The Twin Crises in America

By Elizabeth Szlek, Licensed Mental Health Counselor



I met last night with a group of women in a lovely Victorian home in Rome. We had met before, to discuss the problem of what kind of diet is the most healthful, and this meeting was a general discussion, which lasted for several hours.

The group was varied. There was a young mother, who was nursing her five-month-old son, as we spoke. He is doing very well! There was an older woman who, like me, is of Polish extraction. But, she had the blessing of growing up on a farm. Her family ate bacon every morning. She looked very healthy, and, this remarkable woman had given birth to seven children! Others had different stories, but we all were joined together in the search for the “right” way to eat. We want to eat in order to give our bodies the nutrients it needs. Quite a novel world view in our country, where eating to enjoy oneself seems to be the way to go!

The Case of Paul

A lot of issues coagulated (if that is the right word) for me yesterday, when I met a new client, Paul. Here, in one person, I saw the twin crises of mental health and diet come together in his "story", which is this: Paul began drinking lots of soda when he was a teenager. At that same time, he became very anxious, and was told he had anxiety issues. Soon after, he began to be medicated for his anxiety.

The medication didn’t really help, but Paul began drinking, and became violent when he did so. Eventually, he was placed in a mental hospital, and has been a chronic mental patient since that time. He showed me the long list of medications he is taking, and I mean a really, really long list.

I asked Paul about his diet, and it seems that it consists largely of Coke! Cans and cans of Coke, every day. Like, maybe, ten cans. And, of course, he is still anxious a good bit of the time. He has never really had any good counseling, but has had psychiatrists who, being stumped, give him more and more psychotropic medications. He has been told he is bi-polar, schizophrenic, and all sorts of other things.

But, guess what? I don’t believe any of it. To me, Paul is very likely hypoglycemic, and that’s it!

Hypoglycemia? What is it?

Of course, most of you know what hypoglycemia is: Low blood sugar. But how, you might say, could such a simply diagnosis escape the notice of all those scores of medical professionals who have been dosing Paul with drugs for the past years?

You all remember the old adage: If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail! That is, if you are an allopathic doctor, or a psychiatrist, and someone comes in with a problem, you look for the drug to fix it! Except, drugs are usually not the solution. Food is the solution, or more properly, nutrition.

Here’s the thing: Hypoglycemia looks exactly like anxiety! Trembling, confusion, racing thoughts, feeling like you are going to pass out, chills, you name it! Low blood sugar is a terrible thing to experience. But, if a psychiatrist saw you experiencing low blood sugar over a long period of time, he or she would probably give you a diagnosis such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder, or maybe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. These disorders do exist, but in the case of Paul, I’m pretty sure his ingesting lots of sugary sodas caused his “psychiatric” symptoms. Why do I say this?

When someone drinks a can of soda, the sugar rapidly enters the bloodstream. To counteract this surge of sugar, the pancreas releases a lot of insulin, to bring the blood back to normal. Some people just cannot handle this kind of sugar attack, and their insulin removes TOO MUCH sugar, bringing sugar levels quite low. All of the “anxiety” symptoms appear, and in addition, the adrenal glands release epinephrine and norepinephrine, which cause hyperfocussing and other excitatory responses. Because this represents a state of arousal, cortisol, the stress hormone, is also released. And, to top it off, the brain sends out the exicitatory neurotransmitter glutamate, to really crank things up! If a child went through this pattern, we would call him or her “hyperactive”, and likely, this kid would be given some drugs to “calm down”.

So, once the body is in this state of low blood sugar, what do you think the natural response would be? Well, if you were a soda addict, you would go and get another can of Coke! If you were indulging in alcohol, you would go get another drink. And the cycle would continue.

The Horrible Triad

We have now identified three conditions that all lead to this kind of hypoglycemia. One condition is diabetes, the other is obesity, and the last is alcoholism.

It has been shown that kids who become hyperactive almost always have family members who suffer from these conditions, and now, it makes sense to me. All these people have trouble with sugar consumption. This leads to an inescapable conclusion: We all eat too much sugar, and it is wreaking havoc with our bodies and minds.!

Last night we were discussing the “holidays” of American life. Think about it: Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day, and Easter. What do all these have in common?

Publicly sanctioned ingestion of candy! Candy, candy, candy! And, of course, the rest of the year Americans can fall back upon their sodas, pastries and snack cakes for that little “boost” of sugar.

The Twin Crises

So, why am I talking about the “Twin” crises in America. Simply because when someone who has trouble with sugar goes to a doctor, or worse, a psychiatrist, the old hammer comes out. Some kind of toxic medicine is given them for the problem.

I probably don’t have to remind you that in medical school, newly minted doctors have suffered through maybe a couple of hours of nutrition training. Tops. It just isn’t seen as very important.

However, when 25% of American children are on some kind of toxic medication, and 60% of adults are overweight or obese, and 75% of violent criminals are hypoglycemic, and children are becoming diabetic at shocking rates – well, perhaps it is time to stop medicating and start looking at the underlying cause of all these afflictions. Perhaps it is time to stop subsidizing the production of sugar, and start taxing heavily, as we do tobacco, anything containing the stuff! Maybe, even, it is time to train our doctors thoroughly in the wisdom of proper nutrition.

Maybe we don’t need anti-psychotic medications, when research shows that 100% of so-called schizophrenics are allergic to gluten. Maybe we don’t need Prozac when it has been shown that omega-3 oils alleviate depression. Maybe we don’t need Ritalin when it has been demonstrated repeatedly that taking toxic substances out children’s diets restores them to normality.

It is obvious that the aims of Big Pharma and Big Food have converged and produced a huge crisis in health in America. Please take some time to learn exactly what your body needs to perform properly. Food is not fun, it is the stuff of a healthy body and mind!



Elizabeth Szlek is the Director of The Door Counseling Center of Yorkville, NY. Questions and comments can be directed to her at (315) 768-8900 or at info@thedoorcounseling.com.