Fast Food Genocide

We are failing to make the connection between food and brain development and behavior. Both criminal propensity and learning capacity are commonly thought to be innate; however, a review of the available evidence suggests that brain function and human potential are undermined by external factors lurking on American dinner plates. The majority of individuals in some areas of the country where healthy foods are hard to find face insidious brain damage; but this is a problem not limited to urban inner cities. These devastating health problems, which affect the health of the brain, affect all races and transcend socioeconomic demographics, occurring wherever processed and fast food consumption is high.

According to research data, poor glucose control has been linked with aggression and poor self-control, and the crime rate in a given area of the country is highly correlated with the rate of diabetes.¹ This correlation remains significant even when controlled for income, meaning that crime is more closely associated with disease than economics. This alone does not necessarily imply causation; however, human studies reveal that study participants became less able to forgive others as their diabetic symptoms worsened.²

In 2014, 8.5 percent of New Jersey residents had diabetes.³ In one crime-ridden Camden zip code the rate of diabetes was almost twice that.⁴ In 2012, Camden had a murder rate of 60.6 per 100,000 people, or nearly twelve times the national average; it was the deadliest year in Camden’s history.⁵ Not surprisingly, in the same year Camden had the highest crime rate in the United States. Low academic achievement, another persistent problem, also afflicts this city. The most recent U.S. Census shows that only 8 percent of people 25 years old and older have a four-year college degree or more, compared with 49 percent for nearby Cherry Hill. The lack of education makes it hard for individuals to escape the cycle of poverty. Thirty-nine percent live at or below the poverty line compared with 6 percent in Cherry Hill.⁶ Can it be, despite complex variables and societal factors, that unhealthful food is a major contributor to this conundrum of disease, lower achievement, and even crime?

The human brain, the most complex structure known to humanity, is under attack. We are a long way away from fully understanding this biological engineering marvel; nevertheless, advances in science reveal an inescapable truth: The brain is a living organ that is exquisitely dependent on nutrients, and even small amounts of unnatural foods early in life can wreak havoc on this nutrient-sensitive organ. That damage becomes incrementally worse as we consume these foods in greater amounts.

The evidence indicates that your emotional well-being, willpower, determination, work ethic, patience, concentration, creativity, memory, and intelligence all depend on exposure to sufficient nutrients and healthy food throughout life. It is impossible to have normal brain function and a healthy emotional life when the majority of your food calories come from fast food. Not only are these processed foods leading to premature disease and death, they are negatively affecting our ability to function in everyday life. Fast foods and processed foods simply do not contain the diverse array of nutrients—nutrients that the body and brain desperately needs—that are found in natural unprocessed or minimally processed plant foods. And unfortunately, the majority of Americans today get more than half of their calories from fast food and processed food.

This pie graph represents total food consumption throughout the United States.⁷ People in some areas may not eat this poorly, but there are lots of areas of the country where people eat much worse. Keep in mind that the “Vegetables, fruit, nuts, and beans” segment includes white potatoes (even French fries) and ketchup. Most Americans get less than 5 percent of their calories from colorful produce. The combination of lack of micronutrients and phytochemicals, imbalances in fatty acids (see more in The Oiling of the Brain section), and exposure to fast food–derived toxins damages not just our bodies, but our fragile, nutrient-demanding brains.

Ordinarily, an inadequate diet would be quickly evident and detected because of accompanying severe physical symptoms. However, modern fast foods are specifically designed to deceive human metabolism by limiting these outward symptoms. Commercial foods are fortified with vitamins and enriched just enough to keep us from displaying or dying from an acute deficiency, but they do not have the vast array of nutrients and phytochemicals that are needed to enable our brains to develop and function normally.

Chronic anger, chronic mild depression, and mental inflexibility are symptoms of subclinical nutritional deficiencies that are extremely common and difficult to diagnose. A CNN poll carried out in December 2015 revealed that 69 percent of Americans are angry.⁸ This kind of widespread chronic anger, irrational thoughts, and diminished intelligence are red flags telling us that poor nutrition is epidemic. These subtle symptoms worsen significantly as diets get less healthy.

Natural foods such as green vegetables, seeds, berries, and mushrooms contain thousands of nutrients that fuel human health and normality. We need more than just vitamins and minerals; we also need a diverse spectrum of antioxidants and phytochemicals that enable our cells to function normally.

The brain is incredibly resilient; it can recover from occasional traumatic injury or micronutrient shortage. But this recovery process doesn’t work in people who consistently consume a diet lacking life-supporting plant compounds. Our brains cannot function normally with a continual and unrelenting buildup of free radicals, other metabolic wastes, and toxic irritants that arise from consuming processed foods. Metabolic wastes are toxins produced by our body that normally would be removed if phytonutrient exposure were adequate. And let’s not forget the unhealthful toxic substances and additives in processed foods.

What Is a Phytochemical?

Phytochemicals (also known as phytonutrients) are noncaloric compounds present in plants that have health-promoting and disease-preventing properties. They are not vitamins and minerals, but they augment and sustain human cell function and support the immune system. They act as fuel for cell repair processes on human DNA; therefore, they have powerful anticancer effects. There are more than a thousand known phytochemicals. Some of the well-known phytochemicals are lycopene in tomatoes, isoflavones in soy, and flavonoids in fruits.

