Good Fat, Bad Carbs, and Brain Diseases

I tend to look for connections. I’m a layperson, not an credentialed expert, but, as a researcher, I’ve learned to see much truth in recognizing connections, and in backing up and seeing a bigger picture. The Gluten Effect by Drs. Vikki & Richard Petersen, D.C., C.C.N., discusses links between gluten sensitivity as well as gluten intolerance (which includes celiacs) with seizures, epilepsy, memory loss, dementia, and actual Alzheimer’s.

When I first started reading Dr. Joseph Mercola’s website, I noted that he recommended a no-grain, no-sugar diet for most of his patients. He explained that he had been a “healthy whole-grain” advocate who began to change his mind, then realized the benefits of taking his patients off of grains and sugars. At that time, he did not mention gluten, just grains, in the posts that I read. Also, at that time, I had gotten into whole grains, grinding my own wheat and oats, and was putting on weight (toxic flab). When I discovered The Gluten Connection and my own gluten sensitivity (and lost a lot of flab in 3 gluten-free weeks), I began to look for the term “gluten” on Mercola’s site. Eventually it began to appear. Eating no grains of any kind certainly removes gluten from your diet. However, Dr. Mercola saw a broader connection with grains, sugars, and insulin resistance. Mercola also called my attention to Alzheimer’s being identified as a third form of diabetes, which is another connection to gluten, and sugars, and insulin.

From the Weston A. Price Foundation, I have learned about good fats and bad fats, and the vital importance of grass-fed animal fats, raw dairy, real butter, fatty fish oils, and high fat versus low fat. Some time earlier, we had friends who had stopped their daughter’s epileptic seizures with a ketogenic (carefully measured high-fat) diet which included heavy cream and other heavy fats and very low on carbohydrates. Recently, I met Arlene Martell. On her website, EpilepsyMoms.com, you can read about epileptics who are reducing and even eliminating seizures and medications using either the Modified Atkins Diet or the ketogenic diet. I asked her about gluten, and she said gluten elimination was certainly part of the dietary program.

So we have strong connections between gluten, grains in general, sugars, and good fats, and diabetes, Alzheimer’s, epilepsy, memory loss, and dementia. Does that say something about the importance of what we eat and don’t eat? Why aren’t all doctors looking at diet first? Most don’t look at it at all, ever.

All of these topics will be explored in more depth. Remember — not only is it “more than gluten,” it’s “more than the gut.”