Page 344 - Total War on PTSD

rise in the production and consumption of processed foods. Both led to a dramatic increase in the consumption of Omega-6 fatty acids.
In addition, the introduction of animal feeds derived from grains rich in Omega-6 fats has resulted in the production of meat, fish, and eggs high in Omega-6 fatty acids and virtually devoid of Omega-3 fatty acids. Today, in Western diets, the ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids ranges from 20:1–30:1 instead of the pre-industrial range of 1:1–2:1. Research has shown this imbalanced intake of Omegas is a contributing factor to many chronic health conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, depression, asthma, allergies, and obesity. This imbalance also makes the brain more susceptible to concussion and TBI, and limits the biochemical ability of the brain to heal itself. As a friend of mine at the National Institute of Health (NIH) says, junk food equals junk brain.
Our bodies were meant to be in balance. It gets back to what you should have learned in kindergarten, and the concept is simple: You are what you eat.
Both the American diet and the American food supply have changed dramatically in the last fifty years. After World War II, we had saved the world from tyranny. In subsequent decades, we eliminated polio, developed vaccines and antibiotics, and even landed a man on the moon! There was nothing that couldn’t be conquered, so how could we have starving children in America? The answer was found in farm subsidies and food programs that started in the 1960s and ‘70s. Soybean and corn are calorie dense, shelf stable, easy to grow crops that were subsidized by the government. As a result, the amount of soybean consumed by the United States population has grown by over 1200%.
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