Phytochemicals do not merely have anticancer and longevity-promoting effects; they also affect the brain. The central nervous system includes the brain and spinal cord. The brain is composed of more than 100 billion nerve cells called neurons. Phytochemicals exert neuroprotective effects in experimental models of psychiatric disorders.⁹ As a natural part of the human diet, they are necessary for cell signaling pathways within the brain; that is, the presence or absence of phytochemicals affects brain development, brain function, and brain pathology.

The average American consumes an extravagant high-calorie, low-nutrient diet that stresses the brain with metabolic wastes while systematically depriving it of the micronutrients necessary to self-cleanse and undo the damage. A healthy and happy brain requires a steady stream of vitamins, minerals, and phytochemical plant compounds—ingredients that are missing from modern commercial foods.

Although many Americans eat a deficient diet by choice, they rarely consider the addictive nature of Frankenfoods and how that affects their “choice.” In many areas of the United States where healthy foods are hard to come by, such as Camden, New Jersey, residents have little to no choice of what to eat. They live in communities where natural produce is simply not available, so they are routinely deprived of foods that enable optimal brain function. People from impoverished communities around the country become “hooked” on commercial foods from a very young age, causing them to then reject fruits and vegetables even when available. Once this addictive pattern of craving is established, creative self-delusional rationalizations often justify the self-destructive food behavior that causes so much harm. The thinking pattern and end result is not much different from drug addiction.

An unhealthy diet destroys us from the inside out. It is an invisible threat that goes largely unnoticed until diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancer crop up. But way before these diseases become easy to recognize, subtle brain difficulties arise, hinting of these dramatic diseases to come later. Learning difficulties and depression may start fairly young; the statistics are alarming. As many as one in eight adolescents is diagnosed as clinically depressed, and many more have milder forms of mood disorders and learning difficulties. Clinical depression is the top cause of disability for children age 5 and older.

Depression doesn’t have one specific cause, but one of the major causative factors is an unhealthy diet. Studies have shown fast food as an important factor for many years, yet nutrition is hardly mentioned as part of the cause or treatment for mental health difficulties. A dietary pattern that includes fried food, sweetened desserts, processed meat, and refined grains has been associated with depression, and the consumption of whole natural foods has been shown to be strongly protective.¹⁰

The relationship between risk of depression and some components of our diet, such as omega-3 fatty acids and B vitamins, has been studied and confirmed,¹¹ whereas the role of fast food and white bread products has received little attention until recently. Today the evidence is overwhelming. A scientific study published in 2011 evaluated the consumption of fast food (hamburgers, sausages, and pizza) and processed pastries (muffins, doughnuts, and croissants) with a median follow-up of 6.2 years. The researchers found that these fast food and commercial baked goods were linked to depression in a dose-dependent manner.¹² The results revealed that people who eat fast food, compared with those who eat little or none, are 51 percent more likely to develop depression. And the more you consume, the greater the risk.

This depression-inducing dietary pattern is not solely due to sugar and white flour, although the dangerous effects on the brain of these high-glycemic carbohydrates is now well-established. A 2015 study showed a dose-dependent relationship between high-glycemic-load foods (white flour and sweetening agents) and depression.¹³ Many people have noted a link between eating sugary foods and feeling “down” the next day, but now we know that the effects are cumulative and long-lasting and can be severe.

The data was collected from roughly seventy thousand women in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study, none of whom suffered from depression at the study’s start. Baseline measurements were taken between 1994 and 1998 and then again after a three-year follow-up. Diets with higher glycemic loads, typically rich in refined grains and added sugar, were associated with greater odds of developing depression, while researchers found that eating high-fiber foods such as whole grains, whole fruits, and vegetables lowered the odds.

“Hi, I’d like to order the pepperoni doughnut pizza, with prozac sprinkles.”

In addition to being typically overweight and prone to diabetes, the fast food–consuming public is suffering from depressed moods and clinical depression, as well as difficulties in concentration and learning that accompany their depressed moods. Throughout the body, excess sugar is harmful; even a single instance of elevated glucose in the bloodstream can harm the brain, resulting in slowed cognitive function and deficits in memory and attention.¹⁴ In healthy young people, a brain imaging study demonstrated that the ability to process emotion is compromised by elevated blood glucose levels.¹⁵ Increasing stimulation of the brain with calorically concentrated processed foods can lead to sadness and anxiety, and this is not restricted to people who have diabetes.

Excess sugar impairs both our cognitive skills and our self-control (that is, having a little sugar stimulates a hard-to-resist craving for more). The mixture of sugar, salt, and oil derails the ability of the body to control calories or be satisfied with normal amounts of food. Fast foods create human eating machines, that is, individuals with no caloric turnoff switch. This lack of self-control over eating food is like turning on an obesity driving switch that leads to diabetes and other life-altering diseases. Of course, the health complications that follow as a result of eating commercially baked goods and fast food magnify the emotional problems. Let me explain how this works.

Elevated blood glucose levels harm blood vessels, and blood vessel damage is the major cause of the vascular complications of diabetes. This in turn leads to damage to blood vessels in the brain and eyes, causing retinopathy, a disease of the retina that can result in blindness. Studies of long-term diabetics show progressive brain damage leading to deficits in learning, memory, motor speed, and other cognitive functions.¹⁶ This evidence not only shows that frequent exposure to high glucose levels diminishes mental capacity, but that higher glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels have been associated with an increasing degree of brain shrinkage. Even in people who don’t have diabetes, higher sugar consumption is associated with lower scores on tests of cognitive function.

