« Science: January 2006 | Main | Science: March 2006 »

Gung Ho Was Right All Along

Link

The Mental Health Foundation says scientific studies have clearly linked attention deficit disorder, depression, Alzheimer's disease and schizophrenia to junk food and the absence of essential fats, vitamins and minerals in industrialised diets.

[snip]

Rates of depression have been shown to be higher in countries with low intakes of fish, for example. Lack of folic acid, omega-3 fatty acids, selenium and the amino acid tryptophan are thought to play an important role in the illness. Deficiencies of essential fats and antioxidant vitamins are also thought to be a contributory factor in schizophrenia.

On an episode of Gung Ho, the kid was hiding his lunches in the couch because he wanted American style food like the other kids had, not Japanese lunches which apparently contained fish for the most part. His dad told him peanut butter would stick to his brain and that fish was good for him. Now I know he was actually giving a public service announcement and not just a witty sitcom reply.

On a separate note, as a child, I refused to eat peanut butter and jelly and felt quite abused when my babysitter offered this to me for lunch. My mother enjoys telling this story so if you'd like evidence of my snobbery even at the tender age of 5, you can ask her about it.