This ought to make you rethink the amount of sugar in your diet...
A psychiatric researcher Malcolm Peet, has made a surprising link between intake of dietary sugar and both depression and schizophrenia.
From what I have read, and I do hope that I get some assistance from the knowledgeable members here, high intake of sugar can lead to depression or
even schizophrenia.
I bring this up because I work in a hotel, one of the residents there is a man who is obviously troubled mentally. I suspect that he is indeed
schizophrenic, his behavior is quite odd to say the least. He is paranoid, and walks aimlessly around the parking lot, and the thing that made me
think of this thread is his consumption of sugar.
We offer coffee to our guests, we have one of those sugar containers that you would see in a restaurant. Well several times a week he will come down
and steal all the sugar in the container. Now obviously this is a lot of sugar to consume on a daily basis. This combined with his erratic and
paranoid behavior led me to wonder if there was a connection. I found one...
In fact, there are two potential mechanisms through which refined sugar intake could exert a toxic effect on mental health.
First, sugar actually suppresses activity of a key growth hormone in the brain called BDNF. This hormone promotes the health and maintenance of
neurons in the brain, and it plays a vital role in memory function by triggering the growth of new connections between neurons. BDNF levels are
critically low in both depression and schizophrenia, which explains why both syndromes often lead to shrinkage of key brain regions over time (yes,
chronic depression actually leads to brain damage). There's also evidence from animal models that low BDNF can trigger depression.
Second, sugar consumption triggers a cascade of chemical reactions in the body that promote chronic inflammation. Now, under certain circumstances
(like when your body needs to heal a bug bite), a little inflammation can be a good thing, since it can increase immune activity and blood flow to a
wound. But in the long term, inflammation is a big problem. It disrupts the normal functioning of the immune system, and wreaks havoc on the
brain.
www.psychologytoday.com...
Now reading this I can understand this behavior a little bit more. What I am worried about is that this guy might get dangerous, he has been
aggressive verbally with me, he is quite scary. Others in the hotel are freaked out about this guy.
What I am wondering, would it be better if I took his sugar supply away, or would that be aggravating and even more detrimental?
Also is this guy dangerous? Should we be worried? Or is this a harmless condition where he may act strange but otherwise is harmless?
He has a real psychological need for it. It would be like detoxing from heroine or alcohol. Even more serious
biochemical imbalances would come up. You don't want to be around when that happens. 
. If you like, i can keep track of how am doing this week by keeping this up and reply by the
weekend, of how well it went. 
