NUTRITION AND THE BRAIN
The human brain is the very core of our existence. It is the body’s control center. As well as keeping the body working smoothly, it is also responsible for our thoughts, feelings, and memory. The brain weighs approximately three pounds and is composed of tens of billions of cells; these nerve cells, or neurons, communicate with each other in an orderly way. The human brain is a grey organ about the size of a grapefruit. It hardly seems to have more than a few separate parts. Yet everything we know is stored there; everything we do, think, feel and dream is made possible by this intricate piece of machinery.
Nutrition and the Brain
“The state of the mind has largely to do with the health of the body and especially with the health of digestive organs.”
—Counsels on Diet and Foods, p. 375
A few years ago an interesting, but unfortunate story about brainless babies appeared in the paper. It said that state and federal health officials (in Texas) were looking into whether there was a link between pollution from Mexican factories and the births along the border. The article went on to say that at that time at least 72 babies had been born without brains, called anencephaly. One has to ask themselves “how could this have happened?”
know--The human brain is the very core of our existence. It is the body’s control center. As well as keeping the body working smoothly, it is also responsible for our thoughts, feelings, and memory. The brain weighs approximately three pounds and is composed of tens of billions of cells; these nerve cells, or neurons, communicate with each other in an orderly way. The human brain is a grey organ about the size of a grapefruit. It hardly seems to have more than a few separate parts. Yet everything we do is stored there; everything we do, think, feel and dream is made possible by this intricate piece of machinery.
The brain needs a lot of energy to keep operating efficiently. It uses one fifth of all the energy produced in your body. Because of this, the brain must have a constant supply of blood to provide it with the food and oxygen required to produce energy.
A HEALTHY MIND IS INSEPARABLE FROM A HEALTHY BODY
The health of the mind is inseparable from the health of the body. Proper nutrition is not only the foundation of physical health, but it is also the prerequisite for a healthy mind and good emotional health. A borrowed expression from the Greeks of two thousand years ago was: “A sound mind in a sound body.”
Illnesses and poor physical health give rise to feelings of anxiety, worry and depression. And, similarly, mental stress and emotional upset can contribute to the many sicknesses commonly thought to be physical in origin. So interdependent are the health of the body and mind that there can be no such thing as a “depressed healthy person” or a “schizophrenic” in a physically sound body.
Michael Lesser, M.D., in the introduction of the book Diet, Crime and Delinquency by Alex Schauss, stated: “It seems incredible that what you eat can make you a criminal. But is it? Most everyone accepts that alcohol or drugs can set the stage for crime. We all know of gruesome crimes committed while in a drunken rage or under the influence of mind-bending drugs. The book Diet, Crime and Delinquency spells out that lack of proper food can alter our mind, much like alcohol or drugs, unleashing criminal behavior.
“How does this happen? Our brain is no different than the rest of our body. Brain cells require proper feeding in order to function correctly. In fact, the brain is the body’s most chemically sensitive organ. Starved for the right nutrients, or “gummed up” by toxic pollutants, and not getting the proper amount of oxygen, the brain can and does go haywire.”
A number of years ago R. L. Swank, M.D., of the University of Oregon, experimented with hamsters by feeding them on a high fat diet. He found that their red cells would stick and clump together and had difficulty getting through the capillaries. When the hamsters were tested for oxygen content in the brain, it was found that there was a 62% decrease in the amount of oxygen to the brain. Can you imagine then after eating a meal high in fat how sluggish the brain becomes and how the level of concentration is altered?
There is no disputing the fact that a healthy mental and emotional state can be insured through good nutrition. The fact that mental well-being depends upon nutrition should be obvious if we realize that the quality of our blood determines the quality of our thoughts. Like all other organs, our brain receives its sustenance in the form of oxygen and nutrients carried in the bloodstream.
If vital nutrients are missing from the bloodstream, or if toxins are being circulated through the body, the brain is as surely affected just as the liver, kidneys, bones and muscles are.
In many cases because of an unclean bloodstream or poor nutrient availability, mental illness can be the result. So just as a healthy body needs nutrients (such as vitamins, minerals, proteins, carbohydrates) for development, energy, health, growth, and having our body systems run smoothly, we need to make sure that we get all the proper nutrients from our food.
