The link between soda drinks, sugar and mineral deficiencies

Dr.Weston Price

One of the things that so impressed Dr.Weston Price on his travels around the world studying native people, was the apparent total lack of violence and crime among these ancient civilisations isolated from Western influence. He noticed that these people lived and worked together for the common good. No matter where in the world they lived, their attitude to other members of their society was one of harmony and the desire to help one another. Weston Price came to the conclusion that the natural, unrefined food that they ate, which had not changed from generation to generation, had a profound beneficial effect on their characters as well as on their robust health.

NOBLE CHARACTERS
Not only were these groups of people physically beautifully formed with strong, well developed bodies but it was apparent that they were also mentally unflawed, displaying none of the greed, envy, violence and aggression which is so rife among what we call ‘civilised’ modern societies.

HIGH MORAL STANDARDS
Of the Gaelic people, Weston Price remarked on their ‘gentle and sweet characters’ as well as their high moral standards, intelligence and strong characters, while on the other side of the world in the Torres Strait Islands off the coast of Australia, he was impressed by the happiness and peacefulness of the Thursday Islanders in particular. They possessed near perfect bodies, had excellent characters and crime was practically non-existent in their society.

TRUE DEMOCRACIES
Studies of the original American Indians summarised the Indian’s motive in life as fundamentally spiritual, his measure of success being “ How much service have I rendered to my people?” Similarly, another study of the Australian Aborigine and the average Eskimo in the 1930’s stated, “ We are very definitely their inferiors. We lisp noble ideals and noble sentiments - the Australians and Eskimos practise them - they neither write books nor lecture about them. Theirs are the only true democracies where every individual finds his happiness in catering to the happiness of the group, and where anyone who in any way threatens the group is dealt with as an abnormality.” How sad that as a result of Westernisation, these once proud people have suffered the ravages of so-called civilisation which has been largely responsible for their tragic moral and social decline in recent years.

SUPERIOR INTELLIGENCE OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLE
Native people knew by instinct the importance of certain food items to ensure good health, especially for future generations, which was why so much attention was given to the diet of young girls and pregnant women. Often they would walk many miles to obtain one specific plant or fish that they sensed contained a nutrient that they needed. In the same way, elephants in the wild, for example, will go and search for special mineral-rich clays, however distant they might be.

These primitive people had no understanding of minerals, trace elements and vitamins yet they possessed an intelligence that far surpasses what we interpret as intelligence in our modern world. For we, in our Western societies, have almost totally lost our instinct to eat what our bodies tell us we need, and instead we eat just what we like with sometimes disastrous results. To adhere to a sensible, nutritious diet, Weston Price pointed out, requires strength of character and will power.

VIOLENCE AND AGGRESSION
Unfortunately, when we consume only the food we like to eat, it will invariably contain sugar in some form or another and that includes manufactured fruit juices, fruit concentrates, ice cream, chocolates and sweets, packet breakfast cereals and cakes, biscuits and pastries of all kinds. A sugar laden diet added to mineral deficiencies is a recipe for disaster which can, in some cases, lead to violence and aggression. Dr. Joel Wallach, a veterinarian who went on to become a doctor, is convinced that the virtual explosion of aggression and violent behaviour in recent years in western civilisations, especially America, is as a result of these mineral deficiencies, particularly copper, vanadium, chromium and lithium, combined with addiction to sugar. In his book ‘Rare Earths,’ he refers to American soils, in particular, as having been badly depleted due to intensive farming and the drive to feed the world. The depletion process accelerated to such an extent that it was achieved in just 250 years whereas, in other countries it took between one and two thousand years to deplete the land to the point of total cultural collapse.

BAD SEEDS
Dr. Wallach believes, ‘the increase in the numbers and violent behaviour of American sociopaths and psychotics shows a direct connection with the rapidly declining mineral content of our soils and foods’. Exhaustion of our minerally ‘played out’ land and the resultant mineral deficient high sugar foods are unable to support us mentally or physically and are now producing hordes of ‘Bad Seeds.’ These people he calls ‘bad seeds’ are those who suddenly turn from being normal children, teenagers or adults to become aggressive or violent in what we recognise as the ‘Dr.Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’ syndrome. Dr. Wallach claims that far from requiring counsellors and psychiatrists, all these people need is nutritional advice about mineral requirements and a no sugar diet. Unfortunately, it is often the young male teenager who becomes the victim of an explosive combination of a testosterone surge, high sugar intake (especially high fructose corn syrup, HFCS) and mineral deficiencies which can culminate in sudden rage, anti-social behaviour, aggression and in extreme cases even murder.

An association has been made between violent behaviour and some areas in the United States of America where deficiencies in certain mineral salts are known to exist. Texas has witnessed several mass murders and this is a State that happens to be lacking lithium, one of the essential minerals. Data collected from 27 counties in Texas, when adjusted for population density, showed that the incidence of homicide, suicide and rape were significantly higher in areas where drinking water contained little or no lithium. Results of this study suggest that low-level doses of lithium have a beneficial effect on human behaviour.

AGGRESSIVE TEENAGERS
In the UK, we know from investigative television programmes that many children are brought up on junk food lacking in fresh fruit, green vegetables and protein rich food, yet at the same time packed with sugar (especially HFCS) and chemical additives. When a child’s diet is poor in essential minerals, it is little wonder that they often grow into difficult teenagers and can become aggressive young adults. It is a sad fact that the last few decades have seen some horrendous acts of murder and violence, often committed by young people such as, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, Jamie Bulger’s killers, Mary Bell, the killers of Stephen Lawrence stabbed to death by a group of white youths, and the teenage murderer of head teacher Philip Lawrence, to name but a few.

