Book Review "The food lie" by Hans-Ulrich Grimm

• Conclusion
• 1. Summary
• 2. Book review
• • 2.1. A Blow to the Brain
  • 2.2. Bizarre Behavior
• Bibliography
• • 2.3. High as the Sky — Glutamate
  • 2.4. The Sweet Club
  • 2.5. Next to Nothing
  • 2.6. More Than Scary
  • 2.7. Straight from the Can
  • 2.8. Red Hot Ears
  • 2.9. Organ of the Year
  • 2.10. Listen to the Signals
  • 2.11. Lexicon
• 3. About the book

The images I have added to this book review serve to break up the text and provide space for additional comments. There are no images in the book itself. The ones in this article are either my own, are public domain images, or are taken from Wikipedia.

For those interested, I have linked many terms to the corresponding Wikipedia entries (italics, last updated: October 2013). Links not in italics lead to articles of my own or are anchor texts.

Wikipedia can be a useful tool depending on the topic. However, it is often one-sided, presenting only the view of interested parties or the current opinion. This is often the case, especially for languages other than English, for example, for entries in German.

Note: The chapter titles and all quotations in italics are translated from the original German.

Contents and notes

A Blow to the Brain — Are We Eating Ourselves Stupid?
Bizarre Behavior — Chemistry and Character
High as the Sky — Glutamate, the Flavor That Can Kill Brain Cells
The Sweet Club — Money and Power: How the Industry Reacts to Criticism
Near to Nothing — What Goes to a Child’s Brain
More than Scary — Children on Drugs: The "R-Experiment"
Straight from the Can — Alzheimer’s and How Food Destroys the Brain
Red Hot Ears - Food and the Psyche — the Power of Feelings
Organ of the Year — The “Brain in the Gut”: How the Gut Has a Mind of Its Own
Listen to the Signals — The Gourmet Diet That Makes You Clever and Happy
Dictionary — What’s Good, What’s Bad: The ABCs of Brain Food

The author gives a list of keywords at the beginning of each chapter, and some of the chapters have several subtitles.

Wolfram Siebeck, journalist for Die Zeit is quoted on the cover of the book: Yet another piece of consumer education from tenacious food detective Hans-Ulrich Grimm, the importance of which cannot begin to be estimated.

The back cover warns: Industrial food can impair your mental performance and your emotional well-being.

Blurb: Brain activity can be affected by a single meal. No other organ is as regulated by food as the brain is. What we eat greatly affects not only our intelligence, but also our mind and behavior. Until recently, brain scientists believed that the brain functioned to a large extent independently. It has only emerged in recent years that changes in modern dietary patterns have had and are having a dramatic effect on brain function.

Industrial food processing removes many nutrients from food that are vital to the grey cells, while adding chemicals that damage them. As soon as certain parts of the brain shrink, the level of intelligence falls. Brain diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s have also been associated with nutrition.

Children are also affected. Many school children don’t want to or have difficulties studying and are inattentive or hyperactive. These conditions are often caused by chemicals in our food. Here are some examples of the above:

• Monosodium glutamate is toxic to the nerve cells and can have adverse effects on sufferers of Parkinson’s and multiple sclerosis. Almost six times more monosodium glutamate is produced today than was produced 25 years ago.

• Color additives are being consumed in excess, especially by children. They are found in candy, cola, and ice cream. They can cause behavioral problems, hyperactivity, and learning disorders.

• Although Omega-3 fatty acids are essential to healthy brain function, they have almost disappeared from our diet. They are being driven out systematically by pizza and sausages. These important fats are very sensitive, causing them to spoil quickly. They are therefore undesirable to the food industry, whose main aim is to have products with a long shelf life.

It's time to be concerned! Not too long ago, these “brain killers” didn’t play a major role in our diet. However, the authorities who approved them for use in food neglected to consider how toxic they are to the brain. Leading scientists now insist on examining, once and for all, the risks that such substances pose to the brain.

If you want to do your brain a favor, read Hans-Ulrich Grimm’s recommendations on how to promote “culinary intelligence.” Traditional cooking and gourmet cuisine are not only tastier, but also increase levels of intelligence and happiness. This is because the ingredients used in them have been proven to be good for the brain.

Dr. Hans-Ulrich Grimm (link in German), (born in 1955), is a journalist and author living in Stuttgart, Germany. He was an editor for Der Spiegel (German magazine) from 1989 to 1996, where his main area of research was industrial food. He has published several books on the topic. Grimm studied German language and literature, history, and education studies.

Grimm has written a dozen books including Vitaminschock (The vitamin shock) and Mund auf, Augen auf (Open your mouth, open your eyes). He has also written on health problems relating to the consumption of milk.

This chapter opens with a short explanation by internationally renowned brain researcher and molecular biologist Dr. Konrad Beyreuther (link in German). Beyreuther, formerly of Harvard University and currently director of Network Aging Research at Heidelberg University says: Although the brain makes up only two percent of total body weight, it burns up twenty percent of the body’s energy.

