the world are used exclusively in the United States, a sobering statistic. A full 11 percent of all American children now carry this diagnosis—that’s 6.4 million American children ages four through seventeen. By definition, these metrics clearly qualify ADHD as a national epidemic. More heart wrenching is the fact that an incredible two-thirds of those children are now on medication for a problem that may have been completely preventable—and may be reversible—using diet alone. Clearly, there is something wrong with this picture.
Let me give you one more example. About 10 percent of America’s adult population suffers from depression, a statistic that qualifies this condition as an epidemic as well. And while we normally don’t think of depression as a “serious” illness, it’s directly associated with approximately thirty thousand deaths in this country every year. Depression is almost always treated with potent pills—drugs that change the natural chemistry of the body and brain and come with many side effects. Antidepressants, in fact, are among the most prescribed drugs in America, fueling a multibillion-dollar industry.
But as I’ve already stated (and as I describe in detail in Grain Brain), depression, Alzheimer’s disease, and ADHD, among other brain-related ailments, can be prevented through diet. The various medications prescribed for these conditions focus squarely on symptoms, basically treating the smoke while ignoring the fire. I argue that we need to focus on the fire itself: inflammation.
Contrary to what you might think, the inflammatory process that’s involved in the degeneration in your arthritic knee or your coronary arteries is the very same one that leads to the deterioration of the human brain. Your arthritic knee is painful because it’s inflamed. So what do you do? If you’re like most people, you reach for an anti-inflammatory medication to put out the fire. And that’s exactly what we need to do in the brain. But that doesn’t mean taking a medication; it means creating an environment in which the fire never burns in the first place. That’s the cornerstone of preventing every brain-related condition or disorder. As John Kennedy said, “The time to repair the roof is when the sun is shining.”
Researchers have known for some time that the essence of all degenerative conditions, including brain disorders, is inflammation. But until now, scientists couldn’t identify the instigators of that inflammation—the first missteps that prompt this deadly reaction. And what we are finding is that gluten (a protein found in wheat, barley, and rye) and a high-carbohydrate diet are among the most prominent stimulators of inflammatory pathways that reach the brain. What’s most disturbing about this discovery is that we often don’t know when our brains are being negatively affected. Digestive disorders and food allergies are much easier to spot because symptoms such as gas, bloating, pain, constipation, and diarrhea emerge relatively quickly. But the brain is a more elusive organ. It could be enduring assaults at a molecular level without your feeling it. Unless you’re nursing a headache or managing an obvious neurological problem, it can be hard to know what’s going on in your brain until it’s too late. And once the diagnosis is in for brain disease, it’s difficult to turn the train around.
Although the influence of inflammation on brain health and disease is widespread, the upside is that our food choices can directly impact inflammation. And when you consider inflammation’s role in cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and virtually every other chronic condition common in Western cultures, the implications of what you eat are nothing short of life changing. I’m going to show you how to control your genetic destiny through your diet—even if you were born with a genetic tendency to develop a neurological challenge. This will require you to free yourself from two myths that many people still cling to: (1) carbs are good and (2) fat is bad.
(It’s beyond the scope of this book to go into further detail about inflammation—what exactly it is, how it can become problematic in a human body, how we test for it, and so on. I examine inflammation in greater depth in Grain Brain, and I encourage you to go there for more information. It’s a topic on which everyone should be more informed.)
If you live to be eighty-five years old, and you do nothing to change your risk for brain disease today, you have a fifty-fifty chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease. That’s a mere flip of a coin. If you have a family history of Alzheimer’s disease, your risk is dramatically increased. And if you’re a type 2 diabetic, your risk is doubled. Now, you obviously can’t change your family history, but type 2 diabetes is often an outcome of poor lifestyle choices.
