cover image The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Ruining Our Children's Minds

The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Ruining Our Children's Minds

Carol N. Simontacchi. Jeremy P. Tarcher, $24.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-1-58542-035-3

Why have depression rates soared in the post-WWII era? Why does one in four adults have a mental health crisis in any given year? According to Simontacchi, a clinical nutritionist (Your Fat Is Not Your Fault), the cause is a diet that consists of processed food deficient in crucial nutrients. Turning her attention first to the eating patterns of pregnant women, Simontacchi finds a connection between prenatal nutritional deficiencies (in fatty acids and B complex vitamins, among others) and ""hidden"" defects, which show up not at birth but later, as poor memory and the inability to concentrate. She also reports on a small study she conducted with teenagers: one group was given a nutritious breakfast drink and the other group was not. The youths who received the drink, she discovered, felt better in six areas of emotion, such as anxiety, depression and vigor. She also finds links between the poor eating habits of teenagers and fatigue, depression and self-destructive behavior. Throughout, Simontacchi documents her arguments with reference to mainstream journal articles and nutritional studies. But her tone is sometimes overwrought: ""We are being systematically starved,"" she writes, eating not real food but ""toxic food artifacts"" made by food manufacturers. Her comments about the superiority of breast milk over formula may plunge into guilty despair anyone who didn't breast-feed her children for at least a year. But in a more positive vein, she offers pro-active strategies for improved nutrition--including pages of sensible suggested recipes for improving not only physical but mental health as well. (June)