The Cheeseburger: Part One

I was left with this comment in response to my first post:

While I am aware of how an over consumption of cheeseburgers (among other fast foods) will lead to poor health I have never heard the argument of how a (read: one) cheeseburger contributes to depression. Could you explain that?

Certainly, my friend!

In this article on mood and food, Dr. Anali Mukherjee says: “Food affects mood which in turn impacts personality. You are what you eat. It is out of proteins, fats and carbohydrates that we make our hormones and brain chemicals and these regulate how we feel.”

Let’s break it down:

I will focus on the main ingredients (minus the condiments) in the basic cheeseburger at McDonalds, which I found listed on their website. Let's start with the bun.

Regular Bun: Enriched wheat flour, water, sugar and/or glucose-fructose, yeast, vegetable oil (soybean and/or canola), salt, calcium sulphate, AND MAY CONTAIN ANY OR ALL OF THE FOLLOWING IN VARYING PROPORTIONS: diacetyl tartaric acid esters of mono and diglycerides, vegetable mono and diglycerides, calcium propionate, sodium stearoyl-2- lactylate, corn flour, calcium phosphate, soy flour, sunflower oil, wheat starch, ammonium phosphate, calcium peroxide, wheat gluten, ethanol, sorbitol, polysorbate 20, sodium propionate, enzymes, dextrin, corn starch, wheat starch, cellulose gum, ammonium sulfate, malt, calcium carbonate, sesame seeds.

First of all, the fact that it says: “and may contain any or all of the following in varying proportions” and lists about 25 additional ingredients (most of which I cannot pronounce) is just frightening. However, at the moment I am going to focus on the first and third main ingredients, flour and sugar.

In an excerpt from the book, Food and Healing, by Annemarie Colbin, PHD, she writes:

"Sugar is very closely linked to feelings of alienation, despair and depression . . . I hope the day will come when, if we suffer from any of these feelings, we'll all know to first stop eating cake, ice cream, candy, pastries, chocolate, sugared cereals, and so on. Then we will wait four days and only then, if the feelings persist unabated, accept them as psychologically generated."

She elaborates in this article here:

Early on I found that the food most clearly associated with the "blues" is sugar. My late friend Bill Dufty, whom I knew well and saw often during the late ‘60's and early ‘70s, knew what he was talking about when he called his book Sugar Blues. About 3-4 days after I quit eating sugared breakfasts (coffee with sugar, donuts), the gloomy feeling lifted completely. In other words, if you are sad, blue, mildly depressed, sighing about the miseries of your life - the first thing to do is to quit eating refined cane and other sugars. And I mean ZERO sugar. No sweetened cereals, no breads or bean salads with sugar in them, no muffins, no cookies, no jams, no desserts. This means careful label reading, as well as very conscious eating – none of this shoveling food into your mouth without noticing what it is.

After eliminating sugar, the next step for me was replacing all refined carbohydrates with whole grains: brown rice instead of white, wholegrain bread instead of white, even whole grains instead of potatoes. That made another big difference, as it gave me a sense of strength and groundedness.”

Sugar and refined flour are connected to many other psychological symptoms as well. According to the Nurse’s Handbook of Alternative and Complementary Therapies:

“Refined foods, such as white sugar and white flour, go through extensive processing, which strips them of their nutrients. Some nutrition experts believe a diet high in such refined carbohydrates contributes to nutritional deficiencies and overall poor health. Research has linked refined sugar to behavioral problems, hyperactivity, and poor scholastic achievement at school.” (346, Williams and Wilkins)

Many people suffer depression, anxiety, or other psycho-emotional symptoms as a result of having unidentified food allergies. Almost everyone has allergies to foods, but they go undetected because a) people rarely take the time to listen to how their body responds to certain foods they consume (I've never heard anybody tell me they felt light and full of energy after inhaling a cheeseburger), and b) they know certain foods make them feel sick, but they don't know what else to eat or they simply don't care. They, too, don't seem to make the connection between what they just ate and how they feel emotionally throughout the day. I have never known a grounded and spiritually peaceful person to include fast food as a main staple in their diet.

Here is an example of how allergens can affect mood, from the book The Food Allergy Cure:

“After reviewing some papers on depression and brain chemistry, I came up with some additional allergens that seemed to be related to depression. I treated her for essential fatty acids, soybeans, salmon, wheat gluten, alcohol, caffeine (she drank quite a bit of coffee), chocolate, and turkey. After these allergens had cleared, she noticed an enormous improvement in her energy level and in her behavior. We then cleared her remaining food allergies, which included spices, other grains, dairy, and fruits. At the end of three months, Karen’s depression had finally disappeared, and she was herself at last. She said she felt as though her depression had been surgically removed.” (12 Cutler).

“A wheat allergy, especially if coupled with a corn allergy, can cause severe health problems. Wheat allergies can cause symptoms ranging from fatigue to eczema, arthritis, digestive problems, colitis, food cravings, and brain-fog.” (75 Cutler)

Of course, everyone has different food sensitivities – but wheat happens to be one of the eight most common food allergens. If you suffer from symptoms such as depression, anxiety, irritability, behavioral problems, etc. – I suggest you consider that wheat and sugar may be a factor. Everyone’s physical and emotional makeup is different and therefore everyone requires a different balance of foods in their diet (which is why I do not make the claim that I feel everyone should be vegetarian) – but I am under the impression that everyone is affected by what they eat and are potentially able to overcome many emotional symptoms by making certain changes in their diet.

Dr. Foster, at http://www.startthehealing.com/Q_manic.html says:

I had a client diagnosed with manic depression and her problem was that her blood sugar levels had been spiking up and down all the time, which caused her to have wide mood swings. She was able to control the symptoms by going on a hypoglycemic diet which eliminated all refined sugar (soda pop, candy, candy bars, cakes, cookies, pies, etc.) and refined (enriched) flour from her diet and by eating smaller meals more often with protein at each meal (such as almonds or tofu). This allowed her blood sugar (and thus, her emotions) to stabilize. If you can eliminate the sugar, refined flour and caffeine out of your diet, after a while, things just have to get calmer.

Chapter Two is coming soon!