The idea that your risk for Alzheimer’s is tied to diabetes may seem inconceivable at first. But it makes sense when you consider the relationships shared between these two ailments. Diabetes is characterized by elevated blood sugar. And elevated blood sugar is toxic to brain cells. In a recent report in the top journal Neurology, researchers studied 266 healthy adults who had no cognitive difficulties. First, the researchers measured their fasting blood sugar, a test to determine how much sugar (glucose) was in their bloodstream and how well they metabolized sugar. Next, each member of the group had an MRI scan that looked at the size of the hippocampus and the amygdala, the two regions of the brain involved with cognitive function and memory. The researchers then had these same individuals come back to the laboratory four years later to repeat the MRI scans. Their findings were breathtaking: The scientists found a striking correlation between average blood sugar levels and the degree of shrinkage of these two brain parts. The higher a person’s blood sugar levels, even within the “normal” range, the higher the degree of shrinkage. The scientists calculated the blood sugar to be responsible for 6 to 10 percent of the size reductions, even after factoring in other potential causes such as alcohol consumption, smoking, age, and high blood pressure.
This is empowering information, telling us that higher blood sugar levels translate directly to more aggressive brain shrinkage, specifically in the areas that determine our cognitive and memory function. And so-called normal blood sugar levels—or what we think of as normal—are not good enough if you want to preserve your brain and mental faculties. Make no mistake about it: your brain’s health and ability to function are a direct reflection of your consumption of carbohydrates and sugars. This knowledge is what informs every recipe you’re about to explore.
In August 2013, the New England Journal of Medicine published the results of a similar study that further confirmed the indelible link between blood sugar levels and brain health. This latest investigation documented fasting blood sugars in a group of 2,067 elderly individuals. Although some of these individuals had diabetes at the start, most did not, and none had dementia in the beginning. Over a follow-up period of almost seven years, the researchers also had participants perform mental examinations to gauge their cognitive strength. They found a nearly perfect correlation between levels of blood sugar and risk for dementia. Those with higher average blood sugar levels within the preceding five years had a statistically significant increased risk for dementia. This held true whether one started with diabetes or not.
Clearly, maintaining healthy levels of blood sugar is an important part of keeping your brain on cue as you age. The recipes throughout this book are designed to help you do just that. But we’re not aiming to have just “good” blood sugar control; we’re seeking excellent, total control. And the way you can achieve that control is to cut back on your carbohydrates, including plain sugar and foods that contain starches (such as breads, pastas, and potatoes). You can make healthy substitutions for all of these foods—substitutions that are just as tasty and satisfying, if not more so. I’ll give you plenty of ideas about how to do this, with suggestions such as adding more nonstarchy vegetables like mixed greens and bell peppers to your plate, or trying my creative recipes that include nuts and seeds. For example, sautéed spinach with scallions and toasted pumpkin seeds (here) is delicious, packs in a variety of nutrients, and helps manage blood sugar.
It’s not always easy to understand where sugars and carbohydrates are coming from. A 12-ounce glass of orange juice, for instance, is typically looked upon as a healthy choice. This drink has become a staple in the American diet, but it contains a whopping 36 grams of sugar. That’s 9 teaspoons of sugar, about the same found in a can of cola.
At breakfast, many of us are bombarding our bodies with high levels of brain-damaging carbohydrates without even realizing it—indeed, we imagine we’re starting the day in the healthiest way possible. Down your glass of orange juice and then have a bowl of whole-grain cereal with a banana or whole-wheat toast with jam… and you’ve just set the stage for elevated blood sugar levels that may very well lead to your brain’s demise farther down the road. Like orange juice, fruit itself represents a significant source of carbohydrates in the typical American diet. To be clear, it’s perfectly reasonable to have a handful of blueberries or an apple a day, but the four to six servings that are often recommended by nutrition “experts” may wreak havoc on your body’s ability to process sugar.
Our goal is to keep total daily carbohydrates at or below 60 to 80 grams per day. (This certainly casts that glass of orange juice, which has about half of that daily carb load, in a new light.) If you follow the recipes in this book, you won’t have to count carbs during your day. Here’s what 60 to 80 grams of carbohydrates might look like: Start your day with an incredibly tasty, nutrient-packed breakfast of a Roasted Onion Omelet with Sun-Dried Tomato and Onion Chutney (here). For lunch, enjoy a satisfying Greek Salad (here) featuring fresh veggies, olives, and feta cheese with homemade vinaigrette. And how about Salmon Roasted in Butter and Almonds (here) for dinner, with Broccoli, Mushrooms, and Feta (here) on the side, and a crunchy walnut arugula salad?
