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Our Food Causes Mental Illness |
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If it doesn't kill us - with the dramatically higher rate of cancers, leukemia, heart and many other deadly diseases in the Western world (as described in these pages) - medical researchers have now found that our daily food could make hundreds of thousands of us mentally ill.
The recent large increase in the incidence of Attention Deficit Disorder, of Hyper Activity and Autism in our children bears this out. |
Finally, and after all these years, scientists are beginning to come around to what I have said since 1986 - although they still remain largely ignorant of the crucially vital importance of the complete natural range of the 72 trace elements in our daily food.
This time it's the Omega-3 fatty acids which have been found to be lacking in our daily food, and which is now severely affecting normal brain development in our unborns, babies and children. Omega-3 acids make up the sheathing around nerves in our bodies and brains, are a major factor in the speed with which neurons react, and are responsible for forming large lattices of complex links among neurons in the brain.
In its first year of life, the brain of a newborn doubles in size, and continues to grow until the onset of puberty, when development switches to sexual development. Consequently, children especially need large amounts of the Omega-3 fatty acids in their daily nutrition.
Human mother's milk was therefore rich in Omega-3 fatty acids - and so was the milk of mammals such as cows, pigs, and sheep, etc. since the offspring of these animals need Omega-3 fatty acids for the healthy growth of their nervous systems and brains just as much as we do.
These livestock used to obtain the Omega-3 fatty acids from grass and from hay, and grass fed livestock still has high levels of Omega-3 fatty acids, as do wild buffalo, bison and other wild grazing animals.
However, most of our beef, pork, mutton and fowl now comes from grain fed livestock, and is consequently severely deficient in the Omega-3 fatty acids. With the exception of walnuts, there are no Omega-3 fatty acids in seeds.
Cow's milk used to be a great source of Omega-3 fatty acids as a calf needs even more of these fatty acids than we do since it rapidly outgrows a human child. There is a huge difference in size between a two year-old toddler, and a two year-old calf, and consequently, in the size of their nervous systems. Therefore, milk and dairy products from grass fed dairy cattle are still a great source of the Omega-3 fatty acids.
Insist, whenever possible, on grass fed beef and mutton, dairy products from grass fed dairy cows, and on free range pork and poultry to safeguard your sanity, and that of your children. |
Original Article:
Food Defect Could Make Thousands Mentally Ill
Factory farming has denied us chemicals in our diet that are vital to brain development, warn scientists. Hundreds of thousands of people in Britain are at risk of developing mental disease over the next few decades because their food lacks a key range of chemicals.
This dramatic warning was outlined by international researchers when they gathered in Britain in June 2004 to discuss new studies which show modern diets are deficient in substances called omega-3s. Intensive farming methods, increased use of breakfast cereals and the widespread use of sunflower oils have led to a dangerous change in our diets, say researchers.
They have discovered that deficiencies of the omega-3s -- substances that are critical to brain development -- are linked to behavioural problems among children and depression among adults.
"We are facing a health crisis more serious and more dangerous than that posed by obesity in the West," said Professor Michael Crawford, of the University of North London. "These studies are very worrying," added Crawford, a keynote speaker at the annual congress of the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids (ISSL) held in Brighton.
Two key forms of fatty acids are involved in human diet. One set are the omega-3s, which are found in the meat of animals and fowl, such as cattle and chicken, which graze on grass, and in vegetables such as broccoli and cabbage. The second version are known as omega-6s, found in cereals and in the meat of animals fed on cereals.
In the past, diets contained balanced amounts of these chemicals. However, omega-6s have increasingly come to dominate the shelves of food stores, as farmers have fed more and more cattle on grain, and food manufacturers have turned to the use of sunflower and other similar oils. As a result, Western nations now have serious - and worrying - dietary imbalances.
In the brain, omega-3s and omega-6s act as building blocks for the membranes that surround our neurones. However, omega-3 lipids are considered particularly important for this task.
"Individuals that are omega-3 rich end up with neurones that run very fast - like Pentium 3 microprocessors," said Professor Tom Sanders, of the Nutrition, Foods and Health Research Centre at King's College London. "Those that have too much omega-6 are slow and sluggish, like a 20-year-old silicon chip."
Omega-3-rich cells also make more complex links with other neurones, scientists have found, and this lattice of nerve connections forms the basis of our intelligence. The last three months of pregnancy and the first six weeks after birth are particularly critical for laying down these brain cell lattices.
"Omega-3 fats are therefore essential in the diets of pregnant women for the healthy development of brain, retina and nervous tissue in the unborn child," said Dr Ray Rice, of the ISSL.
This point is underlined by a newly completed analysis of the replies of 14,500 families who took part in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. This study has found that pregnant women who had diets low in omega-3s - which are also found in high levels in fish - and high in omega-6s had an increased risk of depression.
Their children were more likely to suffer problems with coordination and behaviour and come in the bottom quarter of their class in verbal IQ tests. Other studies have produced similar results, suggesting low omega-3 diets during pregnancy can result in children who are more aggressive and have more behaviour problems.
Similarly, Dr Christine Albert, of Harvard University Medical School - who revealed results of her research at the conference - has found that the risk of a heart attack is greatest in individuals whose omega-3 levels have dropped below 4 per cent of the fatty acids found in red blood cells. Those with a level greater than 8 per cent face the least risk of an attack.
Omega-3 is therefore critical to human well-being, scientists have told the congress. However, they also warn that the levels of Omega-3 in diets have decreased dramatically, as food production and diets have changed.
Consumption of fish - which are also rich in omega-3s - has decreased, and intensive farming has meant that fewer cows and poultry are left to graze on grass and are fed on cereals rich in omega-6s. These fatty acids are not bad for a person, researchers stress. Indeed, they have important roles to play in our diets. However, their overwhelming prevalence in our foodstuffs is completely swamping omega-3s.
Studies suggest that the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3 should be between equality and four to one, a pattern typified by those who live on Mediterranean diets rich in fresh fruit and vegetables, fish, olive oil and garlic, and low in meat. By contrast, normal Western diets, with their high cereal content, now have ratios of between 11 to one and 40 to one.
Some changes in diet could be helped by encouraging people to eat more fish and British lamb, which is from animals fed on grass as opposed to cereal-fed Spanish livestock.
These options are relatively expensive, so researchers are also pressing for omega-3 additives to be introduced into many staple foods, although there are ethical and practical problems, for example in putting fish extracts into foods that vegetarians might eat. "We have to do something, nevertheless," said Crawford. "This outlook is really very scary"
Robin McKie, science editor - The Observer
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 - Sunday June 27, 2004
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The information contained in this website is not intended nor implied to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment by a qualified professional. The information on this site is presented as a public service only and for the sole purpose of outlining and disseminating general information about a massive and powerful nutritional breakthrough in our collective and individual health. By presenting this information, this web site is NOT providing any medical or health care advice. Anything anyone does is entirely and completely at their own risk, and should only be undertaken with the knowledge and under the supervision of their physician.
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