Continual exposure to sweets has been shown to impair clear thinking and negatively affect behavior. One study found an increase in behavior and attention problems in 5-year-olds with increased consumption of soda.¹⁷ The researchers adjusted their findings to accommodate potential confounding factors that might affect behavior, such as hours of television watched and a stressful home environment, and they still found that the strongest association was between soda consumption and aggression, withdrawn behavior, and poor attention. And soda is not the only problem; any junk food eaten during the formative preschool years is associated with hyperactivity and attention issues.¹⁸

Glycated hemoglobin, or hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c), is a marker in the blood that indicates the average blood sugar readings over the previous few months. For people with diabetes, higher HbA1c readings are associated with a higher risk of serious diabetes complications.

Any sugar added in our food is dangerous. We can avoid these dangers by satisfying our sweet tooth with fresh fruit instead of refined sugars. Other concentrated sweeteners such as agave, honey, and maple syrup are equally dangerous and place the same glycation stress on the body. All of these sweeteners contain excessive amounts of the same basic compounds: fructose, glucose, and sucrose (fructose and glucose bound together). By eating real fresh fruit we get the satisfying sweetness and the added bonus of the fruit’s fiber, antioxidants, and phytochemicals that curtail the surge of sugar in the bloodstream and thereby block its negative effects.

Fear not!—you can make delicious desserts and even treats such as brownies and ice creams with fruits, nuts, and dried fruits that are only a little less sweet than conventional desserts (see Chapter 8).

Of course, just because fast food and baked goods contribute to mood disorders and depression doesn’t mean that other nutritional inadequacies don’t do the same. Deficiencies in EPA and DHA fatty acids are one of the other strong nutritional promoters of depression.¹⁹ These long-chain omega-3 fatty acids are commonly found in fish oil, though vegan EPA and DHA are now available from algae.

But deficiency isn’t the only problem; these two fatty acids can also be imbalanced. The commercial meats, dairy, and oils that predominate in the SAD worsen the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids, which negatively affects brain health and function. Heated vegetable oils are almost all omega-6 fats, the “bad cop.” Green vegetables, walnuts, flaxseeds, chia seeds, and seafood contain omega-3 fatty acids, the “good cop.” As you consume more fried foods and cooked foods made with oil, you pump up the omega-6 content in your body. This doesn’t just make you fat; it also increases your requirement for omega-3 fatty acids.

Fast food provides excessive amounts of omega-6 fats, but much of this fat is overheated and oxidized. Oxidation means the oils have been degraded by heat and have become rancid, producing numerous volatile, toxic compounds. Oxidation is not one single reaction but a series of complex reactions. Oxidized oils damage brain cells.²⁰ The brain is particularly sensitive to oxidized oils because it has limited antioxidant activity. These oil-generated compounds are so dangerous that even working near a deep fat fryer and inhaling the fumes is harmful. The toxic compounds produced are linked to birth defects, autoimmune disease, and cancer.²¹

Furthermore, fast food is deficient in the omega-3 fats, specifically—alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), EPA, and DHA—one more added element to the dangerous fast food pattern that primes brain disease. Omega-6 excess and omega-3 deficiency alter the composition and function of the brain and make people more prone to violence by preventing serotonin from passing between neurons.²²

The Fatty Facts

Omega-6 and omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) are essential for normal functioning of all the tissues of the body. Fatty acid deficiencies can cause dry skin, depression, and serious disease such as dementia with aging.²³

Omega-3 fatty acids are the fats that are more difficult to find in the SAD. They are found in leafy green vegetables, flaxseeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, and seafood. Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), a short-chain omega-3 fat, is the building block for the body to make EPA and DHA, which are commonly found in seafood. EPA and DHA are the longer-chain omega-3 fats that have anti-inflammatory effects and are necessary for brain growth and repair. Optimal brain function requires adequate DHA, which makes up 8 percent of the total volume of a healthy brain.

Omega-6 fatty acids are another family of PUFAs that are considered essential for the body, yet they are harmful in excess. The shortest of this class of fats (the building block) is linoleic acid (LA). Examples of oils that contain omega-6 fat are corn oil, soybean oil, and canola oil. It is generally recognized that excess omega-6 fat (in relation to omega-3 fat) is pro-inflammatory and accelerates common diseases, such as heart disease and cancer.²⁴

The SAD has way too much omega-6 fat and too little omega-3 fat, mainly because of the oils used in cooking. The average American consumes more than 400 calories a day of omega-6–rich oils. It is estimated that the modern diet has a ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids of approximately 15 to 1, but for people who eat fast food regularly, the ratio can be as dangerous as 25 to 1. Our cells, and particularly brain cells, need omega-3 fats impregnated in the cell membranes for normal function. The more omega-6 PUFAs you consume, the heavier you become and the more omega-3 PUFAs you need to consume for cell membranes to be healthy and tissue levels to be adequate.

An extremely powerful recent study showed that the saturated fat found in meat and cheese is likely the most dangerous type of fat to eat (excluding, of course, trans fats, which will be outlawed by 2018).²⁵ The researchers followed 125,000 male and female health professionals for more than thirty years, recording more than 33,000 deaths during this period. Replacing 5 percent of calories from saturated fat with polyunsaturated oils was associated with a 27 percent decrease in deaths, clearly demonstrating that saturated fat intake is more harmful than getting fats from vegetable and seed oils.

