On June 25th the Wall Street Journal published the article “Inside the Brains of Bieber Fans”. The article discusses the neuroscience of “Bieber Fever” where adolescent girls go gaga over Justin Bieber. Because of my interest in neuroscience I found that article quite interesting. This type of idol worship has been going on for centuries and it appears to be a relatively benign way for young girls to safely tip their toes into the world of love and emotions.
I was even more fascinated by the pictures accompanying the article, especially those showing Elvis Presley in 1957, the Beatles in 1965, the Backstreet Boys in 1998 and the Bieber fans in 2012. I’m old enough to remember all of these events and these pictures show groups of love-intoxicated young women swooning over their idols. If you look carefully at the individuals in these pictures you will notice some subtle and not so subtle differences. Those who were swooning for Elvis appear trim and healthy. The same goes for the Beatles’ fans. When you get to the Backstreet boys in 1998 things start to change. The girls have a plumper appearance and don’t have the same “look of health” as the earlier photos.
Things really change in 2012 for the Bieber fans. Even the thin girls have what I call a plump or pudgy appearance and their faces don’t have the same healthy glow as the earlier photos. Why do these young women look different?
Many of the girls in the Bieber photo likely have sugar-brain or CARB syndrome. Sugar-brain is a mild brain disorder triggered by long-term exposure to excessive fructose mainly from sugar and HFCS and carbohydrates mainly from grains. When you combine these two common food elements that form the core of our modern diet, you end up frying your brain. People with sugar-brain start to crave sweet and starchy foods, pushing them to consume more of the food that is adversely affecting their brain function.
Excessive fructose leads directly to insulin resistance and central obesity where you store too much fat in your belly. When your brain is working as intended, it helps your body to store the right amount of fat through a broad range of food intake. When you develop sugar-brain your brain is no longer able to properly perform this function and you start to store too much fat at virtually any caloric intake. People with sugar-brain also develop mild brain dysfunction symptoms like fatigue, mood swings, anxiety, poor sleep and difficulty concentrating and focusing.
Over time sugar-brain can progress to a serious illness called Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. People with CARB syndrome can develop up to 22 brain dysfunction symptoms that interfere with their ability to function. At this stage they are often incorrectly diagnosed with depression, ADHD, PTSD, bipolar II, obsessive-compulsive disorder, autism, eating disorders, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome and other conditions. They also continue to store excessive body fat even as they lose lean body mass or muscle through dieting. If you are interested in learning more about how the brain plays a role in obesity and fat storage, I suggest that you download my book “Sugar-Brain Digest: Obesity.”
Thus the Bieber picture demonstrates a sad tale—how the health of our young people has markedly diminished over just a few decades because of changes in our food supply. Sure it’s interesting to study the brains of young females who are swooning over their latest idol. From a public health standpoint I think it’s much more useful to study the phenomena of sugar-brain and CARB syndrome—two conditions that our decimating our population.