Robert F. Kennedy Jr is the current head of the Department of Health and Human Services. He has staked out some controversial positions in the past concerning vaccines and other health issues. Still, I agree entirely with his position that we must address our current toxic, ultra-processed food supply. Virtually every expert agrees that this type of food is driving our current obesity epidemic. A recent study estimates that one-half of all adults and one-third of youth worldwide will be obese by 2050. Thank goodness, RFK Jr. is finally ready to tackle this beast. Most experts believe that ultra-processed food is somehow “addictive,” and so many people overeat it, resulting in obesity or excess fat storage. I think the situation is much worse than it appears. Allow me to explain.
Our Toxic Food Supply
Ultra-processed food contains three potentially toxic ingredients: sugar, high glycemic carbohydrates, and omega-6 fatty acids. The Food-Industrial Complex then throws in a long list of toxic additives under the flawed GRAS system. Over time, consuming this food can lead to insulin resistance, obesity, and a long list of chronic medical conditions. This food is also toxic to your brain. Consuming ultra-processed food results in massive glucose spikes, leading to dumping excess amounts of monoamine neurotransmitters from the neurons in your brain. This overwhelms the recycling and reuptake systems, so these valuable chemicals are taken up by your bloodstream and cleared by your kidneys. You end up peeing away your neurotransmitters! Over time, this results in the depletion of these essential chemicals, leading to up to 22 brain dysfunction symptoms that overlap with many traditional brain disorders. Clinicians mistakenly label patients with these symptoms with traditional brain disorders and give them medications that don’t correct the underlying pathology.
Evolution Calls the Shots
There’s another critical component to this process. After each spike, glucose crashes to low levels. Throughout our evolutionary history, we only experienced such a drop when we ran out of food, leading to potential starvation. Thus, our brain reads these low glucose levels as “a famine is coming” and pushes the body to store more fat regardless of food intake. Hence, long-term consumption of ultra-processed food is driving the twin epidemics of obesity and apparent brain disorders. It’s essential to recognize that these apparent brain disorders are not the traditional ones that have existed throughout human history. Let me give you an example. Throughout history, what is now termed major depressive disorder (MDD) was initially called melancholia. It was always characterized by loss of appetite and weight loss. If you didn’t lose weight, you could not be diagnosed with melancholia. Over the past 70 years, we have seen many people who appeared to be depressed, but they had an increased appetite and weight gain. The folks at DSM didn’t quite know what to do, so when they published DSM III, they called weight loss melancholia “major depressive disorder” (MDD) and the weight gain form of depression “atypical depression.” I have news for you. Atypical depression has nothing to do with true major depression, a rare disorder. It’s a form of food-induced brain dysfunction that fits the pattern of a disease. I have labeled this condition Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. These folks can develop up to 22 brain dysfunction symptoms that interfere with their ability to function and their quality of life.
Subsidizing Our Destruction
Robert F. Kennedy Jr seems to understand why ultra-processed food has taken over our diets. The primary reason is government subsidies of certain crops, such as sucrose, corn, wheat, and soybeans. The food-industrial complex then adds toxic additives that pass through our flawed “Generally Regarded As Safe” (GRAS) system. These dietary components are processed and combined to form cheap, ultra-processed food that drives the above twin epidemics. These subsidies have existed for over 100 years, so changing them won’t be easy. This is also the reason that ultra-processed food is so inexpensive. People on fixed incomes or those suffering financially can often only afford this type of food. We read daily about how many people have died from our current fentanyl epidemic. This number is likely dwarfed by the number of people who have died from consuming our ubiquitous, ultra-processed food.
RFK Jr. has also vowed to take on our flawed (GRAS) food classification system and our current subsidies of commercial crops. Our current GRAS classification puts most of the onus on food companies to determine if a food product is safe. Tightening the standards for GRAS designation and subjecting more additives to the premarket review process would increase oversight for new food additives. It will be interesting to see if Kennedy can unwind this convoluted, bureaucratic government system fueling our toxic food supply.
It’s now clear we have two interrelated problems concerning our diet:
- Massive amounts of ultra-processed food are poisoning and killing our citizens in record numbers, as outlined in this recent article.
- A common form of diet-induced brain dysfunction called CARB syndrome is affecting the quality and length of life of many of our citizens.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. promised to deal with number 1. We need to support Kennedy in his efforts if he hopes to be successful. He seems competent and driven, which is usually a compelling combination. Because the CARB syndrome concept is new, it’s up to me to spread the word about number 2. Until the medical profession gets up to speed, I will need to teach folks to self-diagnose CARB syndrome and arrange for their own treatment. There’s minimal or no risk to this approach because the treatments for CARB syndrome are either already well-known or are low or no risk.
Self-Diagnosing CARB Syndrome
The diagnosis of CARB syndrome can be easily made if you have many of the 22 symptoms of the disease and you seem to be storing excess body fat. I don’t recommend using BMI because it doesn’t measure body fat. Measuring your waist/hip ratio is more useful. In my experience, folks storing excess body fat are often aware of the problem without taking any measurements. There are several types of fat, including visceral fat in the abdominal cavity and subcutaneous fat spread over the entire body. Visceral fat is more metabolically active, but both types of excessive fat are associated with CARB syndrome.
Treating CARB Syndrome
Once you’ve made a self-diagnosis of CARB syndrome, you need to move on to effective treatment, which includes the following steps:
- You need to reduce or eliminate your intake of ultra-processed food.
- Limit fructose intake to no more than 20 grams daily from any source.
- You must reduce your cravings for sweet and starchy foods to do so. The best way to do that is to take a precursor supplement like CARB-22 and extra L-glutamine. Start with two capsules of CARB-22 twice daily, and if needed, slowly increase to four capsules twice daily. Then, add 500-1,000 mg of L-glutamine twice daily.
- Take enough high quality omega-3 to keep your AA/EPA ratio between 1 and 3 along with a daily polyphenol supplement. I take OmegaRx2 and MaquiRx from my friend Barry Sears of Zone Diet fame.
- Exercise daily, including five days of aerobic exercise and two days of strength training weekly.
- Consider adding a GLP-1 receptor agonist medication like Wegovy for no longer than 2-3 months. At that point, taper the drug and continue the supplements.
With this two-pronged approach, I think we have a chance of beating back our twin epidemics of obesity and brain disorders. If you know RFK Jr., send him my way so we can coordinate our efforts and fix this disgraceful mess once and for all. We might even develop a new food rating system termed “Generally Regarded As Toxic” (GRAT).
Edited by Andy Steinfeldt
