5 July 2021
Ever since Dr David Perlmutter, a neurologist and – according to his Wikipedia profile – “celebrity doctor”, published Grain Brain in 2013, I have had anxious clients quizzing me about whether gluten might be causing their brain fog, making them depressed or even pushing them into dementia.
Perlmutter’s book, which was hyperbolically subtitled The Surprising Truth about Wheat, Carbs, and Sugar – Your Brain’s Silent Killers, became a New York Times bestseller and was translated into 34 languages… despite a total lack of evidence for his claims that gluten is a “silent germ” and that declining brain health in Western populations can be blamed in large part on the consumption of gluten-containing grains such as wheat, rye and barley.
Now, a long-term follow-up study involving the famed Nurses’ Health Study II cohort has provided confirmation that people who do not suffer from coeliac disease or non-coeliac gluten sensitivity have no need to fear gluten when it comes to their cognitive health.
The study, titled ‘Long-term Intake of Gluten and Cognitive Function Among US Women’, examined the relationship between long-term gluten intake and cognitive (brain) function in midlife.
Data on the diets (including gluten intake) of 13 494 women who had not been diagnosed with coeliac disease was collected from 1991 to 2015.
The women’s cognitive function was assessed when they were, on average, 60 years old, using standardised tests to measure psychomotor speed and attention score, learning and working memory score, and global cognition score. Or, in plain English, how fast their brains worked, how well they remembered information, and how clearly they could think.
The results were very straightforward, and directly contrary to Perlmutter’s doom-mongering about gluten:
“In this cohort study of 13 494 women at midlife without a celiac disease diagnosis, there was no statistical evidence of any association of long- or short-term gluten intake with cognitive function.”
Long-term Intake of Gluten and Cognitive Function Among US Women
The researchers even separated out refined grain intake (such as white bread and pasta) from whole grain intake (such as wholemeal bread and unpearled barley), and again found no difference in cognitive function between gluten-eaters and gluten-avoiders.
Looking at changes in gluten intake over time, the researchers again found no association between either increasing or decreasing gluten consumption and cognitive function in midlife.
Zip. Nada. Big fat nothing.
So, the good news for those of you who do not have coeliac disease or established non-coeliac gluten sensitivity but have been eating a gluten-free diet because you think it’s better for your brain, is that wheat, rye, barley, spelt and kamut can go back on the menu.
Of course, I would recommend whole grain forms such as freekeh, pumpernickel bread, unpearled barley and wholemeal bread and pasta rather than refined grains, because whole grains are much higher in fibre, vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals, and promote a healthier and more diverse gut microbiota.
And since many gluten-free products are far higher in sodium and fat (especially saturated fat) and lower in fibre, protein and micronutrients than gluten-containing products, your overall health will benefit from ditching the ultraprocessed packets and boxes of gluten-free edible food-like substances (to borrow Michael Pollan’s memorable phrase), and replacing them with humble whole grains.
Obviously, people with coeliac disease must continue to eat a strictly gluten-free diet, and people with certain autoimmune disorders such as Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis may also benefit from gluten avoidance.
I’m sure there will be more best-selling books published in the future which peddle popular nonsense to the worried well, but at least this one particularly egregious example of the genre can now be put to bed. Or perhaps into the shredder.
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