Visiting this web site requires a newer version of Netscape Communicator.
Visit Microsoft's Web site to obtain the newest version of Internet Explorer, or visit Netscape's Web site to obtain the newest version of Netscape Communicator.
Visiting this web site without first upgrading your browser may result in unreliable behavior.
Excessive Consumption – While malnutrition is usually related to an inadequate intake of calories in poor countries, problems of over consumption with excessive calorie intake are now problematic in richer countries. “The principal nutritional problems among Americans (has now) shifted to those of overnutrition – eating too much food or too much of certain kinds of food. Overeating causes its own set of health problems; it deranges metabolism, makes people overweight, and increases the likelihood of “chronic” diseases – coronary heart disease, certain cancers, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and others – that now are leading causes of illness and death in any overfed population.”12
Results from the 1999-2000 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), using measured heights and weights, indicate that an estimated 15 percent of children and adolescents ages 6-19 years are overweight.13 The prevalence of overweight adolescents has nearly tripled in the past 2 decades. Overweight adolescents have a 70% chance of becoming overweight or obese adults. This increases to 80% if one or more parent is overweight or obese. The most immediate consequence of overweight as perceived by the children themselves is social discrimination. This is associated with increased difficulties with self-esteem and depression. Longer term health risks, including diabetes, heart problems, cancer and early-onset of death, are no less worrisome.
Nutrient Imbalances – Paradoxically, eating too much high caloric junk foods (e.g., with excessive refined foods, fats, and sugars) actually creates nutrient deficiencies. Corporate agriculture, food manufacturing and preservation methods, tend to emphasize profit over nutritional benefits. Despite an abundant supply of food, two out of three people in the United States are deficient in two or more vitamins (and at least two minerals) needed to activate enzymes to catalyze food into energy.14 Survey results published in 1995 show that of 23,699 American adults contacted during a random telephone survey, only about one in five reported having eaten the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables that day.15Children are especially unlikely to eat the recommended amounts.
There is considerable evidence that imbalanced diets not only affect children physically but also affect them intellectually. Deficiencies of iodine, iron, magnesium, and zinc have been linked to learning problems.16 Standardized math test scores are significantly lower among children and adolescents with iron deficiency, even those with no signs of anemia.17 There is also evidence that optimal levels of vitamins A, B-complex, C, and E may be necessary for children to reach their highest nonverbal intelligence abilities.18 In the British Journal of Psychiatry and other journals, scientists have reviewed the relationship between vitamin deficiencies and depressive states.19
Deficiencies in one or more B vitamins (especially B12, pyridoxine (B6), and folic acid), may lead to memory loss, fatigue, irritability, anxiety, mental slowness and confusion, many of the mood changes and behaviors associated with depression.20 This is not really a surprise since the classical symptoms of these vitamin deficiencies mimic those of psychological problems.21 It is important to rule vitamin deficiencies out when faced with these symptoms, as vitamin deficiencies are readily treated with a change in diet or with supplementation. Additionally, depression often contributes to poor diets and inadequate amounts of exercise. B vitamins work most effectively when combined with each other (e.g., B-6, B-12, folic acid), especially as contained in whole foods.22
Dietary Fats – As early as 1925, an association between lipid blood levels and affective states was noted in schizophrenic patients. Patients with low cholesterol were found to be more repressed and withdrawn, with less evidence of initiative and motor activity, whereas those with high cholesterol were noted to have more energy, drive and intense emotional reactions.”23 While the relationship between serum lipids – in particular, cholesterol levels – and cardiovascular disease is well known, less dietary fats are not always better. Several large-scale epidemiological studies have found adults with very low cholesterol levels experience increased mortality from a variety of causes, including higher incidence of death from suicide, accidents, cancer, chronic respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases.24 Basically we need good fats. Essential fatty acids (EFAs) are required for the growth and repair of the skin, blood vessels, and especially the nervous tissue. Numerous studies have confirmed their importance in brain function and essential fatty acids (EFAs) deficiencies during early brain development increase the risk of learning disorders.25
Altered Fats – The process of heating unsaturated oils and exposing them to air has rendered them a major source of potentially dangerous free radicals. This process is obvious with foods like French fries that are cooked in vegetable oil (usually re-used) at high temperatures, but oxidation of the fatty acids in vegetable oil can be a problem with a surprising number of processed foods. Oxidized oils in food have to be regarded as a major problem for human health, especially deleterious to brain function.25 Oil that has been oxidized becomes rancid and increases the burden on the liver, as it is the central digestive organ for fats. A burdened liver may result in the rise of blood ammonia (from a less efficient conversion of amino acid byproducts), that is thought to play a role in personality changes and impaired consciousness (especially evident in severe liver disease).26
Free Radical Damage – Whenever oxygen (O2) is used to oxidize carbohydrates for energy, about 17% of the metabolic byproducts result in free radicals. Free radicals are molecules that lack one electron – a highly energetic particle – in what is usually a pair. To stabilize, free radicals randomly grab electrons from normal (i.e., healthy) molecules. This creates new free radicals, and like a row of falling dominoes, the damaging free radical cascade continues to spread. Free radicals can oxidize and thereby ruin delicate cellular bio-molecules, especially membrane lipids (fats). Because the brain is particularly dense in these lipids (they make up as much as 80% of its dry weight) and uses vast amounts of oxygen, it is most susceptible to attack. Therefore, the brain has developed elaborate defense systems to keep free-radical damage to tolerable levels. One strategy is utilizing a host of antioxidants found in fruits and vegetables (e.g., vitamin C, beta-carotene, flavonoids).