© CC-by-sa 3.0, 7mike5000, Wikipedia		Truschke’s comment comes in the context of a global aging population (lubbockonline.com, July 2000). He predicts that 22 million people will have Alzheimer’s by the year 2025.
© CC-by-sa 3.0, 7mike5000, Wikipedia		Dr. Robert Katzman of the University of California, San Diego, believes this number will be as high as 45 million by 2050 (albeit thinking linearly).

Between the ages of 65 and 86, Alzheimer’s cases double with every five years of age. Although there is no cure for the disease, advances in the early detection of symptoms are needed.

According to Ronald C. Petersen, MD, PhD, professor of neurology at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center of the Mayo Clinic, there are “currently” (in the year 2000) four million Alzheimer sufferers in the United States and a further eight million in other countries. It is astounding that our diet, the most significant cause of Alzheimer's, is not part of the discussion.

Instead of researching the causes of Alzheimer’s, Memory Pharmaceuticals is working away to find a pill to treat the symptoms. Biotech company Roche saw the opportunities behind this and signed a $50 million merger with Memory in November 2008.

Note: Although these findings can surely also be attributed to stress, it is evident that food affects us in many more ways.

Professor Dr. Michael A. Crawford, PhD, Imperial College, London, and director of the Institute of Brain Chemistry and Human Nutrition (IFBB) at the University of North London claims to have scientific evidence that proves we are losing mental capacity.

H. U. Grimm lists examples of brain changes in children from a number of radically different countries. He writes:

In India, one study showed that 56 % of school-aged students have learning difficulties. In Poland and the Czech Republic, the number of students with special needs has doubled. And in Russia, there is an increasing number of cases of mental underdevelopment, and this number is increasing two times more quickly in the cities than in the country. And finally, it is particularly disturbing that in some areas of Brazil the average brain size has been shrinking over the last thirty years.

During times of stress, it is especially important to provide the brain with healthy nutrients. There is growing consensus in the scientific community that nutrition can permanently change the chemistry of the brain.

Richard Wurtman, MD, of the Clinical Research Center at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) explains that the individual components of even one single meal can hugely effect brain function. Only since the twenty-first century has it become accepted that the brain can be modified and repaired and that it can even grow, explains Dr. Bruce S. McEwen, brain researcher at Rockefeller-University in New York.

Dr. James Fraser Mustard, (1927–2011), a highly esteemed Canadian scientist, reported there was substantial evidence from animal and human studies that a child’s early experiences and nutrition are crucial to brain function in later life (p. 24).

Leading British brain researcher Professor Basant K. Puri of Hammersmith Hospital and The Imperial College, London, has published several books on the subject, and complains that children eat mostly junk food. This type of food is poison to the brain, and it is shocking what it does to it, he explains.

Professor Crawford and other experts see inadequate levels of omega-3 fatty acids as a major problem. The food industry and clever business people are therefore jumping on this marketing band wagon to promote supplements and other products. Food industry giants are not interested in the fact that we should simply return to eating natural foods. On the contrary.

Note: Autism was first described by Eugen Bleuler in 1911. It has been spreading more quickly in recent years.

© CC-by-sa 4.0, Fred the Oyster, Wikipedia

Karyn Seroussi wrote the book Unraveling the Mystery of Autism and Pervasive Developmental Disorder. You can find her website here with a video at the bottom right. The Autism Research Institute (ARI) website is very informative and has many useful articles.

Grimm cites a number of brain researchers such as John J. Ratey, MD, who discussed the brain’s center of emotions, otherwise known as the hippocampus, which is part of the limbic system and located in the cerebellum. The hippocampus releases endorphins, which are opioids and opioid peptides that the body itself produces. The limbic system governs emotions, but also intellectual achievement.

Ratey describes the typical autistic characteristic of withdrawing from almost all kinds of physical contact. Since the autistic brain doesn’t engage selectively, it is inundated with stimuli.

An extensive study published in 2002 at the University of California, showed a 270 percent increase in the incidence of autism between 1987 and 1998. It was shown that improved diagnostics did not account for this "growing".

The United States Department of Education reports an increase of 544 percent in the rate of autism between 1992 and 2001.

© CC-by-sa 3.0, soebe, Wikipedia

According to a study published in The Lancet in 1968, Savannah and bush buffalo have the highest content of omega-3 fatty acids, followed by plant sources and lastly fish. We don’t need animal sources for omega-3 fatty acids because many seeds, for example, flaxseed (56–71%) and plants and algae have a far higher omega-3 content than fish or buffalo.

Food processing turns “good” unsaturated fats into trans fatty acids that cause an increase in LDL-cholesterol in the blood, which in turn causes coronary heart disease. This is what we call industrial fat hardening. There is no mention (yet) of the influence of nutrition on aggression, despite the fact that prominent scientists suggest there is a connection between them.

Omega-3 fatty acids are problematic to the food industry because polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) do not have a long shelf life. Andrew L. Stoll, MD, of Harvard Medical School in Boston, has seen great improvements with simple diet changes, although he doesn’t give evidence of this.

Through a website on autism in children, the women came upon the work of Dr. Karl Reichelt (Norway) (aka. Kalle Ludvig Reichelt), Paul Shattock (England), and Dr. William Shaw, PhD, (US), who had proven what parents had known for 20 years, that dairy products worsen the symptoms of autism.