If there’s one thing about my diet protocol that sets it apart from others, it’s that it derives a lot of flavors from fat. That’s right: fat. Along with a substantial reduction in carb consumption, the very best thing you can do for your brain is to bring wonderful, healthful, life-sustaining fat back into your kitchen. Dietary fat is what we’ve been eating for 2.6 million years, and it’s vital for the health of every cell in your body.
If you haven’t read Grain Brain, you may be surprised at how much fat you’ll be welcoming into your kitchen using these recipes. Dietary fat, demonized over the last several decades, is actually a super-fuel for the brain. Leading scientists now confirm that more fat in the diet is the way to go to ensure a healthy brain. My hope is that as you experience these delicious recipes, you’ll reconnect with a love for fat, a fundamental food choice for health and longevity. And you’ll learn what makes for healthful choices in the fats you reintroduce to your cooking.
Look around. Our diets have obviously changed in the past several decades, while at the same time death from brain diseases has increased dramatically. From 1979 to 2010, the number of deaths related to brain diseases in America increased by an incredible 66 percent in men and 92 percent in women. These numbers are much higher than those in other Western countries, yet we are in no way genetically different from people in other countries. The difference lies in our food choices, and what those choices are doing to us physically.
For most of human evolution, we’ve eaten what we could either find or kill (until modern agriculture and manufacturing made food acquisition practically effortless). And in terms of getting enough calories to survive, fat has always been our friend. It’s an optimal fuel for both the body and the brain.
Let’s turn to some landmark science to prove this fact, since I realize some of you may be scratching your heads. A two-year study reported in 2008 in the New England Journal of Medicine followed 322 adults who were randomly placed on one of three different diets: low-fat, low-carb, or Mediterranean. (Like the low-carb diet, the Mediterranean diet emphasizes healthy fats like those from olive oil and fish, nuts and seeds, and whole fruits and vegetables, but allows for more carbs through whole grains.) The low-carb and Mediterranean diets showed the greatest weight loss, 12 pounds and 10 pounds, respectively. The researchers looked at a variety of parameters that have an important impact on health, such as weight and signs of inflammation. The study also revealed that those on the low-carb, high-fat diet had a much higher level of HDL, so-called good cholesterol, compared to the low-fat dieters. The study also examined the subjects’ triglycerides, a fatty substance in blood and a huge risk factor for coronary artery disease. The people on the low-fat diet, who consumed the highest level of carbohydrates, had almost no change in their triglycerides, while the drop in triglycerides for those on the high-fat, low-carb diet was almost ten times greater.
But even more importantly, the study demonstrated that the presence of a biomolecule called C-reactive protein, a notable marker for inflammation, was sizably lowered only in those individuals who ate the most fat. Here’s where the science is even more compelling. A 2012 report from the Mayo Clinic published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease showed that the risk of dementia was reduced by an astounding 44 percent in people eating a high-fat, low-carb diet compared to those who ate lower levels of fat. Those favoring the most carbs in their diets actually experienced an increased risk for dementia—by a whopping 89 percent.
Not all fats are created equal, however. And I’m certainly not suggesting that being fat is a good thing. You shouldn’t be eating any trans fats or making excuses to eat a pastry every morning or cook with corn oil just because they contain fat. What you will find in prepared, low-fat, high-carbohydrate foods at the grocery store and in many of the cooking oils that sit on the shelf month after month are the highly modified fats that damage the brain (and will make you fat).
Hence, your diet should be rich in healthy sources of life-giving fat, like these:
extra-virgin olive oil
coconut oil
avocado
grass-fed beef
wild-caught (not farm-raised) fish
nuts (e.g., almonds, walnuts, pecans)
seeds (e.g., pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, sunflower seeds)
It’s ideal to choose grass-fed beef, rather than grain-fed, for a few reasons. For one thing, grass-fed beef is naturally rich in brain-healthy omega-3 fats, which reduce inflammation. The meat from grain-fed cattle contains far higher levels of omega-6 fats, which actually cause inflammation. What’s more, most grain-fed animals receive genetically engineered strains of feed and may well have been treated with hormones and antibiotics.
