In a way, it seems like a silly question. With world poverty, trade wars, possibly nuclear war, environmental devastation and other disasters on the menu of current events, the fact remains that many people in the world don’t have enough food to sustain a reasonable life and that indeed can’t be good for their health or brain. Most of this rampant hunger occurs in 3rd world countries lacking in the infrastructure and resources to feed their people.
Does this type of hunger and lack of food exist in the United States?
I would agree there is hunger, but there appears to be plenty of food, especially the highly processed type if of food that is heavily subsidized by our government. This is the same food handed out by the government in many of their programs to end hunger. In my opinion, the priority should be to figure out why there is such a discrepancy between hunger and availability of food in the US. Instead, the folks in power have initiated a major project whose goal is to be sure that children receive adequate nutrition during the summer months when free breakfast and lunch programs at most schools are closed. There is even a government program called the Summer Food Service Program “to ensure that low-income children continue to receive nutritious meals when school is not in session.” Another program called “No Kid Hungry” is attempting to eliminate hunger in children—good luck with that! I would quickly join this effort if I weren’t acutely aware of the disastrous results awaiting us at the end of these seemingly noble efforts. If we do have hungry and starving kids in this country, where are the resulting emaciated and ill-looking kids like you see in 3rd world countries? You don’t see them because most kids who are claiming hunger are visually obese! Hungry, obese kids—that makes no sense! Or does it.
Hunger Asunder?
Let me break this down for you. We shouldn’t be confusing facts with fantasy. In today’s world for many people and especially for children, hunger has become entirely divorced from their nutritional needs. As humans evolved over millions of years, hunger was a critical signal from the brain that “it’s time to eat” due to lack of nutrition or not enough food. For this primitive human eating a true Paleo style diet, his or her brain would continue to ramp up these hunger signals until the food started coming in. If they still failed to respond by eating, their glucose levels would crash, creating a food shortage emergency. At this point, their brain would pull out the “big gun”—cravings for sweet and starchy food. In other words, Mother Nature would push them to eat a tuber, fruits or vegetables rather than a brontosaurus burger because this carb dense food would be the quickest way to stabilize their glucose levels.
If they still didn’t respond by eating, their body would start to use its protein and fat for energy, ultimately unleashing the process of ketosis to save the day. Of course, if they still failed to eat, they would likely end up looking like a malnourished escapee from a German prison of war camp—no stored glucose along with minimal muscle and virtually no fat. At some point, they would end up on Darwin’s short list, never able to pass on their genes.
This is True Hunger
Let’s start off with the easy question—do we ever see these severely malnourished children in America? The answer is no unless you are talking about a handful of rare hereditary disorders. We only commonly see these sad cases in war-torn countries where there is little or no food. There is no question that these children are genuinely suffering and will probably end up with less than optimal health and brain function for the rest of their lives unless somebody manages to feed them on a regular basis. This type of hunger should never be allowed or tolerated by the rest of the word.
The Dark Side of Hunger
Now let’s get back to the “hunger” issue. Even though hunger evolved as one of the most critical survival signals in man’s evolutionary history, it no longer plays this role in most modern humans. What happened? It’s a rather long and sad tale, but the bottom line is that long-term exposure to highly processed food appears to alter essential brain functions. These fake foods contain a combination of 3 toxic substances—excessive fructose mainly from added sugars, excessive highly refined carbohydrates primarily from grains and excessive omega 6 fatty acids mostly from vegetable oils. As my friend Barry Sears of Zone Diet fame has been saying for decades, this is a very proinflammatory diet and inflammation if the driving force behind many common chronic diseases. These dietary elements also promote unstable glucose levels with alternating high and low levels, a phenomenon that didn’t exist throughout most of our evolutionary history.
We now believe that over time this diet of highly processed food can significantly alter brain function where standard brain signals such as hunger become dysfunctional and unreliable barometers to guide food intake. Even when a person becomes obese with measured body fat the morbidly obese range, these hunger and craving signals will continue unabated. It indeed is understandable that just about any adult who witnesses this evolutionary fiasco will feel a strong need to step up to the plate and ban this hunger so that all children experience a lack of appetite or satiety. Because of altered brain function from consuming highly processed food, satiation will always be beyond reach.
Run and Hide—Here Come the Shrinks!
To make matter worse, these children will eventually develop many of the other 22 symptoms of this food-induced brain dysfunction. We now call this disease Carbohydrate Associated Reversible Brain syndrome or CARB syndrome. At this point the Psychiatrists will quickly show up, splattering these poor kids with a long list of psychiatric disorders like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, ADHD, PTSD, and others. They will then prescribe an even longer list of potentially dangerous drugs that over time will only make the situation worse. Eventually even more weight gain will also be in the cards, fed by many of these obesity-stimulating Psychiatric drugs. Sick and fat with a brain that doesn’t work so well. It isn’t a pretty picture.
This is Fake Hunger as Commonly Seen in the US
The key to breaking this vicious cycle is to ignore the “unreliable” hunger signs generated by your diseased brain and learn how to diagnose and treat your CARB syndrome. With the help of educated adults and healthcare professionals, this is eminently possible. The starting point is to always aggressively work to suppress pathological hunger drives and cravings for sweet and starchy food. The safe and inexpensive amino acid L-glutamine is beneficial in this regard as well as neurotransmitter precursor products like CARB-22. These are safe and simple tools to help put your hunger drives back where they belong.
Let’s Give Them The Guidance They Truly Need to Regain Their Health
Most kids will need the help of an adult who understands these issues, but unfortunately, for now, the folks with this critical knowledge are as rare a hen’s teeth. I’m almost afraid to watch as this evolutionary race to the bottom plays out, and it is deplorable that our children are the pawns in this losing battle. Please work with me to make sure that this never happens. After all, I still have a horse in the race—at the age of 70, I have a four-year-old daughter! And as you likely know, promoting the idea of sometimes ignoring hunger in children isn’t going to make me any new friends, but I always believe in following the science wherever it takes me, regardless of any negative consequences of doing so. Let’s work to put hunger back in its proper evolutionary place—telling us when we are genuinely in need of nourishment.