In recent years, certain studies have been publicized which concluded that greater intake of saturated fat was not associated with the risk of heart disease. However, these studies did not take into account what people were eating instead of food rich in saturated fats—often equally dangerous, high-glycemic refined carbohydrates.²⁶ These recent findings have been tremendously misinterpreted, and a huge push to deny the effect of diet on health and longevity has resulted. This misinformation is widespread and dangerous. Far too many doctors, programs, websites, and other information outlets are emphasizing these dangerous high-fat diets. Even the acclaimed cookbook author and former New York Times op-ed writer Mark Bittman declared, “Butter Is Back,” and the June 23, 2014, issue of Time magazine had “Eat Butter” on its cover.²⁷ Poor scientific studies and irresponsible media continue to propagate this dangerous myth and in turn are contributing to thousands of needless deaths.

Adding to this confusion are recent scientific studies that indicate it is not merely the saturated fats in meat and cheese that promote heart disease, but also excess omega-6 fats in oils.²⁸ When researchers investigated findings of numerous randomized controlled trials that replaced saturated fats (butter, lard, cream, etc.) with vegetable oils, they found little difference in age of death. This large and detailed analysis of earlier data demonstrated that corn oil, safflower oil, soybean oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, and even olive oil damage the arteries and increase risk of death from heart disease and lead to earlier deaths. Some people have interpreted such data to mean that saturated fats such as butter are not as bad as we thought, but the science demonstrates otherwise: Both saturated fats and excess consumption of oils high in omega-6 fatty acids are harmful. And when any of these fats or oils is consumed in conjunction with sugar (or other high-glycemic carbohydrates), the dangerous effects are multiplied dramatically.

The point is that neither saturated fats nor vegetable oils have passed the test for safety. This is even partially true for olive oil, the linchpin of the supposedly healthy Mediterranean diet. For example, the findings of a study looking at the health of blood vessel linings (the endothelium) after a meal high in olive oil had surprising results demonstrating a decline in blood flow and increase in inflammation. The lead researcher, Dr. Robert Vogel, a cardiologist at the University of Maryland Hospital, concluded from the data “that it is not the olive oil that is the vasoprotective part of the Mediterranean diet [the part that helps keep blood vessels healthy]. It is the natural antioxidants [in fruits and vegetables] and the omega-3 fatty acids.”²⁹

In contrast, consuming one’s fat mostly in the form of nuts and seeds protects the heart. When fats come from whole foods such as whole grains and nuts and seeds, instead of oils extracted from those foods, the presence of fat-binding fibers slows the absorption of the fat calories, enabling them to be burned for energy rather than stored as fat. Plus, because of the magnetic effect between the fiber and the fat in nuts and seeds, a significant amount of calories passes through the body into the toilet with that fiber and therefore is lost.³⁰

The health benefits of nuts and seeds disappear when the nuts and seeds are processed and reduced to oils, which changes a weight-favorable food (the nuts and seeds) to an obesity-promoting food (the oils). Oils are not natural foods; they are highly processed foods. This change from consuming the whole foods to consuming the processed oils derived from those foods fundamentally affects behavior on a global scale. The increase in worldwide consumption of high–omega-6 oils over the past century is a large uncontrolled experiment that has shown increased societal burdens of aggression, depression, and cardiovascular mortality.

The danger of all this oil is seen best in the U.S. South, where oil consumption and fried foods are at their worst. People there regularly eat a traditional “Southern” diet that is known for its many deep-fried foods (such as fried chicken), processed meats (like bacon and ham), sugary beverages, and biscuits and gravy. With this diet, Southerners have earned the highest rates of stroke and heart disease in the world.

The large REGARDS (Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke) study addressed this issue by following more than twenty thousand study participants. Researchers found that, compared with other parts of the United States, the area of the country encompassing Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia had a whopping 41 percent increased risk of stroke and 56 percent increased risk of heart attacks, and fried foods are highly implicated. And African Americans in these Southern states have the highest risk—an incredible 63 percent higher incidence of acute cardiovascular events compared with people who abstain from fried foods.³¹

Common cooking oils are very high in omega-6 fats and very low in omega-3 fats. Humans can make some beneficial EPA and DHA fat (a long-chain omega-3, needed for brain cell membranes) from the short-chain omega-3 found in walnuts and seeds, such as flaxseeds and chia seeds. However, omega-6 oils compete for the same conversion enzymes, so the more omega-6 consumed, the less DHA is produced by the body, and the worse the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 becomes in cell membranes.

More omega-6 intake More inflammation

Less omega-6 intake Less inflammation

Lower DHA levels also impair synthesis of serotonin, increasing the risk of depression as well as cognitive decline in the elderly.³² In the Framingham Heart Study, the top quartile of blood DHA level was associated with a 47 percent reduction in the risk of developing dementia.³³ It is important to assure adequate amounts of DHA with a dietary source of DHA, such as fish, or a supplement for those who do not consume fish regularly.

The bottom line is this: When you fry a vegetable in oil, it doesn’t count as a vegetable anymore; it’s junk food.

