Mental illness, which really boils down to unusual and socially 'unacceptable' behavior and ideas, may be caused by wrong nutrition, according to some recent studies reported in the UK press.
"Food can have an immediate and lasting effect on mental health and behaviour because of the way it affects the structure and function of the brain".
Image credit: Amanda Paganini
Most psychiatrists vehemently deny that foods, (lack of) nutrients, allergies and poisonous substances may be at the bottom of the 'deviant' behaviors they have laboriously codified in the psychiatric diagnostic manual. No wonder, accepting the obvious would make their profession all but superfluous. At the very least, psychiatrists would have to take some hints from clinical ecologists and nutritional counsellors.
Instead of merely classifying the manifestations of damage from wrong nutrition and toxic input, they would have to search for the real causes of biologic disequilibrium and propose remedies, not only to their patients but also to health authorities and even their colleagues in general medicine. The 'epidemics' of autism and attention deficit disorder, for instance, are time coincident with a multiplication of "preventive" vaccinations - from four in the seventies to twenty and in some places even more than thirty recommended "immunizations" today.
Certainly, drugging people is not the solution. Let's do something constructive about the disastrous 'mental health' situation.
The Guardian has a good article on the studies just released:
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Rise in mental illness linked to unhealthy diets, say studies
· Patients benefit by cutting intake of junk food
· NHS warned of rise in £100bn bill
Felicity Lawrence
Monday January 16, 2006
The Guardian
Changes in diet over the past 50 years appear to be an important factor behind a significant rise in mental ill health in the UK, say two reports published today.
The Mental Health Foundation says scientific studies have clearly linked attention deficit disorder, depression, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia to junk food and the absence of essential fats, vitamins and minerals in industrialised diets.
A further report, Changing Diets, Changing Minds, is also published today by Sustain, the organisation that campaigns for better food. It warns that the NHS bill for mental illness, at almost £100bn a year, will continue to rise unless the government focuses on diet and the brain in its food, farming, education and environment policies.
"Food can have an immediate and lasting effect on mental health and behaviour because of the way it affects the structure and function of the brain," Sustain's report says. Its chairman, Tim Lang, said: "Mental health has been completely neglected by those working on food policy. If we don't address it and change the way we farm and fish, we may lose the means to prevent much diet-related ill health."