I also encourage you to eat more of nature’s perfect food: eggs! These 70-calorie nutrient bombs have all of the essential amino acids we need to survive, plus vitamins, minerals, and brain-protective antioxidants. Eggs also contain cholesterol, which has been wrongly vilified for decades. Cholesterol is a fundamental component of every cell membrane in your body, and the precursor for all the steroid hormones in the body and even vitamin D. Moreover, it’s associated with a more than 70 percent reduced risk of dementia in the elderly.
Cholesterol is one of the most important biochemicals for healthy brain function and, indeed, for human health in general. Cholesterol is so vital for brain health that even though the brain represents only about 2 to 3 percent of your body weight, 25 percent of the entire cholesterol content of your body is in your brain, where it performs critical roles to facilitate the brain’s complex operations. It also strengthens, nourishes, and protects brain cells, and helps clear away harmful free radicals.
The current war on cholesterol, especially as it relates to cardiovascular disease and risk for heart attack, is absolutely unfounded. We desperately need cholesterol in order to be healthy. In fact, every cell in your body manufactures cholesterol because it’s so essential. Research has already proven that people with the lowest levels of cholesterol have a significantly higher risk for depression, suicide, and, in the elderly, dementia and even death. Some research indicates that in folks aged eighty-five or older, higher cholesterol is associated with extraordinary resistance to dementia. And yet, the pharmaceutical industry would have you believe that cholesterol is your enemy and that you should do everything you can, including taking powerful drugs, to lower the amount of this pivotal chemical. In my professional opinion, it’s rarely, if ever, appropriate to consider high cholesterol alone to be a significant threat to health if you’re engaging in a healthy lifestyle that limits the true drivers of cardiovascular disease—smoking, excess alcohol consumption, lack of aerobic exercise, overweight, and a diet high in carbohydrates. In fact, the best lab report to refer to in determining your health status is not cholesterol levels, it’s hemoglobin A1C, a snapshot of your average blood sugar level over the previous three months. The higher your A1C level, regardless of cholesterol, the higher your risk for brain disease. When you talk to your doctor about these ideas (and you absolutely should), be prepared for responses that are founded on emotions and not on current science. (See Grain Brain for more facts and for a comprehensive discussion of this topic.)
Since cholesterol plays such a crucial role in health, and specifically brain health, we have to revamp our notions about what constitutes a good diet. We’ve all been told that we shouldn’t eat eggs because they are high in cholesterol and saturated fat. But in 2013, the medical journal Metabolism published a stunning report evaluating the results of blood tests from people who eat eggs versus egg substitutes. The researchers found that those who ate real eggs actually had improvement in various blood tests that measure health in terms of risk for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and brain disorders. The truth is that we’ve been eating saturated fat for over two million years. And the science is now showing that saturated fat is not the enemy in terms of heart disease. The culprit is sugar and carbohydrates.
What matters most in terms of your diet is that you lower carbohydrates and increase healthy fats. I encourage my patients to eat lean, grass-fed beef and dairy products and pasture-raised poultry and eggs—all of which contain cholesterol. It’s good for them. It’s good for all of us.
As I just described, ongoing inflammation plays a major role in compromising brain health and function. And many things can trigger inflammatory processes in the body: injury and illness due to an invading germ or virus; chronic conditions like cancer, obesity, and anxiety; environmental factors like smoking, pollution, and poor sleep; or a food ingredient to which the immune system adversely reacts. One of my main messages in Grain Brain is about the deleterious effect that a particular protein called gluten can have on the body. As the name implies, it’s like glue. Gluten is the sticky stuff that allows us to make pizza dough, bread, pasta, and pastries. But our physiology was never designed to deal with this relatively new and very strange protein. When our bodies encounter something foreign and unusual, we typically mount an immune response. And that means inflammation.
Over the past decade researchers around the world have begun to discover that being sensitive to gluten can substantially increase inflammation throughout the human body. This is frightening because gluten is in a lot of the food we’re eating today—anything made with wheat, barley, or rye. And what makes it even worse is that gluten is frequently found in the very foods we’re told are “healthy,” such as whole grains. Every day we read claims on food packaging and in advertising about “whole-grain goodness.” At the same time, we hear about the benefits of low-fat this or that, and we conclude that we should be avoiding fat and embracing whole grains.