The consumption of unhealthy oils that are high in omega-6 fats leads to inflammation, obesity, and heart disease, yet the average American consumes more than 400 calories a day from (fiberless) oil—up 67 percent since the 1950s.³⁴ And people who eat fast foods consume considerably more oil. We also know that clinical intervention trials and animal studies indicate that increasing dietary intake of long-chain omega-3 fatty acids as well as reducing the intake of omega-6 fatty acids reduces aggressive and violent behaviors. A large study of eight hundred active military personnel who committed suicide also found that the likelihood of suicide was 62 percent higher in those with low levels of DHA.³⁵

Since 1909, per capita consumption of soybean oil has increased a thousandfold.³⁶ The homicide rate in the United States and the United Kingdom tripled between 1961 and 2000, while the percentage consumption of omega-6 oil grew by a similar amount during this period. The NIH compared homicide rates against oil consumption between 1961 and 2000 in Argentina, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.³⁷ They collected data for twelve types of oils, including soybean, corn, and canola oils, which are the most popular. A direct correlation was found between the level of oil consumption and the rate of homicide in each population.

Clearly, this link between high consumption of omega-6 oil and violence, suicide, and murder is something that should not be quickly dismissed by claiming that association does not mean causation. The evidence continues to grow showing that chronic exposure to bad food influences bad behaviors. Food plays a huge role in how we think and act, affecting brain fog, depression, mood swings, anxiety, aggression, and even the propensity for violence. There is also much evidence today demonstrating that high consumption of omega-6 oils (and sweeteners) works synergistically to damage the body and the brain.³⁸ Think of French fries or doughnuts, for example, which are just high-glycemic carbohydrates fried in oil. That’s suicide on a plate. Such foods can generate inflammation, accelerate aging, create serious autoimmune diseases such as Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis,³⁹ and have dramatic damaging effects on brain function.

Too many Americans damage their brains when they are young by eating Frankenfoods, and then as they get older they suffer from chronic diseases and premature aging and finally risk losing their minds almost completely through dementia. The constellation of factors present in and missing from the modern fast food diet, as well as deficiencies in omega-3 fatty acids, accelerates brain deterioration.

The number of new cases of Alzheimer’s disease, which is directly linked to an unhealthy diet, is expected to triple between 2010 and 2050.⁴⁵ The number of people living with dementia worldwide is currently estimated at 47.5 million and is projected to increase to 75.6 million by 2030. In the United States, compared with their Caucasian counterparts, African Americans are about two times more likely and Hispanic Americans are about one and one-half times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. African Americans and Hispanics are at much higher risk, and diet is the only factor that can account for these differences; no known genetic factors can explain the greater prevalence of Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia in these two populations. Alzheimer’s is a disease that is often diagnosed late in life. We now know that it is also a progressive ailment that is present and can be predicted from mild cognitive and emotional problems decades before diagnosis.

Omega-3 and omega-6 are both fatty acids; they are very similar, but their effects on the brain are very different. The cell membranes in the brain are made out of DHA. When we don’t have adequate reserves, the body will substitute an omega-6 molecule called docosapentaenoic acid (DPA), which is similar to DHA.⁴⁶ Even though DHA and DPA are interchangeable, they are not identical. DHA is more flexible than DPA. This property is called membrane fluidity and is very important for proper cell function. In the brain, these membranes surround the neuron and allow more neurochemical signals to get passed back and forth. DHA-impregnated membranes allow more nutrients to get into cells and more toxins to get out. High levels in the brain of n-6 DPA are associated with poorer cognitive function.⁴⁷

Humans are extremely adaptable. Ideally, we should consume healthy amounts of both short-chain omega-3 ALA and the longer chain DHA, as well as EPA through our diet or high-quality supplements. But when this is not possible, our genes are intelligent enough to make use of omega-6 fatty acids. This comes at a price, however, because omega-6 triggers inflammation and alters the composition of our brains in unfavorable ways.

WHAT YOU EAT AFFECTS YOUR PERSONALITY, AND YOUR PERSONALITY AFFECTS WHAT YOU EAT

Studies confirm that children who consume a superior diet perform better academically compared with those who are nutrient deficient.⁴⁸ Well-fed children are also less hyperactive, less moody, and better behaved.⁴⁹ Furthermore, recent research has documented that increasing consumption of vegetables and fruits can significantly elevate psychological well-being and people’s “happiness levels.”⁵⁰ This study is one of the first major scientific attempts to explore psychological well-being beyond the traditional findings that more fruits and vegetables can reduce the risks of cancer and heart attacks. Researchers followed more than twelve thousand randomly selected individuals for more than two years. Happiness benefits were detected for each extra portion of fruit and vegetables consumed, up to eight portions a day. They found that people who changed from consuming almost no fruits and vegetables to consuming eight portions a day experienced an increase in life satisfaction that was equivalent to moving from unemployment and poverty to employment and financial adequacy. This improvement in a sense of well-being occurred within twenty-four months.

This study ran in conjunction with the Australian Go for 2&5 campaign, which promoted the consumption of two portions of fruit and five portions of vegetables per day. Commenting on the findings, Dr. Redzo Mujcic, one of the researchers from the University of Queensland, said: “Perhaps our results will be more effective than traditional messages in convincing people to have a healthy diet. There is psychological payoff now from fruits and vegetables—not just a lower health risk decades later.”⁵¹

Scientists at the Scripps Research Institute in Florida found that feeding rats junk food progressively degraded their brains’ reward systems.⁵² They tested two groups of rats: One was fed a diet of high-fat, high-calorie foods, and the other received a normal diet. The rats fed the unhealthy diet quickly became obese, less active, and developed a preference for unhealthy foods. But more significantly, the structure of their brains changed. The number of dopamine neuroreceptors in the brains of the junk food rats plummeted, and some areas of the brain shrank, decreasing learning capacity.⁵³ At mealtimes, mild electric shocks were administered to all rats. The rats fed the normal diet immediately stopped eating, but the rats eating junk food continued eating even while they were being shocked. They had become desensitized and compulsive. This relates to how fast food induces compulsive eating, and the diminished brain function, in turn, affects how poor eaters behave socially.

