Food for Alzheimer’s Dementia Prevention Diet by Dr. David Perlmutter

As we talked about in the interview with Dr. David Perlmutter, here is the Food for Alzheimer’s Dementia Prevention Diet that he suggested.

lIn this Memory Experts Interview, we talk with The Empowering Neurologist and the Author of the #1 NY Times Best Selling book, Grain Brain and his new book The Grain Brain Whole Life Plan, Dr. David Perlmutter!

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Memory Experts Interview Takeaways

DrPerlmutter.com

As I was telling Dr. David Perlmutter about my issues with memory problems and inept ability to focus, I also told him that I believe that my diet played a huge role in those problems. I used to eat pizza, chips, and sugary drinks, every day.

I told him that I felt like I had dementia and Alzheimer’s. Dr. Perlmutter said that even if the neurologists and psychiatrists that I was seeing discovered that I had one of those brain disorders, that there was nothing that they could give me to treat those brain diseases.

Dr. Perlmutter said that there are 5.4 million Americans that have Alzheimer’s.

“Our food choices have a huge role to play in terms of how the brain works, as well as the brain’s resistance to disease.”

In his book, The Grain Brain Whole Life Plan, he talks about the Anti Alzheimer’s Higher Brain Function Diet.

  • Dramatically Cuts Sugar
  • Reduces Simple Carbohydrates
  • Much Higher in Fiber (nurtures the microbiome, and reduces inflammation)
  • Increase of Healthy Fats

Dr. David Perlmutter brings up a few articles and studies. He said that the New York Times wrote an article where they discovered that the sugar industry paid for studies that demonized fat as this evil thing that Americans should avoid.

NY Times Article: How the Sugar Industry Shifted Blame to Fat

“The documents show that a trade group called the Sugar Research Foundation, known today as the Sugar Association, paid three Harvard scientists the equivalent of about $50,000 in today’s dollars to publish a 1967 review of research on sugar, fat and heart disease. The studies used in the review were handpicked by the sugar group, and the article, which was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine, minimized the link between sugar and heart health and cast aspersions on the role of saturated fat.”

Sugar Industry and Coronary Heart Disease Research by The Journal of the American Medical Association

Dr. Perlmutter goes on to say that there is a clear correlation between elevated levels of sugar in the blood and the deterioration of the brain.

He cites The New England Journal of Medicine Article, Glucose Levels and Risk of Dementia, as his source for this claim.

“CONCLUSIONS of this study:

Our results suggest that higher glucose levels may be a risk factor for dementia, even among persons without diabetes. (Funded by the National Institutes of Health.)”

He adamantly states that, “Sugar is a Brain Toxin!”

Another study that Dr. David Perlmutter cites is this one by the Mayo Clinic, Eating Lots of Carbs, Sugar May Raise Risk of Cognitive Impairment

“A high carbohydrate intake could be bad for you because carbohydrates impact your glucose and insulin metabolism,” Dr. Roberts says. “Sugar fuels the brain — so moderate intake is good. However, high levels of sugar may actually prevent the brain from using the sugar — similar to what we see with type 2 diabetes.”

Dr. Perlmutter’s overall dietary recommendation for a reduction in the chances of getting dementia and Alzheimer’s is to shift from a high carb, low-fat diet to a much more high fat, lower carb and sugar diet.

Watch the full interview with Dr. David Perlmutter here