Brain Maker

The Power of Gut Microbes to Heal and Protect Your Brain–for Life

This week’s book review is Brain Maker by Dr. David Perlmutter.

In Brain Maker, Dr. Perlmutter builds on the research and recommendations in his previous book, Grain Brain. Where Grain Brain was more focused on the results of a grain based diet, Brain Maker focuses on the effects of a poor digestive tract microbiome.

The microbiome is responsible for the digestion of the food that we eat and the ability to properly convert that food into usable nutrients that our bodies and brains need. There is a big emphasis on adjusting our diets away from carbohydrates and towards healthy fats. Fats have been demonized over the last 30 years but without proper scientific research. The research now clearly indicates that healthy fats should make up a large part of our diets.

Is Your Low Fat Diet Killing You?

I know many of you are probably asking what a business blog is doing talking about low fat diets. So, let me tell you!

As business leaders, we tend to become so focused on our business, the marketplace, and our employees that we forget about the simple things that count the most. One of the things we most often forget about is our health.

It is very easy to get so caught up at work that we forget to take care of ourselves and then we are hit by a totally preventable health event. The problem with many preventable health events is that they are often irreversible!

A few years ago I spent an afternoon in the hospital hooked up to machines because of a reaction to something. The doctors didn’t know what I reacted to and, thankfully, it has never reoccurred but the event was still somewhat of a wake up call!

I now pay a little closer attention to what I eat. I also do a lot of reading and regularly listen to podcasts from a few of North America’s leading medical doctors who specialize in nutrition, neurology and physiology. From them, I am learning a lot that is now challenging my “healthy low fat diet” mindset!

There have been some amazing advances in the last few years in the world of medicine. From mapping the human genome to the emergence of epigenetics to some breakthrough studies in nutrition and the physiology of the human body.

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