Here’s a PowerPoint Presentation I put together awhile back on The Diet & Behavior Connection...

The Diet & Behavior Connection #1
“If your bowel is not happy, your brain isn’t either...because the chemicals are the same.” -Dr. Mehmet Oz on Oprah

The Diet & Behavior Connection #1
“The small bowel is a critically important part of the body, it is the most similar to our brain of any other organ.” -Dr. Mehmet Oz on Oprah

The Diet & Behavior Connection #1
Serotonin is the natural chemical in the body that antidepressants affect. Though 5 percent of your body's serotonin is in your brain, 95 percent is in your intestines. "You have a second brain down there." -Dr. Mehmet Oz on Oprah

The Diet & Behavior Connection #2
A study published in the November 2004 issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry [ajp.psychiatryonline.org] revealed that a deficiency of essential nutrients early in life is linked to behavior problems and reduced IQ later.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #2
Researchers at the University of Southern California followed boys and girls on the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius for 14 years. Nutritional status at age 3 was assessed by the presence of physical indicators of B vitamin, protein, zinc and iron deficiencies. Cognitive ability and intelligence were tested, and background and living conditions assessed.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #2
At eight years old, children fed poorly were more likely to be irritable and pick fights than those fed healthily. Aged 11, they swore, cheated and got into fights, and at 17, they stole, bullied others and took drugs. They found the more malnourished the children were, the greater the anti-social behavior later on.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #2
Three hundred fifty-three participants exhibited signs of malnutrition, compared to 1,206 who did not. Home behavior was assessed at age 8, school behavior and cognitive function at age 11, and home and school behavior at 17. Compared to children who did not show signs of nutritional deficiencies at age 3, children who were malnourished were 41 percent more likely to demonstrate aggression at the age of 8. At age 11, malnourished children showed a 10 percent increase in aggression and delinquency, and at age 17, there was a 51 percent increase in violent and antisocial behavior compared to adequately nourished children. Having a greater number of malnutrition indicators was associated with increased antisocial behavior.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #2
Study coauthor and University of Southern California professor of psychology Adrian Raine, explained, "Poor nutrition, characterized by zinc, iron, vitamin B and protein deficiencies, leads to low IQ, which leads to later antisocial behavior. These are all nutrients linked to brain development."

The Diet & Behavior Connection #3
Appleton Central Alternative High School in Appleton, Wisconsin provides a great example of the behavioral changes that come with diet changes. Appleton High was experiencing lots of behavioral problems from their developmentally challenged students. Fights and weapons were such a problem that they needed a police officer to patrol the halls. But now, most of these problems and the police officer are gone because they took the vending machines, hamburgers and French fries out and replaced them with water coolers, fresh vegetables, fruits, whole-grain bread and a salad bar.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #3
This 5-year study is presented in a video documentary called Impact of Fresh, Healthy Foods on Learning and Behavior where students were given healthy, vegetarian meals and most of their behavioral problems went away.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #4
Stephen Schoenthaler, a criminal-justice professor at California State University in Stanislaus, has been researching the relationship between food and behavior for more than 20 years. He has proven that reducing the sugar and fat intake in our daily diets leads to higher IQs and better grades in school. When Schoenthaler supervised a change in meals served at 803 schools in low-income neighborhoods in New York City, the number of students passing final exams rose from 11 percent below the national average to five percent above. He is best known for his work in youth detention centers. One of his studies showed that the number of violations of house rules fell by 37 percent when vending machines were removed and canned food in the cafeteria was replaced by fresh alternatives. He summarizes his findings this way: “Having a bad diet right now is a better predictor of future violence than past violent behavior.”

