Fast Food Genocide

by Dr. Joel Fuhrman

  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.

  FAST FOOD PROMOTES THE USE OF ILLEGAL DRUGS AND CRIME

  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
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br />   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.

  “Heroin was my gateway drug!”

  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.

  THE HAVE-NOTS IN AMERICA LIVE ON FAST FOOD

  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.

  CHAPTER THREE

  LET FOOD BE THY MEDICINE

  When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?

  —ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN MAYNARD KEYNES

  What we eat matters.
I hope I have made this very clear, having covered the ways in which fast food has created a sickly nation and perpetuated medical dependence. I have discussed the ways in which high-fat processed foods are dangerously addictive and negatively affect our poorest communities the most radically. And I also have delved deep into how nutrient-lacking food affects the brain and results in life-altering behavioral changes.

  But there is good news. We can end this genocide. We can take back our lives from the tyranny of fast foods permeating the globe. But first let’s take a moment to look at how nutrient-rich foods save lives.

  The facts about nutrition have changed in recent years. Fortunately, we now have on hand hundreds of thousands of studies with clear evidence that nutritional excellence can effectively prevent disease and extend the human life span. Unfortunately, only a very small percentage of people take advantage of these life-giving findings.

  Recent discoveries in nutritional science have revealed that it is not merely excess sugar, white flour, and oils that accelerate aging and premature death; too many animal products in the diet can also have detrimental effects. It has been well-established that as animal protein is consumed in higher amounts, particularly above 10 percent of total calories, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) levels rise. IGF-1 is a growth-promoting hormone that, at higher levels, can promote aging, cell replication, cancer, and the spread of cancer.1 With levels of animal products approaching 30 percent of calories, IGF-1 levels can run dangerously high, accelerating the development of both cancer and heart disease.