Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children - Hardcover

Simontacchi, Carol

9780756762049: Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0756762049 ISBN 13: 9780756762049

Publisher: Diane Pub Co, 2000

Certain to be one of the year's most controversial books, here is an unprecedented look at how American food manufacturers and their "products" may be endangering our children by sabotaging their brains.

In the tradition of Silent Spring, The Crazy Makers is an indictment of American food processors and what they are serving the nation. Are they distributing food, or manufacturing products that redefine what we think food to be? How far afield of true food has the search for profit and the need to meet consumer trends led food manufacturers?

Nutritionist Carol Simontacchi shows how the pseudo-foods being promoted today--from infant formulas to health-conscious prepackaged meals--are, in fact, physically eroding our brains. While it has been proven that food choices contribute to degenerative diseases like cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, Simontacchi maintains that our mental condition is also at risk. Examining the relationship of diet to changing levels of chemicals in the brain, Simontacchi finds that:

consumer baby-formulas and baby foods can be harmful to an infant's brain development;
ingredients and residues such as MSG and neurotoxins are present in our children's food, hidden by misleading labels;
stripping essential minerals from the foods being served to teenagers can be linked to anorexia nervosa, bulimia, poor cognition and behavior; and
schools that strike deals with fast-food companies are among the worst saboteurs of a child's healthy diet and mind.

Based on new research, information retrieved via the Freedom of Information Act, and a formal study conducted by Simontacchi of schoolchildren's eating habits, The Crazy Makers identifies how the new "foods" may be driving us crazy.

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Review:

We already worry that our food makes us fat, dull, disease-prone, and sleepy. Now we have to worry that it also makes us crazy. According to certified clinical nutritionist Carol Simontacchi, the food industries that give us packaged, processed, artificially flavored, chemical-ridden, artificially colored, nutrient-stripped pseudo foods such as sodas, processed soups, sugared cereals, and fiberless bread "wantonly destroy our bodies and our brains, all in the name of profit." We Americans (adults and children) eat 200 pounds of sugar and artificial sweeteners each year. Our children's test scores and grades drop. We become violent, illogical, moody, depressed, drug-addicted, and crazy. The reason, according to the author, who is pursuing a doctorate in brain nutrition, is that we're starving our brains with lack of nutrition.

This isn't a process that begins when teenagers start snacking on sodas, chips, and ice cream. Rather, this nutrition deprivation starts in the womb: mom doesn't get the right nutrition (essential fatty acids, high-quality protein, unrefined carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and water), so baby is born already brain-nutrient deficient, says the author. Infant formulas, processed baby food, and sugared cereals exacerbate the problem through the stages of childhood, with kids not getting the nutrition their growing brains need. Simontacchi also skewers prepared foods, additives, over-processed grains, school vending machines, and fast-food chains.

This book isn't only about children. Starbucks and its ilk get a "Crazy Maker Award" for "encouraging us to self-medicate with stimulating beverages that mask the symptoms of nervous system and adrenal exhaustion." We adults are genuinely fatigued, but instead of getting the sleep and rest we need, we succumb to the "marketing hype of sophisticated companies that convinces us that self-medicating with an addictive substance is the answer to our energy crisis." You may not accept all Simontacchi's views, but once you've read this book, you won't reach for a caf� latte or feed your kids sugar-frosted cereal with the same complacency. --Joan Price

About the Author:

Carol Simontacchi obtained her certification as a clinical nutritionist through the Clinical Nutritionist Certification Board, and is a professional member of the International and American Associations of Clinical Nutritionists, and has served as the president of the Society of Certified Nutritionists and remains active in that organization. She has conducted training courses and has written numerous books, including the bestselling Your Fat Is Not Your Fault.

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