Food for Thought: A New Look At Food & Behavior

Hi, all!

In my 35 plus years of using the yin/yang philosophy of macrobiotics to guide my dietary practice, I have found that almost everyone who eats a much wider diet, has no interest in that philosophy as it pertains to food.

And since I’m always interested in helping many of these people with their health and well being, I’m always interested in new and different ways of communicating those universal truths.

Though, I’ve owned copies of the book Food for Thought: A New Look At Food Behavior by Saul and Jo Anne Miller, (both) Ph.D.(s) for a number of decades, I really did not serious examine it’s contents until recently.

What I’m presenting today is it’s first two chapters which I feel might help people who are closed to ideas from eastern cultures but be open to more of a western psychological perspective on the same subject:

Food for Thought: A New Look At Food & Behavior by Saul and Jo Anne Miller PhD.

Many people contributed to Food for Thought. I especially wish to acknowledge my collaborator and wife, Dr. Jo Anne Miller. I also wish to express my gratitude to my parents, Morris and Anne Miller, and to Michio Kushi, the Sams family, Sharon and Paul Wolfe, Dr. Abrarp Hoffer, Dr. John Prince, Lucinda Vardey, Joseph and Anne Wawrykow, Lynne Lumsden, Carol Smith, Dr. L.M. McEwen, Dennis Hayes, Tony Naegle, N. Pritikin, Betty Shepherd, Hugh Pearson, Yoshio Kawahara, Dr. A. Rabinovitch, The East West Foundation, The Canada Council, The Sivananda Yoga Association, those whose writings influenced this work, and all those friends and colleagues throughout the world who extended their hospitality and shared their experience.

Contents vii

Contents viii

Contents ix

Contents x

Foreward

It is a pleasure to welcome this fine book to the growing literature on good nutrition, for only the education of the public about the connection between good food and good health will begin to counteract the massive increase in disease for which our culture is noted.
The author outlines a unique scheme for classifying what we eat along a one-dimensional continuum. Substances too rich in unnatural food constituents such as sugar and alcohol are at one end of the continuum (the expansive), while substances too rich in protein are at the other, the constrictive end. The foods in the middle are the central foods. These are the ones which are whole, natural and not mutilated by man. The extremes include food artifacts, junk or garbage foods. They are the products of man’s manipulation of food.
It is refreshing to have a book on nutrition which deals with the health-producing properties of food rather than with their chemical classification into the main food constituents. This must be easier to

understand and follow for most people. People interested in eating to become and remain well want to know how they can do so in their selection of food, not in the selection of food artifacts such as protein, fat or carbohydrate. The chemist’s way oflooking at food simply turns off the average person, and rightly so.
The author suggests that expansive foods create expansive personalities or habits, while constrictive foods tend to cause constrictive personalities. In general, my observations over twenty-eight years of psychiatry support this idea.
Another interesting idea is the law of opposites. A moment’s reflection suggests why this is a natural law . All we have to assume is that the body has a need for a quantity of protein which, when met, turns off our interest in more protein. A diet very rich in meat, a protein-rich food, will require substances rich in calories but low in protein, in order to meet this natural desire to decrease protein intake. Conversely, a diet high in sugar will create a need for foods high in protein. Our national diet with an annual consumption of 240 pounds of protein and 120 pounds of sugar per person per year illustrates the law of opposites. The solution is to eat primarily the central foods which, of course, are free of junk.
Each cell of our body lives within a chemical environment with which it exchanges molecules, absorbing what it requires and releasing what it no longer needs. If this environment fails to contain adequate numbers of essential molecules, the cells will not function as well. In the same way, a bricklayer with no bricks around will not be able to build. This internal environment is fed by our external environment-by what we eat, drink and breathe.
If we allow harmful molecules to enter the internal cellular environment we will create problems for our cells which may not be solvable by the cells. When this happens we become ill, metabolically sick. If continued over a long period we will develop anyone or more of a large variety of diseases ranging from psychiatric diseases to most of the chronic physical degenerative diseases. Should we not, then, treat our cells with respect and careful attention?

This book provides a useful prescription or formula for ensuring that our internal environment will be optimum for our cells. I have gone over this book very carefully and have concluded that it will harm no one and will help nearly everyone who follows its principles, for it takes into account the principles of variability and individuality as well as ensuring that the best information we have, now called orthomolecular nutrition, will be incorporated into this way of eating.

A. Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.

Preface

This is a new and different book about food and behavior. It describes how the food we eat can affect what we think, say, and do. . . and suggests how to eat to increase our well-being and pleasure.

The book is unique for several reasons.

• It discusses food as we know it and talk about it: as bread, cheese, apples, steak, salad, chocolate-not as nutritional concepts (calories, minerals, vitamins) which can be confusing and which put the intuition to sleep.

• Similarly, it discusses behavior in terms of aggression, violence, dependence, sex and learning problems-not as psychological concepts which are difficult to understand or relate to.
• It is not a diet book. Instead, it describes the principles and dynamics of sane eating in such a way that readers can learn for themselves how to balance their food. . . and their lifestyle.

Food for Thought is for everyone interested in improving the quality of life as well as for the entire “health conscious” market. It deals with issues of broad interest: sanity, sexuality, stress and attractiveness. It explains why eating meat leads to a craving for sweets, why you won’t permanently lose weight and feel satisfied on a “high-protein diet” and how to eat to reduce tension and stress. It includes whatever psychological data are available; however, it focuses more on personal experience and observation, anecdote and case study, making it very readable.

A NOTE ON

METHODOLOGY

I am often asked about the methodology used in collecting information for Food for Thought. Essentially, there were three sources of information.
For many years I visited and lived with different groups of people eating different foods and observed their behavior. These groups ranged from the American Indians of the south and southwestern United States to the Indians of the Punjab and south India. During this period I visited clinics, centers and experts in North America and Europe, observing and discussing how diet is used (and abused) in health care. These investigations brought me to psychiatric clinics, longevity centers and natural food communities in America and to health retreats, allergy clinics and vegetarian societies in Britain. All of these experiences provide a fascinating source of information.
However, they are fraught with two fundamental methodological problems: One is the problem of selective perception, the other is the relationship of correlation and causality. Stated simply, selective perception implies that the observer often unconsciously sees those observations that support his beliefs and hypotheses, failing to see those that do not. This is a problem of the ethological approach to research in which the observer does not control the variables of the experimental situation but simply notes what he observes happening around him. The idea that correlation doesn’t imply causality means that one can’t determine or define the causal factors of any two stimuli or events that occur together. For example, in seeing a group of people eating certain foods and behaving in a certain way, one can’t determine if their behavior is influenced by their diet or if their diet is a function of their behavior. These factors must be considered.
A second source of observation for Food for Thought was based on my own eating experience and my personal experimentation with food. For the past fifteen years my wife, Dr. Jo Anne Miller, and I have experienced many “diets”-the high-protein, low protein, vegetarian and macrobiotic diets, the extreme meat and sugar diet of America. . . and fasting. During this period I noticed some substantial changes in my health and behavior. For example, my weight which fifteen years ago was a muscular 200 pounds dropped to 120 pounds (in 1972) before leveling off at my present 165 pounds. These changes were accompanied by changes in energy level, attitudes, sensitivity, and motivation. Of course, there are large individual differences in reaction to different foods, and one must be cautious not to overgeneralize from one’s own experience. Whenever possible, I have attempted to discuss and corroborate my findings with others who have experimented with and experienced different diets. Though self report and personal experimentation do not provide as reliable and objective a source of data as “scientific” experimentation, they do provide a real source of information. People seem to enjoy talking about food, and I have been impressed with the openness with which people throughout the world have discussed their dietary experiences with me.
In my clinical practice I counsel people about improving the quality of life. One of the factors that I feel is basic to their sense of well-being is what and how they eat. Over the years I have advised many people to change their diets in specific ways and have observed the results. This information is also an important part of Food for Thought. The third source of information for this book comes from the scientific investigation of the relationship of food and behavior. , ‘Scientific” in this sense means controlled experimentation with food. Perhaps the two most significant observations that can be made about this relationship are that (1) surprisingly little research has been done, and (2) what has been done suggests that the food we eat has a marked effect on how we think, feel and act.
For ethical, social, nutritional and pleasurable reasons, it seems that people do not volunteer and are rarely used as subjects in nutritional experiments. Over 90 percent of the nutritional research is carried out with small mammals (rats and Guinea pigs) as subjects. Quite naturally, it is extremely difficult to generalize and define from these animal studies the subtle differences in human behavior that occur as a function of diet.
I have tried on several occasions to conduct controlled research on food using members of the general public as subjects. (I have also participated in such research as a subject.) My experience has been that people will rarely submit themselves to any investigation controlling their diet for any length of time. In one study I carried out at Schiller College in London, England, twenty-four student volunteers were divided into two groups and asked to eat either cooked or raw food exclusively for three days. After a three-day baseline the conditions were reversed. (All subjects recorded their behavior on three dimensions, three times daily for twelve days.) In a frank and open discussion of the experiment after the data were collected, subjects were told that the experimenter was not seeking to support his hypotheses but to find out what had happened. It was explained that any failure to eat according to the rules of the experiment wasn’t “bad,” and was in fact significant information. So informed, twenty-two of twenty-four subjects reported that they had not followed the experimental procedure. While no doubt there has been some controlled human research on food and behavior (e.g. the Keyes study of conscientious objectors), lack of cooperation and inability to regulate food intake make this research difficult. Often groups who willingly volunteer and participate in such research have a certain dietary point of view, and they want to demonstrate that their dietary principles or philosophy of life is “right.” As such, they present something of a biased sample for food and behavior research.
What findings do exist, from both human and animal studies, suggest that food and nutrition have a marked effect on health and behavior. Many of these findings are reported in Food for Thought. They, along with information on traditional dietary patterns and my personal and clinical experience, form the substance of this book.
I would be pleased if Food for Thought stimulates others to eat sensibly and to conduct research on food and behavior. Both are important and are to be encouraged.

