Junk Food: Can What We Eat Change How We Behave? Essays -- Health Nut

Junk Food: Can What We Eat Change How We Behave? Ice cream, chocolate, McDonald’s hamburgers, potato chips, and hot dogs, all symbolize a taboo in our society. Honey, wheat germ, fruit juices, and sprouts, take on a certain manna in our society. For years, our society has been involved with a health food movement. We are carrying this movement with us to every new day, every new year, and now into a new century. As we go into the new century, "our emphasis, is on "wellness" and prevention rather than on illness and curing" (Dubisch, 1999, p.325). Nutrition plays a big role in our plan for preventing illness, and just not physical illness but psychological illness as well. As a mother, I know that nutrition plays a big role in my children’s lives. Did you ever look at a child who has just eaten two chocolate bars, a bag of chips, and drank a big glass of soda, to wash it all down with? They are terrible! If my children eat a well balanced diet throughout the day, they are mostly calm and rational children. They are eas y to talk to, and they listen to almost everything I say. On the other hand, give them a little extra sugar and they run around the house yelling and screaming, throwing things, fighting amongst themselves and in general are very anxious and agitated. It is because of this type of behavior that it is important to explore the possibility that junk food does have an adverse effect on our behavior. Bad eating habits not only affect our bodies physiologically but also can trigger psychological problems. One of the ways this has been evidenced is in an article entitled sugar neurosis. In this article it states "Hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) is a medical reality that can trigger wife beating, divorce, even suicide... ... no hard facts yet. Hopefully more research on this issue will be carried into the new century with us as well. References Burch, M.R. (1992). Behavioral treatment of drug exposed infants: analyzing and treating aggression. Child Today, 21(1), pp. 1-5. Dubisch, J. (1999). You are what you eat. In D.J. Hickey (Ed.), Figures of thought for college writers (pp.323-336). Mountain View, CA: Mayfield. Salzer, M.S. and Berenbaum, H. (1994). Somatic sensations, anxiety, and control in panic disorder. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 25(1), pp. 75-80. Schoenthaler, S.J. (1983). The Alabama diet-behavior program: An empirical evaluation at the Coosa Valley Regional Detention Center. International Journal of Biosocial Research, 5(2), pp79-87. Whaley and Wong, D.L.(1999). Nursing care of infants and children. St, Louis: Mosby, p.871.