Like the rats fed fast food, too many Americans have diminished dopamine function as a result of overconsumption of junk food. They also experience diminished chemosensory perception, which means that they are less able to smell and taste. This is especially evident in the elderly, who have a reduced ability to enjoy the subtle flavors of real foods, so they become more reliant on using salt and sugar to boost flavors.⁵⁴ Alzheimer’s patients show even greater olfactory deficits than other elderly, an effect related to the degree of dementia. Our inability to enjoy healthy foods is linked to alterations in the brain that ultimately become permanent as we progress toward dementia. It is a direct consequence of an impaired metabolism caused by an unhealthy diet. It is ironic that eating unhealthy foods damages us in a way that makes healthy eating unappealing. The good news is that we can recover, but that recovery requires conscious effort because of the way in which unhealthy diets alter our personalities and taste preferences.

After chronic overstimulation with concentrated and rapidly absorbed calories, we develop cravings. Eventually, after habitually eating fast food, the enjoyment that we once had from eating these foods weakens and instead we experience cravings—that intense desire that is so difficult to satisfy. Interestingly, this loss of self-control in eating and the loss of self-control that impulsively violent people experience have similar causes. Unhealthy diets simultaneously impair the function of dopamine, serotonin, and other neurotransmitters in the brain, and these changes correlate with anger and violence in both animal studies and human studies.⁵⁵ People who consume an unhealthy fast food diet have less self-control, have a reduced ability to control food intake, and also are more hostile and easily angered. Unnatural Frankenfoods destroy us from the inside out and affect how we treat each other. In contrast, a healthy diet with adequate phytochemicals, nutritional diversity, and omega-3 fatty acids elevates serotonin levels and normalizes receptor sensitivity, which can improve mood and eliminate the need to eat for emotional reasons.⁵⁶

Human intelligence is higher, on average, in some places than in others around the world. Scientists analyzed IQ scores from 113 countries worldwide and found lower scores in countries with higher exposure to parasites and infectious disease, especially when such diseases impact nutrition during vulnerable periods of brain growth and development. Parasites often create micronutrient deficiencies in the host. The health and nutritional status of a region is the single largest determinant of the intelligence of its population; and aside from widespread infection and parasites, the single largest determinant of regional health is diet. Poor diet is a problem we can solve if we put our minds to it. Populations that have reduced infectious parasites and have instituted better sanitation and better nutrition have already seen higher scores on IQ tests in subsequent generations.⁵⁷

The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC), hosted by the University of Bristol, demonstrated that the micronutrient content of a diet plays a vital role in the development of childhood intelligence. The U.K. study started in the early 1990s, when more than fourteen thousand pregnant women were examined, followed by the long-term outcomes of their offspring. Researchers found that intelligence, measured by a Wechsler Intelligence Scale IQ test, was significantly affected by the quality of diet. Toddlers in this study who consumed a healthier diet had higher IQs by 8.5 years of age compared with those who consumed a low-nutrient diet.⁵⁸ Those who ate more junk food and fewer fresh fruits and vegetables also had more behavioral problems by age 7.⁵⁹ The fact that early childhood nutrition can have lifelong consequences indicates that nutrients affect the expression of genes that govern brain development.⁶⁰

Other studies have corroborated such results. An eye-opening 2015 study demonstrated that improved diet and more physical activity during adolescence predicted better verbal intelligence in early adulthood.⁶¹ This means that nutrition (and exercise) has positive effects on physical health, brain health, and intelligence in later life and it is not only the diet eaten during the first five years of life that determines ultimate intelligence.

Ninety percent of lunches packed at home contain desserts, chips, and sweetened beverages that would not pass muster to be served at schools under new nutritional guidelines. With $700 million a year spent on marketing fast food to kids, nearly one in three American children between the ages of 2 and 14 eats fast food daily. This is especially relevant in light of a recent study of twelve thousand students between fifth and eighth grades that showed those who ate processed and fast foods had the worst skills in math, reading, and science. The researchers concluded that “high levels of fast food consumption are predictive of slower growth in academic skills.”⁶²

Let’s stop for a moment to reflect on this scientific data: The junk food diets that our children eat directly affect their academic performance. And yet, fast food is being served to kids at breakfast, lunch, and dinner all around the country. It is high time that this information becomes public knowledge so that we can change these accepted “normal” patterns.