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Man is literally made from the dust of the earth. For this
reason, his psychological and mental activities are
profoundly influenced by the geological constitution of the
country where he lives, by the nature of the animals and
plants on which he feeds.
Alexis Carrel, Man, The Unknown’

FOOD = ENERGY = BEHAVIOR

Man, our food, and our behavior are all forms of the same energy.
The nature of the energy we take in as food shapes our nature,
and influences the energy we express as behavior.
Our daily diet is a basic factor enabling us to maximize our
potential, performance, and pleasure, or limiting both our sanity
and satisfaction.

Introduction
Chapter 1

Of course, many factors influence our behavior. Four major determinants are:

1. Our constitution-what we inherit from our parents. This acquisition predisposes us to act in certain ways. It does not necessarily follow that we develop our potentialities or express our limitations or that we are merely what we are given.
2. Our conditioning-what we have learned in life. Our education, training, and experience of life have a marked effect on how we behave. While our earliest learning experiences are most significant. we are capable of learning, growing, and changing throughout life.
3. Our external environment–what’s happening out there What is the situation or the demands confronting us? What has to be done and what we have available to do it with will also determine our behavior.
4. Our internal environment–what’s happening inside us: the state of our internal being, the functioning of our organs, the quality of our blood. Our nervous system works by the transmission oj electro-chemical impulses. If our biochemistry is disordered, then our behavior is also disordered.

Our constitution, conditioning, and external environment all affect our biochemistry, however, and there is nothing more basic to it and how we behave than the food we eat. Moreover, ot the factors listed above, there is none over which we have greater control than our diet.

FOOD AND BRAIN FUNCTION

Our brains are highly complex, multifunctional organs, comprised of billions of cells which intercommunicate or “run” on electrochemical impulses. A healthy or natural biochemistry produces reliable, integrated brain function, sanity and satisfaction. In contrast, an unhealthy biochemistry disrupts the function of the nervous system and behavior.

The food we eat affects and determines our biochemical makeup. When our diet is unbalanced, uncentered, and unnatural, our brain function is disrupted. The ensuing disorder is both mental and physical and may be expressed as: actions divorced from thoughts; ideas out of harmony with instinctive patterns and biological rhythms; limited perspectives; and limited self-control. The end result is the same: a reduction of performance and pleasure, feelings of depression, anxiety, and fear (neurosis) and sometimes a sense of being disoriented or lost (psychosis).

THE BASICS
OF SANE EATING
Section I

Food:
A Total View
Chapter 2

Steak and eggs are contractiv; fruits; candy and beer
are expansive; and bread is in the middle.