Hypoglycemia and the Brain – The brain relies on glucose (blood sugar) as its major energy source. Neurons consume an average of five times more glucose than other cells in the body. PET (positron emission tomography) scans help scientists measure brain activity by showing the amount of glucose being used in various brain regions. Dramatic changes in blood sugar levels lead to mood swings, erratic behavior, and even coma. Our endocrine system helps to regulate blood sugar levels with insulin. Consumption of refined sugar (whether sucrose, dextrose, or fructose) leads to a sudden release of large amounts of insulin from the pancreas, which in turn causes glucose to move from the bloodstream into the brain and other tissues. Addictive “high” energy surges are followed by “lows,” as blood sugar levels drop, characterized by fatigue, irritability, and a heightened desire for more refined sugars, the proverbial “sweet tooth.” This pattern is common among people who eat “fast food,” often not realizing how much refined sugar they are getting from the corn syrup that is added to so many of these products.
America is now a land of “sugarholics.” The average North American consumes approximately his or her own weight in sugar each year: the national average is nearly 130 pounds of sugar per person.28 Much of the sugar we consume is in the form of “hidden sugars,” which are added to everything from meat to soft drinks. (Almost 10% of total caloric intake of the average American youth is from soda pop, which offers little nutritional value). Eating foods high in refined sugars adds to poor eating habits and creates nutritional deficiencies. Sugar depletes the body of specific nutrients, including the B vitamins, magnesium, chromium, manganese, and other minerals.
Food Sensitivities/Allergies – Some people get depressed or behave irrationally after they eat (often unknowingly) something to which they are sensitive or allergic. This phenomenon, sometimes called a “brain allergy” has been widely reported and sometimes appears in patients who display mental health symptoms.29 True classic food allergies involve an antigen-antibody immune response (IgE-mediated) and are relatively rare. About 5% of children and about 2% of adults are reported to have these “true food allergies.” In contrast, food sensitivities, sometimes called food intolerances, are reported by almost 25% of Americans.30 Usually missed by traditional antibody blood tests, these food sensitivities are most often identified through elimination. (If a symptom disappears when all sources of a certain food are eliminated from the diet for several days and then reappears when that food is reintroduced, the symptom is likely to be related to sensitivity to that food.) Any food may cause a reaction, but the most commonly reported food sensitivities involve wheat gluten, dairy products, yeast, corn, eggs, soy, grapes, oranges, chocolate and synthetic food additives.31
Intestinal Flora – The foundation for gastrointestinal (GI) tract health is normally laid at birth when both friendly bacteria (e.g., L. acidophilus and bifidobacteria) are taken in and begin to populate the mouth and intestines. The job of these bacteria is to protect us from dangerous and invading bacteria and provide us with a variety of vitamins and other nutritional factors such as digestive enzymes.32 These bacterial allies bolster the body’s ability to detoxify a variety of dangerous carcinogens and build intestinal fortitude. “Leaky-gut syndrome” can occur when toxins, bacteria, or incompletely digested food molecules pass into the bloodstream, due to a break-down of the intestinal barriers and can eventually affect the brain. Depression, allergies, and behavioral symptoms may result from a “leaky gut.”33
Toxic Load – “Since 1950, at least 70,000 new chemical compounds have been invented and dispersed into our environment through new consumer commodities, industrial products, and food. Only a fraction of these have been tested for human toxicity. We are by default conducting a massive clinical toxicological trial. And our children and their children are the experimental animals.”34 It is estimated that up to 25 percent of the US population suffer from heavy metal poising to some extent.35 Excessive levels of heavy metals, such as aluminum, cadmium, lead, or manganese increase the risk of learning problems and other disorders including criminal behavior.36 Studies on dyslexic children report elevated copper levels and reduced zinc levels.37 The full extent of environmental toxins cumulative effects on our health, especially on the health of our children’s nervous systems, is unknown. Pesticides found on fruits and vegetables often contain neurotoxin agents. Increasingly, scientists are examining whether the rise in neurobehavioral problems sweeping our country might be at least partly due to accumulation of environmental toxins, with exposure and effects starting even inside the womb.38
Poor nutrition lessens our body’s natural defenses against eliminating toxic substances. For example, children who eat refined, junk, foods (high in empty calories, loaded with sugars or altered fats), not only have a higher exposure to toxic food born substances, but are also less ability to rid themselves of toxic accumulations.39 Nutritional factors which combat heavy metal poisoning include minerals such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, iron, and chromium; vitamins C and B-complexes; sulphur-containing amino acids (methionine, cysteine and taurine) and high sulphur containing foods like garlic, beans, onions and eggs; and water –soluble fibers such as oat bran, pectin and psyllium seed.40 Additionally, detoxifying foods such as blue-green algae, Chlorella, watercress, kelp, (many green vegetables), along with herbs such as milk thistle, burdock, and nettles can support the liver and help to detoxify the body.41
Food additives – In 1973, Dr. Benjamin Feingold first proposed that artificial flavors, colors and preservatives cause hyperactivity.42 While conflicting data exists, a number of studies have linked hyperactivity to food additives.43 Several animal studies have demonstrated that some artificial colors and preservatives negatively impact behavior and weaken the immune and nervous system.44-49 There is also some circumstantial human evidence to support this connection. In Europe, where less than twenty food additives are approved for use, hyperactivity among children is comparatively rare, affecting only one child in two thousand, as compared to one in four in the United States, where more than four thousand food additives are in use.50