Gluten also adversely affects autism patients. Wheat, oats, rye, barley, and especially convenience foods (packaged food, ready-to-eat food) should be avoided (p. 45).

© CC-by-sa 2.0, Dr. William Shaw, amazon

The Norwegian researcher Dr. Karl Reichelt found opioid peptides in the urine of autistic children and these could be traced back to gluten and casein. (Wikipedia 1991) The book Biological Treatments for Autism and PDD is also available in German as Biologische Behandlung bei Autismus & PDD.

Information on the subject on Wikipedia, at least as of December 2013, came for the most part from the food industry. I would like to draw attention to a double-blind study in which another neurotransmitter was simply used as the placebo (see more re p. 96 below). Of course, no difference was detected!

We also recommend Die gluten- und kaseinfreie Ernährung für Menschen mit Autismus, ADS/ADHS oder Allergien (The gluten- and casein-free diet for sufferers of Autism, ADD/ADHS, and allergies) written by educational researcher Susanne Strasser.

H. U. Grimm discusses the history of research into the seat of the soul and mind (p. 46). Plato (427–347 BCE) regarded the entrails as the seat of significant parts of the soul, (note: the term “intestine” is used today, or in this context gastrointestinal tract would be better), the liver as the seat of the lower passions — such as lusts and greed; the heart as the seat of the higher passions — pride, courage, anger, and fear; and the brain as the seat of the mind.

Galen (130–200 CE) regarded the nerves and brain as the seat of the soul. In the Middle Ages, different chambers of the brain were seen as the location: the front for perceptual assets, imagination, and public spirit; the middle chamber for thinking and judgment; and the last chamber for memory.

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) made perfect anatomical illustrations of the human brain.

René Descartes (1596-1650) thought that the pineal gland was full of “spiritus animalis” (animal spirits) which were very fine winds, or rather very lively flames in the filaments of the nerves.

Isaac Newton (1643–1727) believed the spiritus animalis was vibrations in the nerves.

Neuroscientist and medical historian Dr. Robert-Benjamin Illing of Medical Center — University of Freiburg writes in his book "Vom Loch im Kopf zum Neuron" (From the hole in the head to the neuron) that there was a lot of confusion about the subject even as late as the middle of the eighteenth century.

Emil Du Bois-Reymond (1818–1896) “discovered” in 1843 that there were electrical currents in the nerve tracts.

See note below for Luigi Galvani about this “discovery.”

© Public Domain, Sir William Richard Gowers, 1886

Luigi Galvani (1737–1798) demonstrated on November 6, 1780, that frogs who had recently been killed showed muscle contractions when touched with rods of copper and iron. Later he also proved the electrical effect of lightning using earth and ground terminals and his knowledge of Benjamin Franklin’s (1706–1790) lightning rod. In 1792, Alessandro Volta (1745–1827) learned about the frog experiments, and later discovered the battery in 1800, presenting it in 1801 to Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821).

Grimm describes Otto Loewi as a “German chemist.” But as a Jew, Loewi was forced to leave Austria at the age of 65 (Anschluss). He had won the Nobel Prize together with Henry Dale in 1936 and was forced to transfer his prize money into a Nazi bank account.

Dale discovered the hormone "oxytoc.." in the pituitary gland (hypophysis) in 1906.

German pharmacologist Otto Loewi (1873–1961) discovered a new substance that was excreted from his body after he had taken drugs.

Henry Hallet Dale (1875–1968) later identified this chemical as the neurotransmitter acetylcholin (AHc).

In his book "Körpereigene Drogen, die ungenutzten Fähigkeiten unseres Gehirns" (The body’s own drugs — the brain’s unused powers), Dr. Josef Zehentbauer (MD) demonstrates how every thought and every feeling is carried by a specific combination of neurotransmitters.

Zehentbauer incidentally has written about a dozen books, the most famous of them "Die Seele zerstören – Neuroleptika – der verheimlichte Arzneimittelskandal" (Destroying the mind — antipsychotics — the drug scandal cover-up).

Dr. James Robert Cade of the University of Florida notice a remarkable improvement in 81 percent of children he treats who are put on a GFCF diet (gluten-free, casein-free). This has also been confirmed by Finnish nutrition researcher Teuvo Rantala, despite having been skeptical at first, as he admitted to New Scientist.

Parents of autistic children, Martina Siesing from Magdeburg, Germany, Verena Karg, and Sylvia Gottstein, both from Leimen, Germany, each have their own success stories (p. 51).

See also the website gfcfdiet.com.

The Kalveness family from Moss in Norway brought their son to Dr. Reichelt and saw positive results after only three months with the GFCF diet. The Seroussi family eliminated all symptoms of autism in their son by excluding convenience foods from his diet (p. 53).

The type of glutamate we are discussing is called monosodium glutamate (MSG).

Note: 20 µg is considered the normal threshold dose.