I’m going to assume that you’re already somewhat familiar with gluten and the trend in going gluten-free, as it’s made a lot of headlines in the past couple of years. (Again, for an in-depth exploration of this topic, see Grain Brain.) The reason it’s receiving so much attention now is that the science is very compelling, especially as it relates to brain health. To clarify, I’m not just talking about celiac disease, a rare autoimmune disorder whereby individuals have a unique sensitivity to gluten that involves the small intestine. I’m talking about a type of gluten sensitivity that may affect up to 30 percent of us, one that has been linked to a variety of neurological problems beyond dementia, including movement disorders, epilepsy, and muscle disorders. It has also been linked to conditions such as ADHD, depression, headaches, migraines, damage to the nerves (called neuropathy), and even schizophrenia.
As soon as the neurological community began to recognize inflammation as the root cause of a vast array of brain conditions, I began testing virtually every one of my patients for gluten sensitivity whether they were complaining of headaches or memory lapses.
The results were eye opening, as I witnessed my patients improve from long-standing conditions just by going gluten-free. People who’d been plagued by chronic neurological disorders from crushing migraines and epilepsy to relentless anxiety and depression were suddenly freed from their conditions. So I began to evangelize to anyone who would listen—patients and colleagues alike—about the importance not only of a low-carbohydrate diet, but also of screening for gluten sensitivity and getting people who are gluten sensitive on a gluten-free diet. These are the most powerful interventions I have learned in my thirty years of practicing medicine.
At this point, I know what you’re wondering: Haven’t we always consumed wheat, and therefore gluten? Our consumption of wheat actually began about ten thousand years ago, with the advent of agriculture. That might seem like a long time to many people. In reality, though, for more than 99 percent of our time on this planet we’ve been essentially wheat- and gluten-free.
And why is this important? Our genes are pretty much exactly the same as they have been for at least the past fifty thousand years, and these are the genes that dictate which foods we can tolerate. Genetically, we are not prepared to eat wheat—an ingredient that now makes up 20 percent of all calories that we as humans consume. With devastating consequences.
To many, bashing wheat and gluten is almost sacrilegious. We’re told, “Give us this day our daily bread.” And whether it’s matzo, the unleavened bread eaten at the Jewish holiday of Passover, or the wafers representing the body of Christ given at communion, you can see why some people may consider this blasphemy. And what about the expression “the greatest thing since sliced bread”? Truth be told, brain disease starts with your daily bread.
The wheat consumed in biblical times is not representative of what passes for wheat today, which is subject to aggressive hybridization. Today’s wheat renders a product that our physiology cannot process. And as you know by now, when you challenge your body with foods that it cannot recognize, you’re creating the perfect environment to increase inflammation.
It’s essential to understand that our food is more than just the macronutrients of fat, protein, and carbohydrates, or the micronutrients like minerals and vitamins. Food is information, and it plays an important role in controlling our DNA. It’s true: the expression of your genes is dictated by the foods you choose to eat.
We can eat foods that “turn on” certain genes, genes that then make chemicals that increase inflammation. Or we can choose to eat foods that fundamentally reduce inflammation and increase our body’s genetically programmed production of antioxidants that protect us from the ravaging effects of inflammation. You can control your genetic destiny through diet and lifestyle—it’s as simple as that. The key thing to remember is that the ultimate goal is to control inflammation. And this is achieved through my dietary protocol, which has the power to reduce inflammation directly and indirectly by supporting a healthy expression of genes related to longevity and anti-inflammatory pathways.
Last year an eighty-year-old woman was brought into my office by her two sons because she was failing mentally. She hadn’t yet been formally diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, but she was unable to follow a conversation and was even beginning to have problems with everyday tasks such as dressing and preparing meals. She had been to a brain specialist who prescribed a medicine that, according to her sons, had only made things worse (unfortunately, a common occurrence). We ultimately found that she was sensitive to gluten but had no intestinal distress or celiac disease. At that point I put her on a gluten-free, low-carbohydrate, higher-fat diet. Within a few weeks, one of her sons described her transformation bluntly: “It’s as if she’s awakened, and we have our mom back.” This is treating the fire, the cause of a problem, not just the smoke. And this is my wish for you on this diet. Even if you’re not currently harboring a fire within, this diet will have a profound impact on how your body’s computer—your brain—will be working next year, in five years, and, really, for the rest of your life.
