Customer Reviews

The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children

5 star:		(26)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

"Bravo" Carol for telling the truth about the American diet and how it is effecting not only our children, but ourselves. I must say that I had quite a few moments of, "Ah-ha!" as I read through specific examples of health issues that myself and my family have experienced due to processed foods. I was particularly thankful for the suggestions for improvement and messages of hope that you give your reader. I know there are going to be some changes happening in our household! This is must read!

This book has influenced me in no small way, and since I first read it several years ago and made various changes to my diet, my family and I have reaped so many very real rewards.

I no longer shop in the "center" of the grocery store except when absolutely necessary. I choose fresh produce, dairy, and breads instead and I compose simple meals with the ingredients: brown rice, grains, vegetables, real butter, etc. They take even less time than various "instant" products I used to use.

My family has, and especially I have, experienced redoubled energy, concentration, psychological calm, weight loss, regularity, steady sleep habits and many more benefits leading to our happiness and well-being. Ms. Simontacci may not have all the research -- but she has noticed these benefits in her subjects and they cannot be denied. The science to back up all of her claims is out there and has been stated by nutritionists and backed by research and experience over and over again. Aspartame, for instance, has been found unsafe on many fronts, and not just by some extremist sect as one reviewer claims (see "Excitotoxins" for more info). Most importantly, this book raises questions like, "shouldn't we at least be examining what we put in our bodies and feed our children?" I refuse to one day tell my kids not to do drugs, but the next day feed them non-nutritive, "non-food." ALL chemicals affect our metabolism, and potentially our brain health -- not just certain chemicals. That's what food is designed to do. Otherwise, we wouldn't need it!

The suggestion that we begin eating real food again is not crazy, but common sense that our society overloooks every day. Whether we consciously know the reasons why nutritious food is helping us or not, the benefits are there, and our bodies will do the work. Anyone claiming this book is "junk science" is probably in the food industry, and a "Crazy Maker" himself.

Like most people, I try to eat right. I read labels and avoid Nutrosweet, MSG, and other suspect additives. And yet my energy level is low, I experience mood swings and occasional sleeplessness. I observe children who are anxious, moody, and have a difficult time in school. And I wonder what we are doing wrong that we have such problems. But it was by chance that I picked up The Crazy Makers How the Food Industry is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children. Once I started reading it I could not put it down. This book both frightens the reader as it describes the bizarre results of our poor diets and offers an easy solution as it clearly and factually explains what vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and herbs are essential for physical and mental development and growth and what food products and additives not only are non-nutritive but actually harmful to growing bodies and minds. The book is easy to follow, cites credible studies of daily requirements and actual nutritional content, offers recipes for entrees and snacks that not only satisfy but fortify the body, and lists sites for puchasing healthful foods. The extensive Notes section is a complete bibliography for anyone interested in health and nutrition. This book has been added to my cooking and health collection and I expect to consult it regularly.

To the author's credit, she has given us many points to ponder when considering what foods to eat and which ones to avoid. As a counsellor and watching the changes in individuals over the years, one thought that continually flows through my mind is the fact we appear to becoming an ever-increasing violent society. People seem less happy, less satisfied and more agressive, more short-tempered. One cannot help but wonder if changes in attitude and agressive behaviour have anything to do with the food we and our predecesors ate. All one needs to do is read a label on a can or package of processed food and the number of additives, preservatives, etc, jumps out like a bolt of lightening. Do you really know what you are eating? How can the additives not affect us over a period of continued long-term use?

While the author may be a good writer and an excellent clinical nutritionist, she should stick with what she knows and stay out of the kitchen. To the book's discredit, where the recipes! Hats off to the author if she is pursuing a doctorate in brain nutrition, but a Cordon Bleu chef she is not! These recipes were not just bland, they were desperate, arousing my taste buds to the same level as wallpaper paste! If I fed them to my family, even my dog would pack his food dish and leave home!

Read the book for the valuable information it contains on food and nutrition; it is excellent on both counts. As for the recipes, they will probably speed up your divorce immensely.

Great job Carol! This book dovetails with the hidden truths kept out of popular media that I discovered while reseaching my chapter Sugar:The Sweet Thief of Life (www.thedoctorwithin.com) I tell patients if they want a coke, drink one - that'll just give them diabetes - still the 7th leading cause of death in the US. But no diet drinks, please! At least white sugar was derived from a food - sugar cane. Aspartame in diet drinks is a chemical toxin and poison, and can in no way be thought of as a nutrient for human consumption. It became a food by politics alone. The rise of degenerative disease, learning disabiliites and inabilities, brain disease - it's no mystery, as Carol clearly explains. For the first time in man's evolution, foods may be created by legislation, with no ties to agriculture whatsoever. Worse than individual sickness in people is the longterm ill effect on the human genome: we're getting more frail as a species as these excitotoxins distort the human DNA of the entire race. This book may be a useful diagnostic tool for anyone who has a mysterious chronic illness that the medical geniuses just can't quite put their finger on, year after year. Carol's book should be read by both the sick and the well. It's the Real Thing.

Carol Simontacchi doesn't always back up her allegations with sound or sufficient science ---hence this book gets only 4 stars -- but she has good instincts, is mostly on track and summarizes the key points well. This book provides a good introduction to the risks to a child's brain development due to the prevalence of pseudo foods, the surprising nutritional deficiencies of some so-called health foods, inadequacies of infant formulas (and outright danger of soy formula), neurotoxicity of MSG, aspartame, food coloring and other additives, etc. Readers may want to know more by going to books by experts in these areas -- Sally Fallon, Russell Blaylock, William Philpott, Kaayla Daniel. That said, parents who heed her advice cannot go wrong and will greatly benefit their children.

I read this one with great interest and found much that made me think (and re-think) my family's diet. However, there were also some sections of this book that could have been omitted, many repetitions and more than a few recipes that my family wouldn't touch (and for good reason, the food was tasteless).
However, I was able to use the author's suggestions of good foods to make my own meal plans and I found her information about the typical American diet to be intriguing and worthwhile. She also provides fascinating research about how food affects mood and how children and adults with ADD, depression and other conditions may improve their mood and behavior by dietary changes. All in all, a worthwhile read with some uneven sections.

I am a chiropractor with a degree in nutrition and this is one of the best books I have read for lay people and professionals alike. It is well written and a fast read for busy parents. It remains focused on the topic while acknowledging there are other important facets to ones health. I highly recommend it to everyone with or without children. Laura A, Bailey D.C.

Simontacchi spells out in detail what is wrong with the modern American diet and what it is doing to the health of our brains. If only half of what she says is true, this country is headed for a mental health train wreck of massive proportions. Though she occasionally makes a statement that is unsupported by evidence and her views on soy are somewhat contradictory, I'm still giving this book five stars, because what she has to say is vitally important. Essential reading.

A fabulous book, very technical at times, but brutally honest. It has given me the true ammunition for explanations to my childrens questions as to why they should not have such an such junk food. It is very convincing to pull out the right page and read the info to them. I am a former psychiatric nurse of children and adolescents, and I wish I had had this information then, I think it could have made a world of difference in their treatment. As a mother of four, from ages 21 months to 13 years, and being pregnant also, the information covers my family in every way imaginable. I intend to send a copy to my sons principal at his middle school, because I feel that these are the people who MUST read this book and become instrumental in implementing improved eating habits in schools, and increasing awareness in both students and parents.