Andrea Eid discusses the risks and uses of glutamate as a food additive in her thesis "Glutamat als Zusatzstoff in Lebensmitteln –Nutzen und Risiken" (Glutamate as a food additive — uses and risks) (Grin Verlag, 2009). She discusses proven side effects of glutamate and explains how the food industry gets around the duty of declaration regarding the additive.

Grimm lists the possible side effects of consuming glutamate such as cluster headaches (p.57). Some substances were not known to be neurotoxic (neurotoxin) at the time of approval.

Other hidden sources of glutamate are carrageenan, maltodextrin, wheat protein (gluten), and dried milk (powdered milk) products.

The German organic food giant Rapunzel camouflages glutamate in its soup cubes as yeast extract. Their clear soup contains 2.7% glutamate, while their “low salt” broth cubes contain as much as 4.9%. Their vegetable soup package contains the slogan no artificial flavor enhancers (p. 59)!

Glutamate occurs naturally in some foods such as cheese, beans, tomatoes, and breast milk. It is also naturally present in the body.

Glutamate plays a vital role in pain modulation, in controlling "bodygrowth" and appetite, in regulating body weight, and even in reproduction. Glutamate is one of the most important chemical messengers in the hypothalamus, the body’s control center deep inside the head.

This has only been known scientifically since 1990, although glutamate has been allowed as an additive since 1959 under the designation Generally Recognized As Safe (GRAS) (p. 60).

See also "glutamateflavoring".

© Public Domain, Henry Gray (1918), Anatomy of the Human Body

From Wikipedia (German): Many patients who suffer from restless legs syndrome (RLS) also suffer from insomnia (sleep disorder). "A study with 28 RLS patients carried out at Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, (JHU), showed a relationship between the treatment of RLS and insomnia and the cerebral metabolism of the neurotransmitters "dopami..* and glutamate."

Treatment of the RLS patients with dopaminergic agents (drugs that increase "dopami..") improved the RLS symptoms, but not the often accompanying insomnia. In a comparative study with 20 healthy people, results showed unusually high levels of glutamate in the thalamus of the RLS patients. There was a correlation between the level of glutamate in the thalamus and the quality of sleep. Specialists at JHU concluded that overstimulation of the thalamus triggered by glutamate is the cause of insomnia.

During the war, U.S. quartermasters noticed that the rations of captured Japanese soldiers tasted delicious.

After the war, the U.S. food industry started adding monosodium glutamate to industrial foods in order to increase turnover. Originally, the industry produced glutamic acid by culturing the bacteria Corynebacterium glutamicum from the Japanese kelp Saccharina japonica, also called Laminoria japonica. This bacteria also occurs in the sea vegetable kombu (p.65).

Today, the biotechnology industry uses mutations of the bacteria.

In 1976, production worldwide reached 262'000 tons, and this increased to 1.5 million tons by 2003.

This information isn’t succinct unfortunately, but is spread over different chapters on pages 28, 69, 75, 83, and 91–97.

It is done using what is called a double-blind study (double-blind trial), which is better than a blind study (blind experiment) and is actually the easiest way for researchers to demonstrate a particular view. See also randomized controlled trial.

One case in point is how food giant Nestlé points to the 1996 Hohenheimer Consensus Conference, organized by German nutrition scientist Konrad Biesalski, in order to justify its use of monosodium glutamate (p. 68). Biesalski did however admit that drastic increases in levels of glutamate in the body can cause excessive sustained activation of glutamate receptors which can kill neurons (p. 75).

The global leader Ajinomoto also used and paid Biesalski to furnish the relevant certification for glutamate needed in order to comply with German food regulations (p. 83).

Professor Biesalski runs these independent consensus conferences on controversial scientific topics on behalf of interested parties. Conference participants author and present consensus papers, which are then accepted as established scientific doctrine.

The 1996 conference on glutamate had papers from the following specialists besides Biesalski himself:

• Professor Karl-Heinz Bässler (Mainz),
• Johannes Friedrich Diehl (former Director of the Karlsruher Bundesforschungsangestalt für Ernährung [German Federal Research Center for Nutrition in Karlsruhe),
• food scientist Helmut F. Erbersdobler, of Kiel,
• Peter Fürst and Walter Hammes of the University Hohenheim,
• Mainz neuroscientist Oliver Kempski,
• and Hans Steinhart of the Universität Hamburg.

Biesalski insists the participating scientists were not paid (p.92).

The conference was commissioned by the “Glutamat-Informationsdienst” (an information service about glutamate) based in the town Kronberg im Taunus in Germany, via a PR agency, and paid for by global giant Ajinomoto, which has a glutamate turnover of €10 billion. (This represents 30 % of the worldwide production of 1.5 million tons of glutamate.) And this does not include Ajinomoto’s trade in sweeteners, additives, and convenience foods (p. 93).

When you read the Wikipedia entry about glutamate intolerance, it is easy to see whose interests are being promoted.

Knorr foods and the beverage manufacturer Calpis are owned by Unilever, at least in Japan, and licensed in Japan to food giant Ajinomoto.

