Last week the CDC released a report titled “Mental Health Surveillance Among Children — United States, 2005–2011”. For the first time the US government has taken a close look at the incidence and prevalence of common childhood disorders such as ADHD, depression, anxiety disorders, serious behavior problems and similar conditions. The report concluded: “A total of 13%–20% of children living in the United States experience a mental disorder in a given year, and surveillance during 1994–2011 has shown the prevalence of these conditions to be increasing”. Over time many children develop more than one of these disorders.
An Epidemic of Childhood Brain Dysfunction
What’s going on here? Are we becoming a nation of loonies and misfits? Some people think we have simply gotten better at diagnosing these conditions, but I respectfully disagree with their perspective. Because I have been practicing medicine for 35 years, it is clear to me that these diseases are truly increasing in our population, especially in children. Over the decades I have had a front row seat to document this mental health disaster. Ask any experienced Pediatrician or schoolteacher and they will tell you the same thing—kids today are simply different than they were decades ago.
When faced with such a sudden change in our population, we know that the genes haven’t changed so we need to look at the environment influences that might be negatively impacting our children. Perhaps it’s due to changing parenting practices or single parent households. How about environmental toxins, thinning of the ozone layer or global warming? Lead paint, immunizations, fluoridation of water and pesticides seem to be popular targets. Although some of these factors might be in play, I believe that it comes down to an obvious change in our environment—the food we eat.
Grandma Was Right—You Are What You Eat
Up until the past few decades, people tended to eat real food. You know—meat, fowl, fish, seafood, vegetables, fruit, nuts and berries and whole grains. Over the past 40-50 years, the Agricultural-Food-Industrial Complex has introduced us to the wonders of fake food. Refine the heck out of grains, throw in a globs of sugar and top it off with omega 6 fatty acids from vegetable oils. Toss in a handful of unpronounceable chemicals and you have modern processed foods.
Twinkies, Wonder Bread, sugary breakfast cereals were all introduced in the early part of the 20th century and they really started to take off in the 1950’s and 60’s as I was growing up. Sugary sodas also evolved from an occasional fountain treat to a daily beverage that eventually replaced milk at the dinner table. As time wore on and we drifted through the “fat fear” decades, the food industry introduced us to joys like the Snackwell’s line of goodies. It’s low fat so it must be good for you! SnackWell’s Creme sandwich cookies contain “enriched flour, sugar, vegetable shortening, dextrose, corn flour, glycerin, whey and high fructose corn syrup. Additional ingredients include leavening, such as baking soda and calcium phosphate, cornstarch, emulsifiers, mono and diglycerides, sodium stearoyl, lactylate, salt, wheat starch, cellulose gum and gel, natural and artificial flavor”. Talk about a real Frankenfood!
We now know that this type of food is driving our current epidemic of insulin resistance, obesity and type II diabetes. The experts claim that exposure to all this yummy food makes us eat too much so we end up consuming too many calories and getting fat. Recent research has knocked down this traditional nutritional house of cards. My friend Richard Johnson has shown that it is excessive fructose mainly from sugar and HFCS that is driving these metabolic problems. Dr. Johnson has shown that if you consume more than 25 grams of fructose per day—about the amount in three apples, you end up loading your body with two problematic substances—triglycerides, a form of fat, and uric acid. Uric acid plays a key role in turning on your cellular metabolic fat switch. To learn more I recommend reading his excellent books “The Sugar Fix” and “The Fat Switch”.
Ok—so everyone including our kids are getting a little chubby from eating yummy processed foods. What does this have to do with kids and mental health? As it turns out, quite a lot. Many studies have documented the co-morbidity between insulin resistance, obesity and type II diabetes and common brain disorders. The medical and research communities seem to be stuck when it comes to figuring out just how they might be connected.
A New Paradigm
I believe that’s about to change. When you have insulin resistance and consume a high glycemic carbohydrate, you end up with a magnified glucose spike in your blood. Because you don’t need insulin for glucose to enter into nerve cells, when you have a glucose spike in your blood, you also end up with a glucose spike inside every neuron in your body. High levels of glucose are toxic to cells. Over time the neurons start to malfunction. They can no longer produce adequate amounts of key neurotransmitters like dopamine, norepinephrine and serotonin, so you end up with symptoms reflecting these low levels. If you already have an underlying brain problem like depression or ADHD, this process will tend to aggravate your symptoms. If you don’t have a pre-existing brain disorder, this process will make it look like you do.
Consuming too many omega 6 fatty acids and not enough omega 3 fatty acids will also contribute to this process. The membranes of nerve cells are made of phospholipids mainly composed of omega 3 fatty acids and we evolved to have an omega 6 to omega 3 ratio of about 1 to 1. If you throw in too many omega 6 fatty acids, your cell membranes won’t work as intended. Most processed foods tend to be loaded with omega 6 fatty acids.
Over a period of time this toxic triad of excessive fructose, grain-based high glycemic carbohydrates and omega 6 fatty acids seems to trigger a form of food-induced brain dysfunction we now call Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. If you already have an established brain disorder, CARB syndrome will make it worse. If you don’t have such a disorder, CARB syndrome will end up mimicking many traditional disorders. Eventually you may end up “labelitis” with a long list of disorders. This trend is well documented in this study.
What Happened to Depression and Weight Loss?
An example from the real world might be helpful. Years ago all depressed patients lost their appetite and lost weight and it was the defining characteristic of the disease. In recent decades most depressed patients have an increased appetite, cravings for sweet and starchy foods and weight gain. How is it possible to have two opposite symptoms for the same disease? It isn’t. The latter condition is CARB syndrome, not true major depression.
Are you starting to connect the dots? Our kids (and their parents) are getting fatter and they often have a bevy of brain dysfunction symptoms qualifying them for the diagnoses listed in this study. The increase in these disorders seems to mirror the changes in our diet. To me it seems pretty obvious–our food is making us mentally and physically sick.
Over the years I have successfully treated thousands of patients with CARB syndrome. The good news is that you can put the rabbit back in the hat because this disease is reversible. My full treatment protocol is beyond the scope of this article, but of course it starts with diet. For many patients I recommend following a Paleo style diet. For more information I suggest reading Loren Cordain’s book “The Paleo Answer” or Robb Wolf’s book “The Paleo Solution”. They both also have excellent web sites. For those of you who are already a metabolic train wreck, I recommend Jimmy Moore’s web site where he explores a low-carb, moderate protein, high-fat ketogenic diet. To round out your education I recommend reading Gary Taube’s “Good Calories, Bad Calories” and “Why We Get Fat”. Gary is a master at outlining how carbohydrates and insulin team up to trap fat inside your cells.
Scrap the Studies—Let’s Get to Work
We don’t need any more studies outlining the gravity of the problem—fat kids with mental issues. We need solutions and we need them now. This site is dedicated to providing you and your family with safe and effective strategies to maintain optimal metabolic and brain health. Be well.