The Diet & Behavior Connection #5
Bernard Gesch, physiologist at the University of Oxford, decided to test the anecdotal clues in the most thorough study so far in this field. In a prison for men between the ages of 18 and 21 in England’s Buckinghamshire, 231 volunteers were divided into two groups: One was given nutrition supplements along with their meals that contained our approximate daily needs for vitamins, minerals and fatty acids; the other group got placebos. Neither the prisoners, nor the guards, nor the researchers at the prison knew who took fake supplements and who got the real thing.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #5
The researchers then tallied the number of times the participants violated prison rules, and compared it to the same data that had been collected in the months leading up to the nutrition study. The prisoners given supplements for four consecutive months committed an average of 26 percent fewer violations compared to the preceding period. Those given placebos showed no marked change in behavior. For serious breaches of conduct, particularly the use of violence, the number of violations decreased 37 percent for the men given nutrition supplements, while the placebo group showed no change.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #5
The experiment was carefully constructed, ruling out the possibility that ethnic, social, psychological or other variables could affect the outcome. Prisons are popular places to conduct studies for good reason: There is a strict routine; participants sleep and exercise the same number of hours every day and eat the same things at the same time. Says Gesch: “This is the only trial I have ever been involved with from the social sciences which is designed properly and with a good analysis.” As a randomized, double- blind, placebo-controlled study, Gesch emerges with convincing scientific proof that poor nutrition plays a role in triggering aggressive behavior.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #5
Indeed, the study proves what every parent already knows. Serve soda and candy at a children’s birthday party and you’ll get loud, hyperactive behavior followed by tears and tantrums.

It works like this: Blood-sugar levels jump suddenly after you eat sugar, which initially gives you a burst of fresh energy. But then your blood sugar falls, and you become lethargic and sleepy. In an attempt to prevent blood-sugar levels from falling too low, your body produces adrenalin, which makes you irritable and explosive.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #5
But sugar can’t be the only problem. After all, high blood-sugar levels mainly have a short-term effect on behavior, while the research of Schoenthaler and Gesch indicates changes over a longer period. They suggest it is much more important that you get the right amount of vitamins, minerals and unsaturated fatty acids because these substances directly influence the brain, and therefore behavior.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #5
Yet with crime a major political issue almost everywhere, it’s surprising more leaders have not embraced the idea of healthy eating as a recipe for safe streets and schools. After Gesch published his findings in 2002 in The British Journal of Psychiatry, the study was picked up by European and American media. The newspaper headlines were clear: “Healthy eating can cut crime”; “Eat right or become a criminal”; “Youth crime linked to consumption of junk food”; “Fighting crime one bite at a time.” Then the media went deafeningly silent.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #5
Perhaps that’s because the relationship between nutrition and violence continues to be controversial in established professional circles. During their educations, doctors and psychologists are given scant training in nutrition, criminologists provided little awareness of biochemistry, and nutritionists offered no hands-on experience with lawbreakers or the mentally ill. As a result, the link between food and behavior winds up in no-man’s-land.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #5
“Most criminal-justice systems assume that criminal behavior is entirely a matter of free will,” Gesch says. “But how exactly can you exercise free will without involving your brain? How exactly can the brain function without an adequate nutrient supply? Nutrition in fact could be a major player and, for sure, we have seriously underestimated its importance. I think nutrition may actually be one of the most straightforward factors to change antisocial behavior. And we know that it’s not only highly effective, it’s also cheap and humane.”

The Diet & Behavior Connection #5
It seems the link between nutrition and antisocial behavior shows great promise as both political issue and human-interest story. How much longer will politicians concentrate on police and stricter surveillance as the answer to crime? When will they realize healthy food can help create a healthier society? After all, people would not only be more productive, but the cost of health care and of the criminal-justice system would decline. As is the case for a man’s love, the way to safety may be through the stomach.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #5
As Bernard Gesch notes, “Few scientists are not convinced that diet is fundamental for the development of the human brain. Is it plausible that in the last 50 years we could have made spectacular changes to the human diet without any implications for the brain? I don’t think so. Now, evidence is mounting that putting poor fuel into the brain significantly affects social behavior. We need to know more about the composition of the right nutrients.

It could be the recipe for peace.”

