Fast Food Genocide

by Dr. Joel Fuhrman

  Certainly, we have the capacity and basic human dignity to put an end to tragic suffering and needless death. But to do this, we must work together to stop the self-destructive human behaviors that hijack human cravings and drives, such as drug addiction and food addiction.

  Today, ignorance about fast foods and nutrition is a major killer of humans, both in our country and across the globe. It is a steadily worsening problem that is emotionally maiming our population and creating economic chaos. The next chapter explains this in more depth as we consider “The Brain on Fast Food.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  THE BRAIN ON FAST FOOD

  Wherever there is a human being there is an opportunity for kindness.

  —SENECA

  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.

  The American Pie

  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.

  THE BRAIN UTILIZES HUNDREDS OF MICRONUTRIENTS AND PHYTOCHEMICALS

  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 th
at 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.

  FAST FOOD AND DEPRESSION

  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.

  FAST FOOD DESTROYS THE BRAIN

  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).

  COMPOSITION OF SWEETENERS

  THE OILING OF THE BRAIN

  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 negative
ly 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