I realize how hard it is for many people to give up their beloved bread, pasta, and desserts, but what follows are recipes that will give you the keys to the kingdom: delicious, low-carb, high-fat, and gluten-free meal plans. I suggest that you follow the four-week program that I outline in Grain Brain, which will help you ease into this new lifestyle. Of course, it’s good practice to check with your physician before beginning any new diet regimen, particularly if you have existing health issues, such as diabetes or heart disease.
Once you begin to follow my dietary guidelines and use the recipes in this book, you will achieve some pretty important goals relatively quickly. You’ll shift your body away from relying on carbohydrates for fuel, cut cravings for sugar, feel energized (and hopefully gravitate to more exercise), move into a restful sleep pattern, and establish a new rhythm for long-term, healthy living.
Making dietary changes, even small ones, can seem overwhelming at first. You wonder how you can avoid your usual habits and favorite foods. Will you feel deprived and hungry? Will you find it impossible to keep up this new lifestyle forever? I can hear you already: How can I go without a slice of pizza? How can I ever eat in a restaurant? How do I celebrate with family and friends? But life without sweets is not possible!
Believe me, I’ve heard it all. My answer to these laments is very straightforward. This is not punishment; it is the path to great health and enjoyment. The sooner you experience the rewards of this diet, the sooner you’ll never think about pizza and pastries again (nor crave them). Just like everyone else, I go to parties, attend conferences, and celebrate events that put me face to face with the enemy. But I never find myself negotiating whether to eat that pie or reach for the breadbasket. The thought never crosses my mind. And it won’t for you either once you take the initial plunge and feel the effects.
Many of us eat out several times a week, especially while we’re at work, so it’s imperative that we learn how to navigate restaurant menus while sticking with this protocol. It’s actually easier than you’d initially think. The guidelines in this cookbook will allow you to make healthful food choices when dining out or traveling. Although the meat may not be grass-fed or the chicken pasture-raised, and the vegetables may not be organic, there is usually plenty to eat that is low-carb and free of gluten, and you can easily pass on those foods that are not. It’s not that hard to make any menu work for you as long as you’re savvy about your decisions. Restaurants usually offer meats and fish that can be cooked to your liking, and nowadays the side dishes are often ordered separately. Baked fish with steamed vegetables is likely to be a safe bet (hold the potatoes and breadbasket, and ask for a side salad with olive oil and vinegar). Watch out for elaborate dishes that contain multiple ingredients. And when in doubt, ask your server or the chef about the dishes. Once you get used to using the recipes in this book, you’ll find it much easier to know what to order when you’re out, as well as what to request in terms of substitutes so you can stay on track.
You’d be surprised by what a little experimentation in the kitchen can do to turn a classic dish filled with gluten and inflammatory ingredients into an equally delicious but brain-friendly meal. Instead of regular flour or wheat, you’ll use coconut flour, nut meals like ground almonds, and ground flaxseed; in lieu of sugar, you’ll sweeten your recipes with stevia or small amounts of whole fruits (until you’re ready to fully disconnect yourself from sweets); and rather than cook with processed vegetable oils, you’ll stick with old-fashioned butter and extra-virgin olive oil.
And when you’re faced with temptation (the box of doughnuts at work or a friend’s birthday cake), remind yourself that you’ll pay for the indulgence. Be willing to accept those consequences if you cannot say no. A grain brain–free way of life is, in my humble opinion, the most fulfilling and gratifying way of life there is. Enjoy it.
As you’ll soon discover, I’ve gathered a terrific selection of recipes that will make your move into a healthier way of life absolutely stress-free in the kitchen. These meals are easy to prepare, fun to serve, and downright delicious to eat. The additional bonus is that as you spend time in your own kitchen cooking these wonderful dishes, you will see the weight fall off and, should you choose to have them, laboratory tests will show vast improvements in many areas of your biochemistry. Perhaps most importantly, if your brain could talk out loud, you would hear it say that it is happy and functioning at its highest level. Aren’t those good enough reasons to say good-bye to gluten and most carbohydrates, and say hello to healthy fat?