Children who do not eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables lack protection and are more vulnerable to many serious diseases. We know that diets rich in leafy green vegetables and fruits are anti-inflammatory because the wide array of protective antioxidants and phytochemicals work to counteract inflammation and prevent autoimmune disease, but this same biological effect also counters free radical activity in the brain benefiting brain function.⁶³ Infants who consume fruits, vegetables, and home-prepared meals have been shown to have higher verbal IQs and better memory performance by 4 years of age.⁶⁴

Excellent nutrition has positive effects on intelligence, and fast foods and junk foods have powerful negative effects on intelligence. A 2012 study showed that fast foods and high-fat foods, such as hamburgers, onion rings, oily pizzas, and other regularly consumed fast foods, scar the brain and damage the hypothalamus in both rodents and humans.⁶⁵ In school-age children, low-nutrient diets that include fast food and fried foods are linked to the poorest academic performance.⁶⁶ Unfortunately, the fast food–inflamed brain results in detrimental effects continuing into adulthood.⁶⁷

Many people know that these types of diets are the recipe for obesity, diabetes, and heart disease, but it is not as well-known that our fast food environment leads to a continuing cycle of destruction inside the brain. Subtle brain damage routinely occurs in childhood, leading to a poor-quality life. Then, if one lives long enough, dementia happens with aging. Thus, opportunity and happiness are ruined along the full spectrum of life.

PARENTS ARE THE MAJOR CULPRITS IN LOWERING THEIR CHILDREN’S INTELLECTUAL POTENTIAL

The amount of scientific evidence is irrefutable that junk food, candy, soft drinks, fast food, and commercial baked goods damage the brain. Unfortunately, well-meaning parents and grandparents are the biggest culprits, poisoning the health and future intellect of the nation’s children. Children don’t shop and buy their own food. Adults reward children with doughnuts and chips for playing well in sports; adults support their children’s Halloween candy collections; adults make holiday cookies and cakes; adults take their children on fast food excursions—lots of traditional American practices and social norms damage the brains of our precious children. It is time to change this, especially because the right food choices lead to higher intelligence, emotional stability, and happiness.

It is not only the diet early in life that affects intelligence and mental health; fast food that mothers consume before giving birth affects the mental health of their offspring. Conduct problems and ADHD often exist together and are linked to both fast foods eaten early in life and the prenatal diet of mothers. Such problems include antisocial behavior, the inability to follow rules, bullying, fighting, cruelty to others or animals, stealing, and poor performance in school. These problems are associated with diets high in oils and sugar during pregnancy.⁶⁸ Abnormal DNA methylation within the brain, leading to poor learning capacity and antisocial behavior, can accumulate both during pregnancy and in early childhood in response to fast food.

Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by severe deficits in intellect, socialization, verbal and nonverbal communication, and behavior. Since the 1960s prevalence rates of this disorder have increased dramatically; this increase cannot be explained entirely by changes in diagnosis practices, with one in sixty-eight U.S. children now affected, according the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Methylation defects refer to carbon-based molecules that attach to sites on our cells’ DNA, altering the function of the DNA; as these defects accumulate, cells become more prone to abnormal function and eventually cancer. Even childhood leukemia and brain cancer in children has been linked to the unhealthful diet their mothers eat not only during pregnancy, but also before conception.⁶⁹ Someday in the near future, obstetricians won’t advise against just drugs, cigarettes, and alcohol—fast food will be equally off-limits.

Fast food intake, obesity, and diabetes have also risen to epidemic levels in women of reproductive age over the same time period. Though the link between fast food and obesity and diabetes is well-established, it is not common knowledge that fast food exposure is linked to autism as well. Fast food, maternal obesity, and pregestational diabetes have all been shown to be associated with autism—each as an independent risk factor—but in combination the risk is more pronounced, increasing more than fourfold.⁷⁰ Our nation’s eating habits are simply damaging the brains of the children of the next generation, even before they have their first fast food meal.

A randomized, placebo-controlled trial in a British prison tested the association between antisocial behavior and nutritional status. Compared with the test group, prisoners whose diets were supplemented with vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids had 26 percent fewer reports of antisocial behavioral incidents.⁷¹ A research team in the Netherlands replicated the study and had similar results.⁷² Findings were also similar at a high school for troubled youth. When candy and soda were removed from the school and better food was made available, negative behaviors such as vandalism, drug and weapons violations, dropout and expulsion rates, and suicide attempts became virtually nonexistent.⁷³ After decades of studies, it appears that the hypothesis that nutrition and violence are related is gaining momentum. A 2009 article in Science about diet and violence in prisons quotes behavioral psychologist Iver Mysterud saying, “The [nutrition-violence] effect is obviously real and it has been researched for 30 years; the policy implications are obvious: Get rid of sugar and highly processed foods, improve the diet.” This joins the chorus of others recommending that prisoners with nutritional imbalances and deficiencies receive supplements of minerals, vitamins, and fatty acids.⁷⁴

It’s becoming more and more clear that the consumption of sweets and fast food in childhood is associated with violence and crime in adulthood. In 2009, a British study showed a powerful association between candy consumption in childhood and violence in adulthood. Researchers found that children who were fed more candy at age 10 were significantly more likely to be convicted of a violent crime by age 34; this relationship was found to be robust even when controlling for environmental and other individual factors. Not even economic hardship, parental attitudes, education, and personality traits in early life showed as strong a correlation with adult violent crime as did eating candy.⁷⁵ It’s time for parents to rethink the practice of rewarding their children with junk food and candy. And don’t forget Halloween—the ultimate junk food orgy. This is akin to recreational drug use for the young.