The basis of Food for Thought is understanding food and its effects
and what to eat to be sane and satisfied. To appreciate food in a
total and practical way we present it on a single dimension. The
poles of this dimension we call expansion and contraction. All food
can be divided into three groups, each with its own place on this
scale.

1. Animal foods (meat, fish, eggs and dairy) are on the contractive end of the dimension.
2. Plant foods (grains, vegetables and fruits) are in the center.
3. Plant derivatives (sugar, spices, alcohol and drugs) are on the expansive end.

Three Groups Chart

Animal Foods. Animal foods are contractive simply because most
of the animals we eat are concentrated vegetable energy, That is,
animals eat and grow on a diet of grasses and grains-which becomes
their flesh, It has been estimated that between five and ten pounds
of vegetable protein produce one pound of animal protein, *
In this sense animals are more concentrated or contractive than plants.
While all animal foods are contractive, some are more contractive
than others. Red meat is the most contractive, more than fowl (and
eggs), fish and dairy food. Of the latter, cheese and butter are more
concentrated or contractive than milk. There may be ten pounds of
milk in one pound of butter or cheese,

_____________________________
* If a family of four were to eat just grain and vegetables for a year, they would require less than an acre of land to grow all their food. If that same family were to eat just beef more than ten times the acreage would be required to support the cattle, and thus their appetite.

Plant Foods. Plant foods occupy the center of the dimension and
form the main part of the human diet. They range from seeds
(such as grains, nuts and beans) on the contractive side to grapes,
melons, and tropical fruits on the expansive end. Vegetables are
in between.
Within the plant foods. the smaller. harder. more compact
ones, and those growing more slowly or below ground, are more
contractive. The larger, leafier, juicier plants growing quickly or
above ground are more expansive.
Fruits are more expansive than vegetables. When we eat
fruits, we eat or drink the sweeter, juicier, more expansive parts
of the plant. Smaller, denser fruits, such as berries, cherries and
apples, are more contractive than a bunch of grapes or a melon.

Most natural foods fall into these two groups. However,
there is a third group which I will call plant derivatives. This group
belongs at the expansive end of the dimension.

Plant Derivatives. Plant derivatives are extracts, concentrates
and distillates of various parts of the plant. Included in this group
are sugar, syrups, tea, coffee, wine, beer, spirits, marijuana and
other drugs. I refer to them as expansive for two reasons:

1. They are usually made from the most expansive part of the plant-its fruit, juices, blossoms or leaves.
2. These substances have a marked effect on the nervous system and an expansive effect on behavior.

These derivatives are not whole foods. For example: Fruit
juices are the most expansive (liquid, sweet) part of the plant.
Most commercial fruit juices are pressed, boiled and filtered.
Syrups are made by extracting and boiling down the juice from
fruits (and vegetables). By further processing syrups, one gets
sugar. White sugar is further refined. Alcoholic drinks (wine, beer,
spirits) are produced by the fermentation, brewing, and distillation
of more centered foods (fruits, vegetables, and grains). Coffee and
tea are derived by processing and leaching beans and leaves.
The table that follows will help you to classify foods according
to their expansive or contractive properties.

If all this seems a bit confusing or just too much, then
remember:

Steak and eggs are contractive; fruits, candy and beer are
expansive; and bread is in the middle.

Nutritionists usually classify food in terms of its acidity-
alkalinity, its vitamin, mineral, protein, calorie or carbohydrate
content. These are all determined by chemical analysis of the food
in the laboratory. In these terms, acidity-alkalinity and protein:
carbohydrate ratio are consistent with our classification of the
food in groups 1 and 2 (whole foods) as expansive and contractive. *

The advantage of using terms like expansive and contractive
rather than the nutritionist’s terms mentioned above is that
expansion and contraction are universal concepts. That is:

* They classify foods on the basis of many factors (not simply vitamin, or mineral, or protein content).
* They can be easily understood.
* They can be applied meaningfully not just to food, but to all natural phenomena, including behavior. As you shall see, expansive food … expansive behavior. contractive food … contractive behavior.

———————————————–
* Protein:carbohydrate ratio is simply the amount of protein relative to the amount of carbohydrate in any food. This index can be calculated (from the data provided in most food composition tables. Generally, contractive foods have a high protein:carbohydrate ratio, while expansive foods have a low protein:carbohydrate ratio. Generally. acid-forming foods are contractive while alkaline-forming foods are expansive.

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