The Diet & Behavior Connection #6
Barbara Reed Stitt worked as Chief Probation Officer for over 20 years carefully studying the relationship between diet and behavior. During those years she personally dealt with over 5,000 offenders, and by analyzing their diets she found that they all consumed high amounts of sugar, processed foods, milk, caffeine, and low amounts of fresh fruits and vegetables.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #6
Dr. Stitt writes, "Broad studies and a great deal of clinical evidence indicate that many people who show abnormal, antisocial, delinquent, or violent behavior are in fact suffering from brain malnutrition or brain poisoning, possibly brought on by a high consumption of processed food and junk foods. Our rising crime rate must be seen as just another of the health consequences of our love of [and addiction to] processed food."

The Diet & Behavior Connection #6
Dr. Stitt claims more than 80 percent of probationers who came to her after she started using a food-based treatment were able to go on to live full, productive lives; and analyzing a twelve year study, found that not a single individual who stayed with the program had been back in trouble.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #7
"Remember, the quality of our physiology affects our perceptions and behaviors. We see more evidence every day that the American diet of junk food, fast food, and additives and chemicals is causing "trapped" wastes in the body, and those wastes alter the level of oxygenation and electric energy of the body, contributing to everything from cancer to crime. One of the most horrifying things I ever read was the diet of a chronic juvenile delinquent, recounted by Alexander Schauss in his Diet, Crime and Delinquency." -Anthony Robbins, "Unlimited Power" pp. 188-189

The Diet & Behavior Connection #8
Dr. Weston Price proved that prenatal deficiency injuries were responsible for juvenile delinquents and criminal behavior. In Chapter 19 (Physical, Mental And Moral Deterioration) of "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" Dr. Price writes:
“AFTER one has lived among the primitive racial stocks in different parts of the world and studied them in their isolation, few impressions can be more vivid than that of the absence of prisons and asylums.”

The Diet & Behavior Connection #8
In the same chapter of the same book, Price compares the bone structure between normal people and the mentally defective due to prenatal deficiency injuries, “In discussing the problem of the significance of the shape of the palate, Tredgold (2) states:
Palate--The association of abnormalities of the palate with mental deficiency has long been recognized, and there is no doubt that it is one of the commonest malformations occurring in this condition.” -Weston Price, MD

The Diet & Behavior Connection #8
“Many years ago Langdon Down drew attention to the subject, and more recently Clouston has recorded a large number of observations which show conclusively that, although deformed palates occur in the normal, they are far and away more frequent in neuropaths and the mentally defective. He states that deformed palates are present in 19 per cent of the ordinary population, 33 per cent of the insane, 55 per cent of criminals, but in no less than 61 per cent of idiots. Petersen, who has made a most exhaustive study of this question, and has compiled an elaborate classification of the various anomalies found palatal deformities present in no less than 82 per cent of aments, (mental defectives), in 76 per cent of epileptics, and in 80 per cent of the insane.” -Weston Price, MD

The Diet & Behavior Connection #8
Once again, in the same chapter of the same book, Price shows the connection between criminal behavior and prenatal injury through faulty nutrition, "I studied Indians in two Indian Reservations, also, and there again found marked evidence of injury typical of our modernized communities. Similarly, a limestone district in Ontario was visited and critical observations were made of the facial form of the new generation, in regions in which the fertility of the soil had been definitely depleted through exhaustion. These again showed evidence of prenatal injury through faulty nutrition. The prisoners in a jail were examined, and all of them except two habitual drunkards showed marked evidence of prenatal injury.” -Weston Price, MD

The Diet & Behavior Connection #8
If space permitted, it would be interesting to include here a discussion and illustrations of the physical characteristics of the racketeers and criminals whose pictures are shown in our newspapers almost daily. It is rare that a normal face is depicted in this group." -Weston Price, MD

The Diet & Behavior Connection #9
Dr. Francis Pottenger did a ten year study using 900 cats and proved that the cats fed cooked food developed illnesses and ill behaviors. On page 146 in "A Cancer Therapy Results Of Fifty Cases" Dr. Max Gerson writes, "Dr. Pottenger's experiments on cats fed common food, without raw substances and raw milk, became nervous, sick, and even homosexual. Several weeks' treatment with raw milk and raw vegetables returned them to normalcy!"