• In 1997, Konrad Biesalski published the article “Na-Glutamat, eine Standortbestimmung” (Sodium glutamate, an analysis of the position) in the journal Aktuelle Ernährungs-Medizin (Current issues in nutritional medicine) (22: pp. 169–178),
• In 1998 “Zur Bedeutung von Glutamat in der Ernährung” (On the importance of glutamate in food) in the journal Ernährungs-Umschau (Survey of nutrition) (edition 45, 7).
• I highly recommend the "Pocket Atlas of Nutrition", written by H. K. Biesalski and Peter Grimm and published by Thieme Medical Publishers.

In 1997, Florida author Hyram J. Roberts, MD, (deceased Feb. 25, 2013, aka Hiram, author of Aspartame (NutraSweet): Is it Safe?) summarized his research of over two decades as follows:

If the general public doesn’t stop using aspartame products immediately, I am of the opinion that our society will be faced by an unavoidable catastrophe.

John W. Olney, MD, of Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, testified that the data provided by the industry, on which the FDA based its approval of certain foods, often proved on further examination to be faulty, unreliable, or even totally false. In the case of aspartame, it was determined that the industry had submitted manipulated information — fake information — to the FDA (p. 83).

Researchers have pointed to the fact that this has also occurred in the case of glutamate. Both substances are neurotransmitters that can potentially act as neurotoxins. They are particularly harmful to children.

Grimm also reports on studies carried out by neuropsychologist Dr. Paul A. Spiers of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston. BIDMC is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.

The author also tells of a patient of H. J. Roberts, MD, (see above) who suffered from headaches, depression, memory loss, lethargy, and irritability. The symptoms disappeared one day after the patient discontinued her previous high consumption of aspartame and Diet Coke. This is only one of 1'300 cases collected by Spiers.

Confusingly, some products which contain aspartame have the label contains a source of phenylalanine. People who suffer from phenylketonuria (PKU), a relatively common genetic metabolic disorder (1:10'000 in the U.S.), can experience delays in physical and emotional development if they eat such foods that contain too much phenylalanine. If they don’t follow a strict low-protein diet, this can lead to quite serious health problems. See also phenylpyruvic acid.

One consensus paper written by nutrition scientist Konrad Biesalski (see above) was enough to convince people of the safety of glutamate.

Biesalski is also founder of the food research, prevention, and therapy center "Science Forschungszentrum in Ernährung und Prävention und Therapie GmbH" (Science research center in nutrition and prevention and treatment, FEP) in Esslingen, Germany. His wife is the director of the company. Their company brochure describes the company as an innovative service provider that sells science in clear terms. It lauds its cooperation with the "Institute of Biological Chemistry and Nutrition" at the University of Hohenheim, whose director, take note, is Professor Biesalski himself.

And then there is the associated company "Forschungszentrum für Ernährung in Prävention und Therapie Hohenheim GmbH" (also a center for research, prevention, and treatment), which is a spin-off and whose director is also Biesalski. The company naturally highlights the fact that it provides media-friendly consensus papers that, according to the company’s logic, tie in with its marketing activities.

These papers are of course just as scientific as the double-blind and blind studies using aspartame (similar effect) instead of placebos that are mentioned above.

A further faked study, carried out as part of an official U.S. investigation, questioned 3'222 people on the adverse effects of glutamate and resulted in only 1.8 % of respondents reporting to have suffered adverse effects. The creators of the survey focused solely on the symptoms of “burning,” “tightness,” and “numbness.”

However, a further 41.2 % of participants complained of having the following MSG-induced adverse reactions: chest pains, dizziness, headaches, palpitations, weakness, vomiting/nausea, abdominal cramps, chills, diarrhea, heartburn, unusual thirst, unusual perspiration, flushing sensation in chest or face, nervous tingling, seizures, tachycardia, skin rashes, and/or depression.

Numerous other studies exonerating glutamate have been carried out with the active participation of companies like Ajinomoto, Gerber Products Company, Nestlé, and the International Glutamate Technical Committee (IGTC). Susan Schiffman of Duke University Medical School, who presented a paper at the Hohenheimer Consensus Conference, had her research partly financed by Monsanto, former NutraSweet mother company (p.97).

NutraSweet brought a law suit against toxicologist Dr. Hermann Kruse of Kiel University, who had spoken on ZDF (German television channel) about his views on aspartame and glutamate.

The judges discussed symptoms such as headaches, which according to Dr. Friedrich Schweinsberg, University of Tübingen, were ‘significantly more frequent’ among those who were given only 15 mg per pound of body weight. According to Susan Schiffman, ‘no connection’ between the symptoms and aspartame could be determined” (p.101).

Herman Kruse was acquitted. He took on the task of analyzing the results of 166 studies on aspartame published since 1976. Eighty-three of these tests have classified aspartame as problematic for one reason or another (p. 101).

Studies financed by interested parties are not a priori bad, but what happens is that the client can misuse or hide negative results.

Grimm reports that British researcher Erik Millstone, after having read thousands of pages of such official papers, stated the following: Laboratory tests were faked and dangers often concealed. Millstone added, False and misleading statements were made to the FDA.

Grimm highlights the main points of the report and also describes how former actor and U.S. president Ronald Reagan simply fired the then head of the FDA and hired Arthur Hull Hayes because the approval of aspartame had been delayed for years.