Sugar laden soda drinks

There is no doubt that manufactured soft drinks and colas, known as sodas, contribute to the huge amount of sugar and sugar substitutes consumed by people today, especially the young. According to Dr.Joseph Mercola, who has his own Internet website, the average American drinks more than 60 gallons of soft drinks each year. One can of soda contains about 10 teaspoons of sugar, 150 calories, 30 to 55 mg of caffeine, and is loaded with artificial food colours and sulphites. It is also the largest source of dangerous high fructose corn syrup. He points out that caffeinated drinks can cause jitters, insomnia, high blood pressure, irregular heartbeat, elevated blood cholesterol levels, vitamin and mineral depletion, breast lumps, birth defects, and perhaps some forms of cancer.

RISK OF DIABETES
In his book ‘Your Body’s Many Cries for Water’, Dr. Batmanghelidj writes that caffeine is one of the main components of most soda drinks. It is also a diuretic and, as such, it is a dehydrating agent. This, he claims, is the reason why people who drink sodas and colas keep drinking them, consuming many cans a day trying to satisfy their thirst. Just one extra can of soda a day, over the course of a single year, can add as much as 15 pounds to your weight, not to mention an increased risk of 85% of becoming diabetic.

CHILDHOOD OBESITY
Soda drinking, especially by the young, is now just as much a problem in the UK as it is in America. You only have to walk down any high street on a Saturday afternoon to see young people drinking cans of cola type drinks as they stroll along. It is a far cry from when I was a teenager. We were banned from eating or drinking in the street and, if you were spotted in school uniform, you risked being given a detention!

VENDING MACHINES BANNED
Dr. Mercola stresses that you do not have to let soda and cola drinks infiltrate your home , your health and your life. He urges people to give up these sugar laden beverages in favour of their health, and teach their children to opt for healthier drinks such as pure water. He believes that giving up soda drinks is one of the most important steps a family can make. In 2004, France voted to ban all vending machines that sell candy and soft drinks in schools. By the following school year, an estimated 8,000 machines in France's middle and secondary schools had to be removed. Only chilled water is allowed to be dispensed in drink machines at most schools and colleges. Isn’t it time the same positive stand was made in teaching establishments in the UK? Manufacturers of cola drinks are seen to be generous to schools and colleges when they donate large sums of money to buy computers and sports equipment in exchange for drink dispensing machines, but if this is at the expense of our children’s health, then is it not far too high a price to pay?

JUVENILE CRIME
Add to these large quantities of sugar and caffeine in cola drinks the mineral deficiencies (chromium, vanadium, and lithium) mentioned before, and this can, in some cases, lead to juvenile crime. Dr. Wallach made a study over many years of serious crimes committed by juveniles, showing that these individuals would fly into a rage often for trivial reasons, demonstrating that they seemed to have no control over their anger. He claims that between 1,000 and 1,500 American children under the age of 18 are arrested each year for murder or manslaughter following their explosive rages. Most are apparently senseless acts, unrelated to drugs or gang warfare; the violence and the killing far outweighing the often minor incident that provoked it. One youngster admitted that he shot dead his mother and father because they made him stay in and do his homework instead of letting him go out with his friends. Another shot and killed both his parents after an argument over whether the boy could go to a party. Dr. Wallach observes how tragic it is that ‘putting together the appearance of the male hormone testosterone during puberty between 14 and 18, mineral deficiencies (especially copper, chromium, vanadium and lithium) and high sugar intakes, it is not surprising that our jails (in America) are full and death row is populated by hundreds of teens waiting to be executed for murder! Testosterone surges, high sugar intake and mineral deficiencies are as explosive a mixture as matches, nitro-glycerine and gun powder combined!’

RAT EXPERIMENTS
Evidence of the effects on character of mineral and vitamin deficiencies were demonstrated by Weston Price when he makes reference, in his book, to experiments done in the feeding of laboratory rats, in a similar way to those carried out by Sir Robert McCarrison in India. Three identical groups of rats were chosen and the experimental feeding started after weaning at about 23 days of age. All three groups of rats were fed the same diet except for the type of bread. The first group of rats that were fed freshly ground, whole wheat products, were fully developed and reproduced normally at 3 months of age. Weston Price wrote, ‘they had very mild dispositions and could be picked up by the ear or tail without danger of their biting.’ In sharp contrast, the second group of rats fed on refined, white flour bread were markedly undersized, their hair came out in large patches and they had very ugly dispositions, ‘so ugly that they threatened to spring through the cage wall at us when we came to look at them.’ Furthermore, these rats had tooth decay and were not able to reproduce. The third group of rats which were fed a bran and middlings mixture, (coarse and fine particles of bran remaining after milling) did not show tooth decay but were considerably undersized and lacked energy. It is interesting to note that the flour and middlings for the second and third group of rats were purchased from a miller and so were not freshly ground, whereas the wheat given to the first and healthiest rats was obtained whole, and ground while fresh in a hand mill. This demonstrates how important it is for we humans to use freshly ground wholemeal flour when making bread, or the normal vitamin content of the embryo of the grain will be mostly lost due to oxidation.

MAJOR PROBLEMS TO ADDRESS
As already described, the two major problems causing most concern with young people today are childhood obesity and juvenile crime. A two-pronged approach would greatly alleviate these problems, first an all-out drive to ban soda drinks in schools, and second, simple testing such as analysing samples of hair or finger nails, for certain vulnerable or disruptive school children, in order to spot and correct vitamin and mineral deficiencies at an early age, before more serious conditions have time to develop.