The Diet & Behavior Connection #9
"Cats fed cooked meat showed much more irritability. Some females were even dangerous. The males, on the other hand, were more docile, often to the point of being unaggressive, and their sex interest was slack or perverted. In essence, there was evidence of a role reversal with the female cats becoming the aggressors and the male cats becoming passive, as well as evidence of increasing abnormal activities between the same sexes. Such sexual deviations were not observed among the raw food cats." -Dr. Richard Anderson [www.cleanse.net]

The Diet & Behavior Connection #10
"For thousands of years different cultures have been aware that the types of food we eat have subtle effects on the mind. Herodotus, the Greek historian, reported that grain-eating vegetarian cultures surpassed meat-eating cultures in art, science, and spiritual development. In his writings it was his view that meat-eating nations tended to be more warlike and more focused on expression of anger and sensual passions." -Gabriel Cousens, "Conscious Eating"

The Diet & Behavior Connection #11
"It is my view that the vegetarian manner of living by its purely physical effect on the human temperament would most beneficially influence the lot of mankind." -Albert Einstein

The Diet & Behavior Connection #12
"Vegetarianism serves as the criterion by which we know that the pursuit of moral perfection on the part of humanity is genuine and sincere." -Count Leo Tolstoy

The Diet & Behavior Connection #13
"And with such a vegetarian diet they may be expected to live in peace and health to a good old age, and bequeath a similar life to their children after them." -Socrates, "Plato's Republic"

The Diet & Behavior Connection #14
"...Pythagoras declared that the eating of meat clouded the reasoning faculties. ...he declared that judges should refrain from eating meat before a trail, in order that those who appeared before them might receive the most honest and astute decisions." -Manly P. Hall, "The Secret Teachings of All Ages...", p. LXVI

"As long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other. Indeed, he who sows the seeds of murder and pain cannot reap joy and love." -Pythagoras (582-507 B.C.)

The Diet & Behavior Connection #15
Dr. Herbert Shelton, who supervised over 50,000 fasts, wrote, "The mentally unstable people of today are the products of a mode of nutrition, a way of life, and a plan of treatment and prevention that undermines biological and physiological integrity."

The Diet & Behavior Connection #15
“...Man tends to abstain from food when under great emotional distress, and rejection of food is frequent among the insane. ...Insanity is frequently overcome while fasting, and practically all cases are improved by the fast. ...Many fasting patients have lost their abnormal mental conditions while fasting. ...All who have extended experience with fasting have seen cases of insanity recover health while on the fast and many others make great improvements while fasting. ...Fasting is a great preparation. When at the beginning of his ministry, Jesus underwent a forty-day fast. He carried out a program that was common in the ancient world. Before a young man could enter upon the study of philosophy, before he could enter the priesthood, etc., he had to undergo a preparatory fast.” –Dr. Herbert Shelton

The Diet & Behavior Connection #16
"UNNATURAL food is the principal cause of human degeneration. It is the oldest vice. If we reflect upon the number of ruinous dietetic abuses, and their immemorial tyranny over the larger part of the human race, we are tempted to eschew all symbolic interpretations of the paradise legend and ascribe the fall of man literally and exclusively to the eating of forbidden food. From century to century this same cause has multiplied the sum of our earthly ills." -Felix L. Oswald

The Diet & Behavior Connection #17
Arnold Ehert, like many others who had vast experience helping others, came to the same conclusions!

"All disease of mankind, both mental and physical, ever since the dawn of civilization have the same fundamental cause--regardless of what the symptoms may be. It is without exception, one and the same general condition--a one-ness of all disease, that is: waste, foreign matter, filth, mucus and its poisons."
-Arnold Ehret, "A Religious Concept of Physical, Spiritual and Mental Dietics" p. 22

The Diet & Behavior Connection #17
"Our mind and mental condition influence the body, just as the body influences the mind and a clean, pure blood stream is therefore absolutely essential for clean, pure thoughts." -Arnold Ehret, "Mucusless Diet Healing System" p. 10

The Diet & Behavior Connection #18
Once again, those with vast experience working with others all notice the same transformations people go through when they stop eating less than ideal foods!

