Nearly everywhere you go (schools, work, shopping malls, movie theaters, airports, ballparks, and so on) someone is trying to sell you low-quality, tasty food that will hurt your brain health/mental health and kill you early. The Standard American Diet (SAD) is filled with pro-inflammatory, allergenic foods laced with artificial chemicals that research shows will damage and prematurely age your brain and increase your risk for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and cancer as well as depression, ADHD, anxiety disorders, and dementia.
Know the 9 Characteristics of Destructive Foods
The real weapons of mass destruction are foods that have these 9 characteristics:
- Highly processed
- Pesticide sprayed
- High glycemic (spikes blood sugar)
- Low fiber
- Food-like substances
- Artificially colored and sweetened
- Laden with hormones
- Tainted with antibiotics
- Stored in plastic containers
How Corporations Have Weaponized Your Food
These low-quality “foods” are destroying the brain health/mental health of America, especially when you consider that corporations pay big money to professional athletes and coaches to visibly drink Coke, Pepsi, or Gatorade (all filled with sugar, artificial colors, and preservatives) on the sidelines of games, effectively marketing these products to children and teens.
They also get children hooked on so-called “happy meals” with fun toys that create diabesity (a combination of diabetes and obesity) and inflammation—definitely not a prescription for happiness. Many schools serve Pizza Hut or McDonald’s for lunch—foods that can give you brain fog and make it harder to concentrate on learning. Not so smart! Without thinking, we are destroying the mental and physical health of our children.
Feeding Addictions
Many corporations brag about the addictive nature of their foods, “Bet you can’t eat just one.” They hire food scientists to combine fat, sugar, and salt with the perfect “texture,” “crunchiness,” “meltiness,” and “aroma” to overwhelm the brain with flavor to trigger the “bliss point” in your brain, which is akin to taking a hit of cocaine, making you literally fall in love with low-quality foods.
This is one of the reasons why people say they “love” candy, doughnuts, pastries, French fries, and bread, and can’t even conceive of giving them up. They are not eating to live; they are eating for momentary pleasure and to feed addictions that were artificially created for a corporate profit motive. Some people are so addicted they say they would rather get Alzheimer’s disease than give up sugar.
We must do better because our children will never be able to afford the tsunami of illness headed their way. Shocking statistics show that 75% of the healthcare dollars in the U.S. are spent on chronic preventable illnesses, most of which are driven by poor nutrition.
The Depressing Effect of Fast Food
In a fascinating study about diet and depression in Nutritional Neuroscience, researchers went to two remote islands in Australia—one with plentiful fast food and lower fish consumption, the other without fast food and higher fish consumption. On the island with fast food, 16% of the people had moderate-to-severe depression, compared to only 3% on the island without fast food. That is a 500% increased risk of depression, based on diet!
Only Love Foods That Love You Back
Being in love with something that hurts you is an abusive relationship that needs serious intervention. No food of any kind belongs in the same emotional place in your brain as the love you have for your spouse, children, or grandchildren.
The most important rule to remember is to only love foods that love you back. If you can follow this one rule, it will go a long way to ending mental illness in you or your loved ones.
At Amen Clinics, we take a whole-body approach to helping people overcome debilitating symptoms and achieve peak performance. We perform comprehensive evaluations that include brain SPECT imaging, as well as looking at the many lifestyle factors, such as diet, that can contribute to mental health symptoms or hold you back from reaching your potential. Our wrap-around services focus on the least toxic, most effective solutions, including brain health nutrition coaching.
If you want to join the tens of thousands of people who have already enhanced their brain health, overcome their symptoms, and optimized their performance at Amen Clinics, speak to a specialist today at 888-288-9834. If all our specialists are busy helping others, you can also schedule a time to talk.
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