When a new application was made to approve aspartame, Arthur Hull Hayes Jr. appointed a five-member scientific commission to review the board of inquiry’s decision. It soon became clear that the panel would uphold the ban by a 3-2 decision, so Hayes installed a sixth member on the Commission, but the vote became deadlocked. Hyes then personally broke the tie in aspartame’s favor. In 1981 aspartame was approved by the FDA for use in dry foods and later in 1983 in drinks.

Hyes later left the FDA and took a position with Burson-Marsteller, the chief public relations firm for NutraSweet/Monsanto (p. 100).

Dr. Antal Bognár, director of the Institute of Chemistry and Biology at the Max Rubner Institute, Federal Research Institute of Nutrition and Food in Karlsruhe, believes that industrially produced baby food in jars is nothing other than preserved food. He gives reasons why the contents don’t meet the necessary nutritional requirements.

Dr. Michael Nelson, researcher and lecturer in nutrition at King’s College London, carried out a study in which 164 teenagers developed lower IQ levels while on a diet. Nelson showed how this was caused by low levels of iron, which is needed to carry oxygen to the body’s cells.

According to a study carried out by Harvard University, and published in The Lancet in 2001, children in western Europe consume 50 kg of sugar per year. Much too much, though not (yet?) near as much as the 146 kg consumed in the United States (p. 113).

© CC-by-sa 3.0, Jonas Rogowski, Wikipedia

It is a known fact that consuming soft drinks over a long period can lead to diabetes.

The spikes in blood glucose level (see text above) can be interpreted either as a positive or a negative thing, depending on the interests of those presenting the statistics. For example, if the focus lies solely on the increase in alertness and productivity after drinking cola, the spikes can be shown to be a positive result.

It is, as such, easy to see that the public can’t come to any conclusions based on such study results, without having background information such as the reason why the statistics were compiled, how the results were put together, and the kind of placebo used. Interested parties pick out the statistics that give a positive view of their product and present these, and only these, in order to serve their own interests.

This is the norm, at least outside of science — although it unfortunately happens there as well.

The author then returns to aspartame, naming the foods in which it is found and describing how it affects the hypothalamus.

These symptoms usually appear much later in life. Other adverse effects are obesity, skeletal anomalies, and reproductive problems.

Both aspartame and citric acid have been shown to curb the uptake of the brain fuel glucose. It is therefore very important that children receive a nutritious breakfast of whole foods before school.

According to the German federal Opium Agency (BOPST within BfArM), there was a 14-fold increase in the number of children taking "Rita.." between 1993 and 2000. An official hearing was called in the U.S. with Gene R. Haislip of the DEA because 10 % of American children were on "Rita..", and in some areas as many as 20 % (p. 124).

In his book, "R-Nation", Richard DeGrandpre describes over two dozen headline-making cases related to health problems, deaths, and criminal dealings involving "Rita..".

However, according to Andreas Warnke (1946–2015), former director of the Klinik und Poliklinik für Kinder- und Jugendpsychiatrie (Clinic and polyclinic for child and adolescent psychiatry) at the University of Würzburg, Germany, there is no known evidence of harmful illnesses resulting from "Rita.." intake. He describes how the package insert for "Rita.." produced by the company Novartis directly addresses children (p. 125).

Grimm tells us how parents who try to prevent their children from being prescribed "Rita.." come up against problems — a sign of how effectively the drug is marketed. In this context, he provides two startling examples, but unfortunately, he doesn’t cite a specific source here; instead, he only provides a reference to the Times Union newspaper in Albany, New York.

He also describes how the same set of conditions is given different names in different countries:

• in Germany and Austria, the term used is Minimal Cerebral Dysfunction (MCD),
• in Switzerland it is early-childhood Psycho-Organic Syndrome (POS),
• and in the U.S. and U.K. it is Minimal Brain Dysfunction (MBD).

The following excerpt is taken from the Wikipedia entry attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), also known as attention deficit disorder (ADD) and hyperkinetic syndrome (HKS):

ADHD, similar to hyperkinetic disorder, is a psychiatric disorder of the neurodevelopmental type in which there are significant problems of attention, hyperactivity, or acting impulsively that are not appropriate for a person's age. These symptoms must begin by age six to twelve and persist for more than six months for a diagnosis to be made. In school-aged individuals inattention symptoms often result in poor school performance. It is a psychiatric disorder which develops in childhood and is characterized by inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity.

Despite being the most commonly studied and diagnosed psychiatric disorder in children and adolescents, the cause in the majority of cases is unknown. It affects about 6–7 % of children when diagnosed via the DSM-IV criteria and 1–2 % when diagnosed via the ICD-10 criteria. Rates are similar between countries and depend mostly on how it is diagnosed. ADHD is diagnosed approximately three times more in boys than in girls. About 30–50 % of people diagnosed in childhood continue to have symptoms into adulthood and between 2–5 % of adults have the condition. The condition can be difficult to tell apart from other disorders as well as that of high normal activity.

