Are You Becoming Dumber?
photo credit: LoreleiRanveig
The health conscious among us may already be aware of this issue. However for those who are not so aware this article may be shocking. If I were to tell you that society in general and you in particular are being chemically dumbed down, perhaps not in the sense of a systematic conspiracy, but in a very real sense nonetheless, some would respond as if I was stating the obvious and others would be at least a little skeptical if not downright cynical.
Neuroscience has discovered the process of excitotoxicity that occurs in the brain. Excitotoxins are amino acids that when consumed excite certain nerve cells in our brain to such an extent that they actually die. If after eating a particular food you experience foggy thinking and difficulty stringing sentences together then this is an early indication that your food had an excitotoxin in it.
It seems to me almost beyond belief that companies would knowingly produce processed food that contain substances that actually reduce our ability to think logically and critically. It’s just too crazy. But it doesn’t end there. The names of common excitotoxins are well known. Mono-Sodium Glutamate (MSG) and Aspartame are just two names excitotoxins parade under. Other names include artificial sweetener, hydrogenised vegetable protein, yeast extract, and flavor enhancer.
Aspartame is currently used in over 5,000 food products (usually as an artificial sweetener), medication, and drinks. Shortly after Aspartame’s original approval for use in dry foods by the FDA it was quickly withdrawn. This was due to research carried out by the senior toxicologist of the FDA at the time. Later a new director of the FDA approved Aspartame despite the objections of neuroscientists and pathologists. Just two months later the director left the FDA for a position as senior medical advisor for the PR firm of the pharmaceutical company that had discovered Aspartame.
The approval of Aspartame was based upon the idea that we would not be consuming more then 20mg per kg per day. It was later raised to 50mg per kg per day. Today studies have shown that people are consuming as much as 150mg per kg per day and higher.
More severe reactions to these substances include numbness, double vision, blindness, and cardiac arrest. Excitotoxins are associated with neural-degenerative diseases (think Alzheimer’s), neural-developmental abnormalities, diabetes type I and II, endocrine disorders, obesity, immune dysfunction, enhanced cancer growth and spread, gastro intestinal disorders, autoimmune disorders, multiple sclerosis and sudden cardiac death. Notice how that just about covers most of the major modern afflictions? Even if food additives were not the original cause of many of these disorders, which in some instances can lead to mental health treatment centers, they make the conditions advance at a far greater rate and eventually far more severe.
According to Russell Blaylock the amount of MSG in our food has doubled every ten years. What’s more the population is magnesium deficient which makes us even more susceptible to the effects of these excitotoxin additives. Further, because of these substances in our food, there are a lot more people of lower IQ and a lot less people of higher IQ. The effect of a mass of people who can’t think clearly, logically and critically is mass dependence upon authority. While I am skeptical of conspiracy theories in general it does make me wonder why this is happening.
You must check the labels of the food you’re buying and feeding to yourself and your family. Better yet don’t actually waste your money on what I call non-foods. That is don’t buy and eat anything that comes out of a man made packet. It’s simple – any food that has been processed is not going to be healthy for you. This blanket statement covers from fruit juice to meat products (many of which have added sugar) to low fat milk to bread and pasta. None of these things occur as is in nature and the most processed products are full of additives and preservatives (sugar is a preservative) that produce inflammation in the digestive system. This is the recipe for the health disaster that is occurring right now.
Eat only whole foods. Such foods are high in fiber and contain the vitamin and mineral complex that processed foods do not because processing has denatured them. Try to eat as much organic produced food as possible. The tons of herbicides, pesticides, fungicides and rodenticides that food producers are continuously spraying on your food are akin to neurotoxins. The chemical fertilizer your food is grown in is very closely related to gunpowder.
The grain cows, chickens, pigs and so forth are fed is generally of very poor quality, grown under the conditions mentioned in the above paragraph and not fit for human consumption. The grains are often moldy which means your steak is filled with mycotoxins from fungus. Add to that the animals are given growth hormones and fed antibiotics that end up in the meat, the fat, eggs, milk, and butter.
You should know that antibiotics are essentially mycotoxins produced from fungus. The idea is to kill bacteria that are causing the problem. However the killing of bacteria is indiscriminate. This means all the very good bacteria in your digestive system are killed off. You body is thrown out of balance and fungus with no competition from bacteria to keep it in check moves in and takes over. Fungus infections have been implicated in most of the common health problem currently afflicting modern man.
The bottom line: You cannot become healthy while eating sick animals, sick plants or processed food. Eating such foods could never result in health. If you would like to look further into the issue of excitotoxins in your food then buy the book by Russell Blaylock M.D. entitled Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills. Another great book that is less technical is The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children
by Carol Simontacchi.
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September 23rd, 2008 at 12:00 pm
A very thought provoking article. I know nothing about these matters but I am sure you are right that processed food is less healthy than the natural variety. As for a conspiracy, I don’t believe in them. But that’s what they want us to say isn’t it…?
September 23rd, 2008 at 12:27 pm
I’ve always had a hard time believing conspiracy theories. All I know is that many people exist in a poor state of walking death. The state of health is very bad and getting worse. Something is very wrong.
I think we have looked to and relied upon others for far too long to provide us with our own health. Many of us have not taken responsibility for ourselves.
There will be guides and helping hands we can make use of (which is why I write this blog) but in the end we each must walk the path. No one else can do it for us.
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Hi Stephen, VERY thought provoking article and important information. My mom has a blood cancer “Essential Thrombocythemia” and her doctor told her it was probably because she had drank diet soda all her life…. Here people think they are being more health conscious by drinking “diet” soda when it is even more harmful than already processed enough regular soda. The advertising is very misleading and it is important people realize that advertisers just care about making money — they will not tell you the flip side of eating/drinking their product. I am trying to get away more and more from processed food and am realizing how much more energy I have when I do stay away. Thank you for this post! Gratefully, Jenny
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:28 pm
I couldn’t agree with this article more! I don’t understand why aspartame and MSG are still on the shelves…oh wait, never mind…corporate America owns the FDA …that is why!
September 24th, 2008 at 2:49 am
@Jenny – Thanks for commenting! I wish we could all become immune to corporate marketing like an experienced internet user is immune to many forms of online marketing.
You’re right, the food and pharmaceutical industries are here to make money. They are not concerned about our health and wellbeing. Rightly or wrongly it is our responsibility to look after our own health.
I think we tend to get caught up in doing what is “normal”. If everyone else is drinking diet soda why can’t I? If everyone else is eating white bread, fast food, processed and commercially farmed food, MSG, and so forth then it becomes weird and abnormal to not do these things. But at the same time most people in the “everyone else” category are sick, on medication, unhappy, and perhaps a little crazy.
They are the walking dead. They are kept kicking by medication and invasive medicine so that they continue to consume. Most spend their life savings in the last few days of their lives on costly medical treatment trying to stay alive. What a waste.
@Dr Nicole – I thought you might like this article. The scary thing is: if food additives are making people dumber, thus increasing their reliance on authority and the authority is corrupt and run by a group of “smart” people then the cycle will continue to worsen. Somehow we have to wake people up. Websites like yours, Jenny’s and mine are a good start in that direction.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:30 am
I’m particular about additives in the food that I consume. I’d much rather eat at home. I suppose going organic is the only way to go from now!
September 29th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
This article was featured in the Carnival of the Insanities. Hosted at a rather interesting blog.
October 9th, 2008 at 8:17 am
Thanks for submitting this post to our blog carnival. We just published the 40th edition of Brain Blogging and your article was featured!
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Shaheen
October 10th, 2008 at 1:21 pm
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October 20th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
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