Illicit drug use, another major problem in some urban areas, is directly linked to nutrient-related dysfunction in the brain. Studies show that substance abusers are malnourished.⁷⁶ Former addicts who received drug counseling combined with nutrition education had significantly better outcomes than those given counseling alone.⁷⁷ The fact that drug users are malnourished doesn’t prove that malnutrition led to their drug use; however, the fact that good nutrition enhances recovery suggests that the lack of nutrition contributes, and more evidence is accumulating every day. More and more scientists are coming to the conclusion that eating fast food can lead to changes in brain chemistry that can increase addiction and drug-seeking behavior later.⁷⁸ The issue here is high sugar consumption, and fast food functions as a “gateway drug” to harder, more powerful brain-altering chemicals. This is especially critical today when you consider that about half the people in federal prisons were incarcerated for nonviolent, drug-related offenses.⁷⁹

Well-known musician Eric Clapton has said that his drug addiction started with sugar: “It [the pattern of addiction] started with sugar. When I was 5 or 6 years old I was cramming sugar down my throat as fast as I could get it down. Sweets, you know, sugar on bread and butter . . . I became addicted to sugar because it changed the way I felt.”⁸⁰

A brain under nutritional stress seeks ongoing stimulation, creating the increasing tendency for dependence on sugar, alcohol, and drugs. As the brain’s health deteriorates, susceptibility to chemical stimulation with junk food, alcohol, and legal and illegal drugs as a means of coping with a difficult life increases. Fast food keeps our nation sick and it keeps our poor people poor; they become unable to escape the cycle of poverty and face reduced achievement in their lives. In order to solve this problem of disease, crime, and the disenfranchisement of a segment of our population, we must assure that everyone is aware of these issues, has access to healthy food, and understands the importance of eating healthfully. Equal opportunity can only begin with the gift of a healthy brain.

Diabetes, heart disease, and cancer are recognized diseases linked to diet. In sharp contrast, increased aggression, reduced learning capacity, and depression are not generally recognized as diet-related problems because the effects are subtle. Consequently, the only way to fully grasp the dangers of an unhealthy diet is to examine the extreme behavioral effects on large populations. Not everyone who eats unhealthy foods gets cancer; likewise, not everyone who is disruptive, less forgiving, and has a decreased ability to concentrate becomes a violent criminal. Fewer than five people out of one hundred thousand commit murder in any given year. To understand the effects of bad diet on criminal behavior, we have to look at large studies encompassing entire populations.

Of course, food is not the only factor implicated in violence and drug use, but it is the most overlooked, and possibly the most important, factor in this equation. High rates of violence and crime are not only problems in urban inner cities. A less publicized crime problem prevails in the American South to this day. According to FBI crime statistics, the Southern region of the United States experiences violence at rates nearly double that of the Northeast, which includes high-crime cities such as Camden, New Jersey; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; and New York City.⁸¹ According to 1993 crime data, white males in the rural areas of the South were about four times more likely to commit homicide than white males living in the Mid-Atlantic region.⁸² These days, increased violence in these rural areas continues, and they can be considered food deserts because the diet is so poor. There is a cluster of 644 counties in fifteen states, mainly in the Southeast, where diabetes is so prevalent that the area has been called the “diabetes belt.”⁸³ It is precisely the same region that has the bulk of violent crimes. The numbers tell the story. In areas where diets are worse and diabetes rates are higher, so are rates of violent crime.

A 2015 study by the CDC found that vegetable and fruit consumption was consistently lower in Southeastern states compared with the rest of the country.⁸⁴ Overall, 13.1 percent of Americans ate the recommended amount of fruit; Tennesseans consumed the least, with only 7.5 percent meeting recommended levels compared with nearly 18 percent of Californians. Fewer than 9 percent of Americans met recommendations for vegetable intake; the state with the lowest number was Mississippi, with 5.5 percent compared with California, where 13 percent of the population ate vegetables. These statistics are even more shocking when one considers the fact that the government’s recommendations for fruit and vegetable consumption are too low to guarantee superior health and hence optimal brain function.

International studies comparing health differences in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia found that disparities in birth weights existed between the highest- and lowest-income groups.⁸⁵ However, the disparities in the United States were the most pronounced of all the countries studied; low birth weights were consistently associated with low-income levels. The poor diet of the have-nots is more pronounced in our country, and this is not just observed in inner cities, but also among rural communities.⁸⁶

Correlational data such as the established relationship discussed above between high oil intake, sugar, and crime do not signify cause and effect, and certainly there are other contributory factors to the development of chronic diseases, brain disease, and personality. More comprehensive studies performed with proper methodology are needed and will be invaluable. However, the lack of conclusive evidence should not permit the continuation of nutritional negligence keeping communities prisoned in a stressful and unhealthful life. The concept that behavior, mental health, intellectual potential, and aggression are separate from the parameters affecting bodily health is illogical, and even ridiculous.

Some of the most intractable problems we face in the United States are the result of subtle brain damage that goes largely unnoticed because we don’t associate problems in the brain with unhealthy diets. The SAD is making too many of us prone to chronic depression, anger, impaired decision-making, and diminished learning capacity. These are, in fact, early signs of dementia, but they are also the symptoms of a society that has been fundamentally altered by its diet. Clearly, this area deserves substantial funding support for further scientific research, but this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t act now on the information we already have available. This crisis deserves urgent action because poor nutrition leaves a wide path of human suffering.

Imagine if we could significantly increase intelligence and reduce poverty and crime by simply changing how people eat. This is not such an unreasonable dream. Malnutrition not only prevents ex-offenders, drug addicts, and truants from turning their lives around, but it is probably the reason they went astray in the first place. Our failure as a society to consider the evidence and confront this fast food genocide makes us like proverbial lemmings that see the abyss but still march off the cliff.