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Email can be sent to:
let@transparencynow.com
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Overview:
Sugar, Junk Food and Mental Illness
How
What We Eat Is Changing Who We Are
When I go about the tasks of daily life, I encounter people all the time who
are visibly suffering from a range of psychological problems, including
anxiety, anger and depression. Their problems clearly inflict emotional
suffering on them, and often complicate the lives of people who interact
with them.
I also see people consuming large quantities of ice
cream, soft drinks, and other junk foods. In fact, I see so much of this
kind of addictive eating, it is almost as if society has become a giant
feeding center, in which many people now spend their day in a state of oral
dependence on recreational foods.
But something needs to be said to
the tens of millions of people who now fit this description. Please, stop
and think about what you are doing, because there is a connection between
the foods you are eating and many of the psychological problems you suffer
from. These foods don’t only make people obese, and give them a range of
medical conditions, including diabetes and heart disease. They also damage
people’s brains, and other aspects of their physical functioning, in ways
that cause people to suffer a host of psychological problems, from emotional
vulnerability to feeling numb to the world.
Science doesn’t yet
understand how most of this works, although the influence that foods have on
hormones, and especially on the neurotransmitters in the brain, clearly has
a lot to do with it. What seems likely is that the physical changes set in
motion by unhealthy food are releasing dysfunctional parts of the brain,
which then interfere with who we are in the inner sanctum of ourselves.
In fact, eating an unhealthy diet probably initiates biochemical changes
that activate the “Freudian” unconscious, so we end up reenacting the real
and imagined problems of childhood in our adult lives. That means Freud was
half right after all -- the unconscious is real and it is a source of all
kinds of problems, but only if we make ourselves vulnerable by having an
apple pie dessert after a fast food lunch.
It also means that
conventional psychotherapy can only help many people to a limited degree, no
matter how much insight, motivation and bonding with the therapist it
provides. In fact, we have a situation in which people are being made sick
by an addiction to unhealthy food and are then trying to cure themselves
with psychotherapy, pharmaceutical drugs, meditation, motivational-self-help
approaches and other means. All may do some good. But what will really alleviate many people's psychological suffering
is adopting healthier diets with less sugar and calories, and making other
changes such as exercising and losing weight. They will then find that their
psychological symptoms are greatly improved, as the quality of their
experience gets richer and they begin to deal with life’s problems more
effectively. They will still have the potential for psychological problems
in the brain, but the problems will no longer be active.
Unfortunately we don’t have any way to know right now
how many people this will help. There are certainly also a lot of people who
have something wrong with the brain and body that can’t be fixed by eating
healthier food or adopting other good habits.
One of the things we do
know is that many of the foods being sold today are doing profound harm to
people’s health. For example, largely as a result of unhealthy food
it is
estimated that, as of 2008, almost 1.5 billion adults in the world were
overweight, and another half billion were obese. In America, about
one in
three children are now overweight or obese.
The source of the problem
is also clear: the marketplace is driving food companies to manufacture and
market addictive foods, packed with sweeteners, salt and fat, and refined
carbs, and often filled with calories. After all, that’s the way to maximize
profits. And if one company doesn’t do it, others will, and they will then
dominate the market.
The former head of the Food and Drug
Administration, Dr. David Kessler, provides crucial insights into how this
works in his book,
The End of Overeating: Taking Control of the Insatiable
American Appetite. He says that food manufacturers and chain restaurants
have become expert at stimulating our brains with food products full of
sugar, fat, and salt, to create a state of “conditioned hypereating” in
which we keep seeking more because it is rewarding.
“Chronic
exposure to highly palatable foods changes our brains, conditioning us to
seek continued stimulation. Over time, a powerful drive for a combination of
sugar, fat, and salt competes with our conscious capacity to say no,”
Kessler writes.
The end result is that a lot of people are now
addicted to unhealthy foods, while they lead sedentary lives “consuming”
what is on electronic screens, which all too frequently try to sell them
these same foods. Other addictions -- to alcohol and many kinds of drugs --
are damaging people psychologically, as well.
It isn’t an
exaggeration to say that all of this unhealthy food is literally changing
the character of America and other countries. It is making people sick,
taking away their edge, and undoubtedly contributing to the growing climate
of incivility in America.
So if President Obama is looking for a
signature issue that will make America and the world a better place, here it
is. First Lady Michelle Obama has already made fighting childhood obesity a
signature issue for herself, with an excellent campaign called “Let’s Move!”
And the president has created a task force, also on combating childhood
obesity. But it’s going to take a lot to fight this problem, in both
children and adults.
We now need the president -- and leaders in
many fields -- to put this issue before the public, with a national
education campaign that involves schools, doctors and the media. We need
doctors throughout the country to post information on food addiction and its
consequences in visible locations, such as waiting rooms, and to fully alert
their patients to these issues.
And we need easy-to-read warning
labels on that package of Twinkies and that giant bag of potato chips,
letting people know that these foods are potentially injurious or addictive,
along with strong new restrictions on food advertising to children.
What would not be acceptable in America is laws that interfere with people’s
right to eat and buy what they choose. That means no “fat” taxes on
unhealthy foods to discourage their purchase, which would put a financial
burden primarily on people with limited incomes. Banning foods isn’t a good
solution for America either, since this would put government in the position
of telling people what they can eat.
One obvious exception involves
dangerous ingredients that can easily be replaced. For example, we need
tough laws worldwide against the trans-fats used in fast foods and processed
foods.
Ultimately, the kind of societies many of us live in, filled
with the marketing of addictive foods, will need to change, if we want to
protect humanity from more obesity, diabetes, and heart disease -- and from
the psychological illnesses that sugar and addictive marketing are now
causing. The food companies that adapt to these changes and offer healthier
fare will be the ones in the best position to prosper. And the countries
that are willing to put the brakes on addictive marketing will have a big
advantage over those that don’t, both in their productivity and in the
quality of the lives of their people.
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The longer essay:
The Truth About Mental
Illness: How Knowing About the Hidden Connection Between Food and the
Unconscious Could Set You Free
External links:
The Hypoglycemic
Health Association of Australia
Mental disorders,
from Wikipedia
Mental illness
at NAMI
Understanding Mental Illness
Mental
Illness
Mental Illness described by the Stanford
Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Mental
illness described by medicinenet.com
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The purpose of this essay is to provide information, and help point to a
new direction for medicine, psychotherapy and our understanding of mind and
body. This essay doesn’t provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment, nor
does it substitute for help from qualified doctors and other health care
professionals. The writer also isn't a health care professional or
psychotherapist of any kind. If you need professional attention, or if your
health or safety may be in danger, you should contact the appropriate
professionals without delay. You should also consult health care providers
and other appropriate professionals before taking a course of action that
could affect your health, and be aware that actions affecting health can
have unforeseen and undesirable consequences.
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Image by Alastair Thompson from Somerville (Harvest Uploaded by Leyo)
[CC-BY-SA-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia
Commons.
Copyright © 1996-2012
Ken Sanes
On file with the U.S. Copyright Office
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