NUTRITIONAL ROBBERS
Everyday millions of people ingest various substances that have no food value at all. Worse yet, these “nonfoods” do not supply any of the needed nutrients that both the body and brain need.
Basically, food affects our mental and emotional state in two ways”
- Food either furnishes or depletes vital nutrients upon which our mental and emotional health depend and
- Food either does or does not produce toxic by-products in the body which poison the brain and contribute to emotional problems.
For example—eating grapes furnishes the blood with readily-assimilated natural sugars and minerals that are conducive to mental activity; —consuming white sugar, on the other hand, depletes the body of B-vitamins, which then can lead to nervousness and mental depression.
Perhaps the most evasive and insidious nutritional robber is white sugar.
Sugars occur naturally in most of our foods. Fruit especially is high in sugar (known as fructose and is the energy component, which the liver converts to glucose that is either used for immediate fuel needs or is stored as glycogen for later energy use) that supply the body and brain with high-quality fuel. Sugars in their natural forms as they occur in fresh, unprocessed foods are a valuable part of the diet.
Refined sugar (processed), however, is a chemical menace because it lacks the essential minerals and B-vitamins for its metabolism. As a result, the body surrenders its own minerals and B-vitamins for use in metabolizing refined sugar.
The sugar-caused depletion of vitamins and minerals from the body upsets the body’s nutritional balance and predisposes the individual to mental and emotional illnesses that have their roots in these nutrient deficiencies.
Refined sugar causes emotional outbreaks, especially in children and adolescents. Studies at Washington State University found that the average sugar consumption for children and adolescents is over 12 ounces per day—or unbelievably, over 200 pounds a year!
An abnormal plunge in blood-sugar levels is insidious—it sends shock waves through every cell in the body and affects the brain and nervous system most of all An erratic mental state results, and some of the accompanying symptoms are: headaches, fatigue, insomnia, irritability, restlessness, crying spells, nervous breakdowns, excessive worry, inability to concentrate, depression, forgetfulness, suicidal thoughts, illogical fears, allergies and so on.
SMALLER BRAINS BECAUSE OF POOR DIET?
Dr. Edward Howell in his book Enzyme Nutrition states: “The brains of wild meadow mice are twice as heavy as those of tame laboratory mice. Domestic sheep, cattle, and horses brains weigh less than their wild counterpart.
“Domestication introduces a factor which must not be overlooked—nutrition. The food of laboratory and domestic animals such as rats, mice, guinea pigs, hamsters, dogs, rabbits, monkeys, and cats, is a skeletonized factory product, either canned, granulated, or particled. No raw food is used in the standard diet; it is completely free of food enzymes.
“When rats are given a “factory” diet, body weight goes up and brain weight goes down.”
Today, we have abundant evidence that the condition of the brain is vitally affected by the food we eat, the abundance or lack of nutrients and certain chemicals. In seeking life, we must deal with the whole man. We cannot be compartmentalized by treating one segment of the system without reckoning with its corresponding effect upon other parts.
To help insure mental and emotional well-being, the diet should supply all the needed nutrients in the form of unprocessed whole foods. And all “foods” (referring to “nonfoods”) rob the body of nutrients must be eliminated in order to maintain the nutritional balance crucial to mental and emotional stability.
Perhaps the most pressing need is the elimination of all “nonfood” items from the diet, which includes: white sugar, white flour, meat, eggs, dairy products, caffeine, alcohol and processed foods. The mentioned foods perform no positive function in the body.
Clearly, nutrition plays a vital role in having healthy bodies and healthy brains. By studying this role in detail, we can discover the optimum diet and bring about the proper mental and emotional attitudes that promote total health in each of us.
References:
- Harold Shryock, M.D., Your Amazing Body, Southern Publishing Assoc, Nashville, TN.
- Anthony Smith, The Mind, The Viking Press, New York
- Robert Ornstein & Richard F. Thompson, The Amazing Brain, Houghton Mifflin.
- Douglas Mathers, You and Your Brain, Troll Associates Publishers.
Katy Chamberlin freedomofhealth.org/