ADHD management usually involves some combination of counseling, lifestyle changes, and medications. Medications are only recommended as a first-line treatment in children who have severe symptoms and may be considered for those with moderate symptoms who either refuse or fail to improve with counseling. Long-term effects of medications are not clear and they are not recommended in preschool-aged children. Adolescents and adults tend to develop coping skills which make up for some or all of their impairments.

ADHD, its diagnosis, and its treatment have been considered controversial since the 1970s. The controversies have involved clinicians, teachers, policymakers, parents, and the media.

There are a number of names and abbreviations for the disorder, sometimes showing the same set of conditions, and sometimes showing special conditions. The term ADD is very widely used and often used as slang for patients who have the inattentive sub-type of the disorder. This sub-type has not been sufficiently scientifically researched. The terms MCD and POS are outdated. The most commonly used terms internationally are ADHD and ADD.

The term ADHD is currently used (2009) to describe a disorder which can be caused by a number of factors including genetic inheritance. Psychosocial and environmental factors, for example, the classroom environment, influence the severity and individual characteristics of the disorder. There are many possible biological causes of ADHD but no one model to fit all sufferers of the disorder.

© Public Domain, Fruehling, Wikipedia

Absinthe is a highly concentrated alcoholic beverage with an alcohol level of 45 to 90 percent. It is usually taken diluted with water. Absinthe also contains wormwood (Artemisia absinthium), anise, fennel, and other herbs. Thujone is the active component of the essential oils found in wormwood.

At the height of its popularity in the nineteenth century, the following adverse effects were common: dizziness, hallucinations, delusions, depression/despair, cramps, and blindness, as well as other mental and physical problems.

Studies suggested that the thujone was responsible for these, but low quality and the methanol also played a role.

Grimm also gives the example of a British school director, Gordon Walker, of Tywardreath Primary School in St. Austell, who designed a new food plan for the school children together with parents.

Note: The AEV, which was formerly based in Zurich, doesn’t exist anymore, nor does its website. This group of around 300 Swiss families with hyperactive children fulfilled its purpose. See also somatic psychology.

The chapter subtitle reads Alzheimer’s and How Food Destroys the Brain. As the saying goes, we are what we eat.

Other diseases related to Alzheimer’s are Parkinson’s disease (PD), multiple sclerosis (MS), and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, Lou Gehring’s disease, Charcot disease). The famous physicist and astrophysicist Stephan Hawking suffers from ALS.

In 2001, U.S. researcher Hugh Hendrie of Indiana University studied two similar groups of people with different eating habits and found that twice as many people in one group developed Alzheimer’s than the other group. Other factors came into play as well. However, the study involved people from rural areas, without the pressures of urban life, in order to minimize such other factors.

The very common food additive citric acid causes aluminum accumulation in the brain. Despite this fact, the food industry uses fungus to create 600'000 tons of citric acid annually. According to brain researcher Dr. Konrad Beyreuther (see above), aluminum cannot be removed from the brain once it gets there.

Both the flavor enhancer glutamate and sweetener aspartame also cause aluminum compounds to cross the blood-brain barrier and enter the brain (p. 153).

U.S. author Jean Carper believes glutamate is a serial killer of cells.

Sugar is harmless in natural amounts and is actually needed by the body to create energy in the form of glucose for the brain. The amount of sugar in the blood is measured as the blood glucose level (blood sugar).

Deficiency in certain vitamins can cause mental deterioration. A diet of natural, vitamin-rich foods is what is needed to prevent this, and not vitamin supplements.

Many researchers, including brain-food specialist Jean Carper (see above) see polyunsaturated fats as important for the brain. U.S. scientist, Andrew Stroll demonstrates the correlation between good and bad fats. He sees a connection between a deficiency in highly unsaturated fatty acids and depression and other psychological disorders.

We hear about the American construction foreman Phineas Gage, who in a rock-blasting accident in September 1848 had a large iron rod driven completely through his head. The rod hit him at great speed in the left cheek, shot through the base of his skull and the front of his brain, and exited through the skullcap. The feeling or emotional center of his brain was destroyed. But feelings are necessary for a healthy life with a socially developed personality.

Brain researcher Antonio R. Damasio believes that feelings are an integral part of the mind mechanism and the basis for our consciousness. For Damasio, Phineas Gage was proof that feelings have a material basis. Gage was missing the substance of which emotions are made, and in its place was a hole (p. 165).

The case of Phineas Gage proves how important feelings are.

More recent studies show that without feelings, the mind cannot exist.

One survey showed that 50 percent of women found chocolate to be more important than sex. The behavior of cocaine addicts is similar to that of chocoholics.

© CC-by-sa 3.0, Simon A. Eugster, Wikipedia

Naturally the food industry makes sure that only the positive aspects of chocolate are publicized.

The Wikipedia entry on chocolate cites mostly insignificant examples of negative effects and does not explain the real problems it can cause. The entry nonetheless comes across as balanced.

Newspapers and magazines often stylize the positive aspects of chocolate. This is understandable as PR contracts from important clients are usually involved.

The PR companies are bound by a certain volume of adverts with certain conditions and prices. This is how consumer magazines in particular are supported.