"While working with Dr. Wigmore, we noticed something wonderful happening to our students who really took the program to heart and went 100%: they all became 'enlightened' and loving and were in an entirely different space from when they entered the program approximately 10 days to 2 weeks before. From being suspicious to open and trusting, from frightened to loving. I could go on and on with the descriptions, but basically, there are no negative feelings when one is 100%. No reactions, like fear and anger; only love." -Dr. Flora Mason Van Orden

The Diet & Behavior Connection #18
"Anthony Robbins hit it on the head when he talked about cooked foods altering the electrical current in the body. Even the best of olive oils (I don't recommend them at all and neither did Dr. Wigmore) do not conduct electricity. If they don't conduct electricity, then they will not regenerate cells and one's nervous system is 'disconnected' from the vital energies." -Dr. Flora Mason Van Orden

The Diet & Behavior Connection #18
"I may be the only non-alcoholic who was ever allowed to speak to the AA meeting at Virginia Beach and was trying to explain why the sugars in their donuts dropped their blood sugar and then depression and cravings continued or started again. When one eats dead foods or drinks dead juices the energy is in one's bowels and that is the slowest of the feelings (tired, numb, non-reaction, non-feeling), and the living food's electrical charge wake one up to the source and love of life, the excitement of just enjoying the sight of a flower or a sky without needing any further stimulant. Oh, to be able to give everyone who is struggling with an addiction the blessed juices of a fresh papaya, or even an apple, and let them feel God's love coursing through their veins, as the nerves regenerate and they feel they are 'on the path' again. Peace and freedom from drugs come from the electricity in live food connecting with the love already inside us, that's been waiting for real nourishment. Men, especially, need water but not the water at a 'watering hole' or at a fishing pond, which are 2 ways they keep from going crazy, but the water from the living food." -Dr. Flora Mason Van Orden

The Diet & Behavior Connection #19
Here is an interesting story told by Dr. Ann Wigmore, on page 63 of her book, “Be Your Own Doctor”: “The experience of my good friend, John A. MacDonald, shows the power, the unbreakable strength for evil, in improper foods. Some years ago, John owned a pet shop which specialized in the raising of white mice. He sold mice by the thousands all over the world. In his enclosure for the mice, he had placed a large bale of hay. From the dried grass, the mice built a cooperative apartment house. They cut numerous tunnels through it, built hanging gardens cliff-dwelling pueblos and wonderful balconies on which they raised their young in harmony. It was a happy existence of peace and plenty.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #19
John became concerned about the rising price of grain to feed his mice and was on the lookout for ways to cut costs. A neighbor who ran a rather sizable boarding house offered to supply him daily with the leftover scraps from her tables. John gladly accepted the opportunity to increase his profits. But when the leftover food was substituted for the grain, a blight seemed to settle over the mice community. Eating the same food that human beings ate changed the complexion of the cooperative establishment. Quarrels broke out and battles raged through the bale-hay corridors. By the end of the week, dead mice littered the floor of the compound; cannibalistic parents ate their young. The weaker mice were slain without any provocation.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #19
Realizing that only disaster loomed ahead, John threw out the scraps of food and went back to grain. And the result was quickly evident. No more mice were found dead or half-eaten. This is not an imaginary story. It is a documented history of facts. And what the “food human beings ate” did to the mice, it is evidently doing today in many disastrous ways to our children and adults in many of our communities.” Dr. Ann Wigmore, “Be Your Own Doctor” p. 63

The Diet & Behavior Connection #20
“As a Wellness Consultant, I have coached thousands of people and I have seen miracles when people simply stop eating less than ideal foods, not only with physical issues, but with mental, emotional, spiritual, and behavioral issues. One comment I hear frequently when I’m coaching ministers is that they are not getting as upset with their congregation as they used to.” John Rose

