The Grain Brain Whole Life Plan

CHAPTER 1

What Is the Grain Brain Whole Life Plan?

IN THE NEXT EIGHTEEN MINUTES, four Americans will die from the food they eat. That's one person every four-and-a-half minutes, a fact that's almost impossible to comprehend. But it's heartbreakingly true. That statement was how celebrity chef Jamie Oliver opened his eighteen-minute TED talk a few years ago, stunning the audience and the millions of people who have since watched his video. Oliver has been leading a crusade against the use of processed foods in schools, and he is a staunch advocate for children's rights to wholesome, healthy fare that won't lead to a lifetime of chronic conditions, pain, and illness. It has been postulated that today's generation of children may not live to as ripe of an old age as their parents, largely due to the downstream effects of obesity.

But it's not just about children. In developed Western nations, diet-related diseases kill more people than accidents, murder, terrorism, war, and all other diseases (not diet-related) combined. Overweight, obesity, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, dental diseases, strokes, osteoporosis, dementia, and many types of cancer can all be linked somehow to diet. Some of these afflictions have been around for centuries, but not in such epidemic proportions.

I decided to be a neurologist, a doctor who specializes in brain disorders, more than thirty-five years ago. In the early years of my work, I practiced under the idea of "diagnose and adios" for the most part. In other words, once I made a diagnosis, I often found that I couldn't offer much to my patients in terms of a treatment, much less a cure. There wasn't anything available at the time, and that was immensely disappointing both for me as a physician and them as patients. I am here to tell you, however, that a lot has changed since then. But it's not all positive. Let me first put a few more facts into perspective.

As you may be aware, over the past century science has made great progress in many areas of medicine. One hundred years ago, the top three causes of death came from infectious germs: pneumonia and flu, tuberculosis, and gastrointestinal infections. Today few of us die from contagions; the top causes of death are noncommunicable illnesses that are largely preventable: cerebrovascular disease, heart disease, and cancer. Sadly, while we've made some strides in reducing the rates of some of these chronic illnesses thanks to better prevention and pharmaceuticals, not much has revolutionized my field: averting and treating brain disorders. And these present some of the biggest challenges in medicine. Throughout my career, there have been so many times when I've had to tell patients that I have nothing left in my arsenal to treat them—they have a grave neurological disease that will likely shatter their life and the lives of those they love.

Despite billions of dollars of research, we've had no meaningful treatments or cures for conditions like Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, depression, ADHD, autism, multiple sclerosis, and so many others. Even chronic conditions like obesity and diabetes, which affect tens of millions today and which are indeed connected to brain disorders, don't have reliable therapies and remedies. A whopping one in five deaths here in America is now attributed to obesity, which is among the biggest risk factors for brain-related ailments. You might be surprised to learn that obesity is really a form of malnutrition. As counterintuitive as it sounds, people are overfed and undernourished.

The United States is among the ten wealthiest Western nations where death from brain disease, most commonly dementia, has skyrocketed over the past twenty years. We, in fact, lead the way. Since 1979, deaths in America due to brain disease increased an astounding 66 percent in men and 92 percent in women. In America today, it's estimated that 5.4 million people are living with Alzheimer's disease, and that number is predicted to double by the year 2030! Someone in the United States develops the disease every 66 seconds; it kills more than breast and prostate cancer combined.

More than 26 percent of adults in the United States—that's about one in four people—suffer from a diagnosable mental illness, from anxiety and mood issues to psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder, and full-blown depression, which is now a leading cause of disability worldwide. One in four women in their prime takes an antidepressant, and may end up staying on that medication for the rest of her life.

When was the last time you had a headache? Yesterday? Right now? Headaches are among the most common brain ailments, and by some estimates they are the number one ailment. More people complain about headaches than any other medical problem. Although nearly everyone has a headache occasionally, one in twenty people has a headache every single day. And an incredible 10 percent of Americans suffer from debilitating migraine headaches—more than diabetes and asthma combined.

Multiple sclerosis (MS), a debilitating autoimmune disease that disrupts the brain's and spinal cord's ability to communicate, affects an estimated 2.5 million people worldwide. Nearly half a million of those patients are here in America. The average lifetime cost of treating someone with MS exceeds $1.2 million, and mainstream medicine tells us that there is no cure in sight. Aside from MS, autoimmune disorders in general have been on the rise. I find it interesting and quite telling that, according to people who study ancient diseases, or paleopathologists, humans did not suffer from many autoimmune disorders before the adoption of an agricultural way of life. Autoimmune disease was not nearly as pervasive in the population as it is today. Some autoimmune diseases are three times more common now than they were several decades ago—especially in developed countries like the United States. I love how Lierre Keith, author of The Vegetarian Myth, explains it: "That's because it's grains that can turn the body against itself. Agriculture has devoured us as surely as it has devoured the world."

Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, also known simply as ADHD, has been diagnosed in more than 4 percent of American adults and well over 6 million American children, and an astounding two-thirds of these children are taking mind-altering medications, the long-term consequences of which have never been studied. Fully 85 percent of the ADHD medicines used across the entire planet are used right here in America. This is certainly not something to be proud of. Are we genetically different from the rest of the world? Or is there something else going on that may be responsible for our overzealous use of drugs?

We also can't ignore the rising prevalence of autism. One in forty-five children age three through seventeen has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In boys, ASD is about 4.5 times more common than in girls. The surge in the number of diagnosed cases over the past fifteen years has led some experts to call it a modern-day epidemic. What is going on?

Why have we experienced such a disturbing spike in these afflictions over the past few decades? Why the lack of cures and better treatments? How can only one in one hundred of us get through life without a mental impairment, let alone a headache or two? With so many scientists and so much funding, why has there been so little progress? The answer may simply be that we have been looking in the wrong place. The solution to these challenging disorders may well lie outside the brain, and even outside the body:

The Grain Brain Whole Life Plan gives you a way to take control of your mind, body, and spirit. It's a solution to these challenging health problems. It's a way of life. I should emphasize from the get-go that it doesn't just address brain disorders. As I've detailed in previous works, virtually every noncommunicable disease has a lot in common. So whether we're talking about asthma or Alzheimer's disease, diabetes or depression, you might be surprised to learn about the connections among them. You'll read about that soon.

Now, let me play devil's advocate for a moment. Despite our vast knowledge in medicine today, especially compared to what we knew a century ago, the development of disease within the context of the human body still remains puzzling—even to the most educated, brilliant individuals who stay on top of the scientific literature. There's a lot we've figured out: We've cracked the human genome code, our DNA; we've developed advanced diagnostic tools and revolutionized treatments; and we've produced vaccines, antibiotics, and other antidotes to combat known invaders. But in the face of all this, we can struggle mightily to understand why one person dies relatively young while another lives vigorously past ninety. Or why one individual looks sixty-five at the age of eight-five, and another appears to be in her fifties when she's really barely forty. We've all heard of the athlete with no documented risk factors for coronary artery disease who dies suddenly of a heart attack; the lung cancer victim who never smoked; and the slim health nut who is diagnosed with diabetes or early onset dementia. What explains these phenomena?

We have to accept a certain mystery surrounding the body's functionality and whether or not it becomes sick and enfeebled. We also have to acknowledge that how we choose to live—and think—has a significant effect on our health and psychology. It's far easier, and cheaper, to prevent illness than to treat it once it's established. But there is no such thing as "spot prevention" targeting one specific area; we have to honor the body as a whole, complex unit. That is the main idea underlying this program.

Every day I meet people who've tried everything they can to achieve the health that they want and deserve. These individuals often fall victim to dubious, unproven health practices and poor nutrition, and they don't even know it. They complain of various symptoms that share common themes: low energy, difficulty losing weight, digestive disorders, insomnia, headaches, low libido, depression, anxiety, memory problems, burnout, sore joints, relentless allergies. The Grain Brain Whole Life Plan is a rallying cry for anyone who hasn't been able to discover true health and maintain that health indefinitely. All roads to perfect health—and ideal weight—begin with simple lifestyle choices.

As I always say, food is more than fuel for the body to survive. Food is information; what I mean by that is that it ultimately has the power to influence how your personal genome—your DNA—expresses itself. In biology this phenomenon is called epigenetics, a concept we'll be exploring shortly. Epigenetics has transformed the way we think about DNA, as well as about food. On a more basic level, food also helps generate the connection between your mind-set and how you feel. What you eat directly impacts how you experience life and nourish your body's needs. What you do—in your work, in your environment, in your routines, and in your efforts to reduce stress, manage chronic conditions, and address challenges—also affects your body and whether or not you put yourself in harm's way and at risk for serious health issues. And optimizing your body's innate requirements, my friends, is the essence of the Grain Brain Whole Life Plan.

You don't have to be sick to reap enormous rewards from the plan. Even if you feel relatively good and healthy, you can benefit. So whether you're desperate for a better body and clearer mind or just want to know you're doing all you can to live a healthier, longer life, this program is for you.

Most of you should start to feel the effects of the program within a matter of days. But it will take a little longer for it to have a lasting impact on your body at both the cellular and metabolic levels. It will also take a while to reset your attitude so that you can effortlessly enjoy your new lifestyle. It doesn't matter how often you've failed to follow protocols in the past or how much doubt you have in the effectiveness of my recommendations. What matters is that you focus on your goals and have faith that health and happiness await you.