The health of America

Have any of you heard of the book The Crazy Makers by Carol Simontacchi? Well my grandma Slade had it on a night stand at her house when we visited her last summer and Taylor picked it up and started reading bits of it to me. Later we ordered our own copy and I'm just now reading it. I'm only at the beginning but let me just tell you, it is fascinating. It's all about how the food industry in America and the diet of America are slowly ruining the health of our brains. We are becoming more aware of what bad diet is doing to our bodies but have we really thought about what all of the chemicals, additives and just poor diet are doing to our minds? The first chapter labeled Our Food and Suffering talks about the increase in mental illnesses among the new generations and why this is so. Below are a few quotes I added from the book.

"Over the past century, the American food culture has gone through a transformation so pervasive and enormous that we have almost completely lost sight of what constitutes a normal diet. In our quest for convenience and shift in culture and priorities, we have pushed aside the notion that the purpose of eating is to provide energy for our day-to-day activities and to maintain the structure of our changing bodies and brains."

"Until the past few decades (since man started tampering with the food supply), we ate what nature provided, grew healthy brains, and never gave it another thought."

"Our new foods, however, are altering the ability of our brains to think. They are altering both the structure and function of our physical brains, leaving us less able to cope with stress and more susceptible to the forms of mental illness..."

Just like the explosion of physical illness, mental illness is becoming a plague of its own, all because of the chemicals we consume daily with the normal "American diet." As our bodies are polluted and become sick so do our minds, affecting the way we think, feel and perceive life. I know from personal experience and I'm sure that most people have felt the difference between how they feel when they are making a conscious effort to eat fruits, vegetables, protein and whole grains. Just interesting! Stay tuned, I'll post more about the book after I read some more. :)