'Grain Brain' review, avoid your daily bread

GRAIN BRAIN: The Surprising Truth About Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar -- Your Brain's Silent Killers, by David Perlmutter, MD, with Kristin Loberg. Little, Brown and Company, $27., 312 pp.

 Dr. David Perlmutter, a neurologist and a fellow of the American College of Nutrition, writes in "Grain Brain" -- out last month and already a bestseller -- that "I'm here to tell you that the fate of your brain is not in your genes. It's not inevitable . . . It's in the food you eat."

He says: "Brain dysfunction starts in your daily bread . . . " Literally: "Modern grains are silently destroying your brain." Not just refined white flour, but whole wheat grains. They put you at risk, he writes, of obesity, diabetes, Alzheimer's and other dementias. But fat -- long considered the enemy -- is actually "your brain's best friend."

THE SCOOP Perlmutter suggests clearing your kitchen of gluten, processed carbs, "fat-free" foods, margarine, cooking oils and nonfermented soy. Most dairy is out. Instead, buy olive and sesame oils; low- sugar fruits; protein, in- cluding eggs, wild fish and grass-fed meat, and veggies.

THE BOTTOM LINE Perlmutter's prescription follows that of bestsellers such as "Wheat Belly" and the Atkins books. Might be worth a look