The Diet & Behavior Connection #20
Indeed, the Diet & Behavior Connection seems to be more difficult for most people to grasp than the Diet & Disease Connection, but it should not come as any surprise since everything is interconnected. Unfortunately, our society is not solving any of our serious health and behavioral problems and all of these problems are getting worse not better. This too should come as no surprise since we have over 360,000 processed foods on the market today and half of those have come in the last 10 years.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #20
Once again, there is a common link to every one of our problems... every problem we have is because of our behavior...we’re misbehaving. And without a doubt the worse thing we’re doing...the worse way we’re misbehaving is we are eating foods that are less than ideal. These are not natural foods. Currently, we have about 360,000 processed foods, half of which have come in the last 10 years and all of the rest came in the last 100 or so years. This is when our health started to decline and we started seeing different types of degenerative diseases. But as soon as we started consistently altering our food 40 to 60 thousand years ago it started affecting us.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #20
We’re eating foods that we’re not biologically adapted to eat...we’re eating foods that have been chemically altered and when we look at all the factors that affect our behavior and our health, the ways we interact with our environment, our food choices are the most important of all and yet, we’re in denial. We have 360,000 processed foods on the market, half of those came in the last 10 years. No surprise we’re getting sicker and sicker. At the turn of the century before we started eating processed foods, only 1 out of 7 people had cardiovascular disease...1 out of 30 only had cancer. Now look at it...it’s 90% of the people are getting those 2 diseases instead of 17%.

The Diet & Behavior Connection #20
Currently, we have over 360,000 processed foods on the market and half of those came in the last 10 years. None of these processed foods are natural foods, and since every cell in our bodies are made form our food, air, water and light, if any of these are unnatural or less than ideal, then we too will become unnatural, which obviously is less than ideal. Not only are we eating processed foods, but we’re also eating other foods that we’re not biologically adapted to eat and we’re eating foods that have been chemically altered. And when we look at all the factors that affect our behavior and our health, the ways we interact with our environment, our food choices are the most important of all and yet, we’re in denial...we refuse to look in the mirror, so we run to denial instead so we can protect our pleasures.

Peace and Love..........John

Thanks for posting this, John--very interesting, especially the info on studies pertaining to nutrition therapies for socially aberrant behaviors. I knew about the Appleton, WI, school experiment, but not the others.

The serotonin that is generated from the gut flora in the intestines doesn't cross the blood brain barrier though and is used for other functions such as stimulating peristalsis.

As someone who has had major issues with gut flora i still emphasise that its one of the most important areas of the body to support along with the liver and adrenal glands.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

Thx heaps John, excellent post. I knew about #9 and #19 regarding animals, but none of the rest. However, I knew of people, and have been told of people who, on changing their diet also underwent a personality change simultaneously. From a tendency to be judgemental and aggressive, to a more understanding empathetic attitude, and I've seen this even within myself.

I did find connection #1 below regarding 'serotonin' rather interesting John........

The Diet & Behavior Connection #1
Serotonin is the natural chemical in the body that antidepressants affect. Though 5 percent of your body's serotonin is in your brain, 95 percent is in your intestines. "You have a second brain down there." -Dr. Mehmet Oz on Oprah.

Hmmm, so there's more to it when people say someone has 'SHIIT FOR BRAINS' LOL

jalan

I just added some info to my website regarding the mental/brain connection & health/nutrition. It's something I've been studying for years and experimenting with. It's a work in progress, but hopefully it will be helpful to many having a difficult time finding solutions.

[dimondhealth.com]

Simple Raw Recipes & Health Tips

hi john rose

thanx for the super awesome info.

John
Many thanks
Power points are supposed to have pictures with them. How do we get the pictures I am going to save this info.

THeSt0rm Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Yea, acid diet, acid thoughts.
>
> Depression - adrenal exhaustion. Copper toxicity..

I was just away to post about copper toxicity and the potential problem long term on a raw vegan diet which is very abudant in copper and by result low in balancing zinc.

I suffered from copper toxicity for years and it really did a number on my adrenal glands, nervous system and mind. I have seen people completely change their personality after copper chelation. Copper chelation was one of the hardest things i have ever went through, sometimes the symptoms were so unbearable i felt i was losing my mind. Especially if you had sluggish elimination organs like i did at the time.

[www.vegankingdom.co.uk]

DR Russell Blaylock (neurosurgeon) makes many great points about disease. See his youtube, he is a very smart man.

John Rose: l have much l have been meaning to talk to you about, but l am time poor. Hopefully one day l shall find time to speak to you about important many things. *smile*