Seven grams of licorice per day, for example, will cause a drop of 50 percent in "testostero.." after the fourth day.

Grimm explains the results of a British study which found that obese people had 30 percent less sex hormones than people of normal weight. Sport activates the pleasure pathogens. Caressing increases levels of the love hormone "oxytoc..", which plays an important role in childbirth and orgasm (p. 170).

Marco Rauland, author of "Chemie der Gefühle", (The chemistry of feelings), believes that even factual information contains a grain of feeling. These feelings affect the way the information is remembered. The happy hormone serotonin plays an important role here.

The human body contains only 10 milligrams of serotonin, only one percent of which is in the brain, amounting to only about one hundred millionth of a gram. The remaining 90 percent of the neurotransmitter is found in the gut! Too much serotonin in the brain would kill a person because happiness indicators also control the pulse and heartbeat (p. 174).

The author then discusses the different views held in the field of brain research.

He mentions science writer Rolf Degen who repudiates the core assumptions of Sigmund Freud’s theories, despite the fact that modern brain research endorses Freud’s work.

He also discusses U.S. psychologist Daniel Jay Goleman, and his book "Emotional Intelligence" (1995), as well as neurologist Gerhard Roth. GRIMM focuses especially on the high success rates of flaxseed oil (linseed oil) in brain health as researched by neuroscientist Andrew L. Stoll, director of McLean Hospital Psychopharmacology Research Laboratory, Belmont, highlighting the importance of a healthy diet.

See Stoll’s "The Omega-3 Connection" (2001).

The author refers to neuropathy and discusses several cases, one of which is believed to have been caused by an antibiotic, and other cases reported to have been caused by excessive vitamin B₆ intake. This group of nerve conditions that impairs body awareness is still very much overlooked. According to neurologist Oliver Sacks, body awareness forms the basis of the self and is the basis of the faculty of judgement.

Michael D. Gershon, former Chairman of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology at Columbia University, New York, who published his findings on the enteric nervous system in 1981, met with much hostility over many years, until his research results about the “brain in the gut” were confirmed. His findings were subsequently published in his book, "The Second Brain — Your Gut Has a Mind of Its Own" (1999).

Gershon and other researchers have shown that the gut, (intestinal or belly brain), which has the same neurons as are in the brain, 100 million of them at that, has decision-making powers.

It is amazing that the gut was first seen by scientists as a tube with simple reflexes. It is only now, slowly, being seen as a significant organ. It makes the heart seem like a replaceable pump — almost untransplantable as it is.

The gut is the major defense organ of the immune system. As its surface is 250 to 400 square meters, it is considered to have the most contact with the outside world. Its surface area is more than twice that of the lungs, and one hundred times that of the skin.

In Germany alone over 30'000 people die of colon cancer each year because of poor diet and lifestyle habits. This disease can actually be cured if detected early.

The gastrointestinal tract, or gut, processes 30 to 100 tons of food, depending on the type of food, and around 50 tons of fluid over the course of a lifetime. The problems caused by leaky gut syndrome are finally coming to our attention. In this condition, substances reach the blood which do not reach the blood in healthy people, as they are too big and cannot pass through.

Neurogastroenterology is a new area of research. Physiologists (physiology) William Maddock Bayliss and his brother-in-law physiologist Ernest Henry Starling discovered that the gut can work independently of the brain. The term hormone was introduced by Starling in 1905.

It is no secret that autistic spectrum disorders (neurodevelopmental disorders) can be treated with a GFCF diet, but how many psychiatrists and psychologists know this and treat their patients accordingly?

It is amazing how long it takes for explicit findings to change our thinking. In addition, the ill effects of nonaddictive substances is a subject which is not yet a matter of debate although it is a very important issue (substance abuse).

The abdominal organs include the whole of the digestive tract, including the esophagus and stomach, but also the liver, pancreas, and spleen. Therefore, it is not only the organs located in the abdomen (abdominal cavity). Visceral surgery (abdominal surgery) also incorporates the thyroid and the parathyroid glands, as well as treatment of hernias.

Sorbitan monolaurat is most commonly found as an emulsifier in bakery products, ice cream, desserts, and sugary foods like jelly and creamers (nondairy creamer).

From Wikipedia: One single 150 gram pastry can contain more than the acceptable daily intake level of sorbitan monolaurat. The emulsifier can also cause allergic reactions (allergy). Sorbitan monooleate, which has the same functions as sorbitan monolaurat, can be found in the same products and is just as harmful.

The following reviews were posted on Amazon:

After reading this book, you will only want to cook using fresh ingredients. And if you don’t react this way, you’ve been gripped by the insanity of the world. (Stern, German magazine);

We are not always aware of all the things in our food. Nor of the effects that eating low-quality foods have on our health, well-being, and even our intelligence.

Nutrition expert and author Hans-Ulrich Grimm enlightens us about the risks and hidden dangers of the amazing new world of food, and shows us what we should be aware of as consumers. This book is essential for anyone who wants to eat a balanced diet (Farbstoffe, Glutamat & Co. [Color additives, monosodium glutamate, and the like]).