Day: September 28, 2022

• September 14, 2022, Politico published a special report based on four dozen interviews with U.S. and European officials and global health specialists, who admit Bill Gates is running the global COVID response

• Four health organizations — The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GAVI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Wellcome Trust — rapidly took a lead on the global pandemic response, and while all four claim to be independent organizations, they’re all actually founded and/or funded by Gates

• During the earliest days of the outbreak, the Gates Foundation, GAVI, CEPI and the Wellcome Trust began a coordinated effort to identify vaccine makers, fund tests, drug treatments and mRNA shots, and develop a global distribution plan in collaboration with the World Health Organization. In the end, they failed to meet their own goals on all fronts

• Gates is unqualified to make health recommendations, and he’s never been elected to represent the public

• Gates has used his wealth, influence and sheer shrewdness to get him into a position where he can dictate global health policy for his own financial benefit

The idea that Bill Gates exerts undue influence over global health has consistently been denied and dismissed as a loony conspiracy theory. But as with so many other things, this conspiracy theory is now turning out to be a conspiracy fact.

September 14, 2022, Politico published an extensive special report based on “four dozen interviews with U.S. and European officials and global health specialists,” headlined, “How Bill Gates and His Partners Took Over the Global COVID Response.”1

As noted by Igor Chudov on Substack,2 within hours the headline was edited to read: “How Four Private Groups Used Their Clout to Control the Global COVID Response — With Little Oversight,”3 as illustrated in Chudov’s screen captures below.

Curiously, five hours after that edit, Politico changed the headline back, so at the time of this writing, it reads:4 “How Bill Gates and Partners Used Their Clout to Control the Global Covid Response — With Little Oversight.” The only word now missing from the original headline is “his.” You can see how the headline shifted back and forth over the course of 15 hours on archive.today.5

According to Politico,6 four health organizations — the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GAVI, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the Wellcome Trust — rapidly took a lead on the global pandemic response, and while all four claim to be independent organizations, they’re all actually founded and/or funded by Gates.

“When Covid-19 struck, the governments of the world weren’t prepared,” Politico writes. “While the most powerful nations looked inward, four non-governmental global health organizations began making plans for a life-or-death struggle against a virus that would know no boundaries.

What followed was a steady, almost inexorable shift in power from the overwhelmed governments to a group of non-governmental organizations, according to a seven-month investigation by POLITICO journalists based in the U.S. and Europe and the German newspaper WELT.

Armed with expertise, bolstered by contacts at the highest levels of Western nations and empowered by well-grooved relationships with drug makers, the four organizations took on roles often played by governments — but without the accountability of governments.”

During the earliest days of the outbreak, while governments were still debating the seriousness of it, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GAVI, CEPI and the Wellcome Trust began a coordinated effort to identify vaccine makers, fund tests, drug treatments and mRNA shots, and develop a global distribution plan in collaboration with the World Health Organization. In a side bar, Politico highlights six key takeaways from their investigation:7

“1 The four organizations have spent almost $10 billion on COVID since 2020 – the same amount as the leading U.S. agency tasked with fighting COVID abroad.

2 The organizations collectively gave $1.4 billion to the World Health Organization, where they helped create a critical initiative to distribute COVID-19 tools. That program failed to achieve its original benchmarks.

3 The organizations’ leaders had unprecedented access to the highest levels of governments, spending at least $8.3 million to lobby lawmakers and officials in the U.S. and Europe.

4 Officials from the U.S., EU and representatives from the WHO rotated through these four organizations as employees, helping them solidify their political and financial connections in Washington and Brussels.

5 The leaders of the four organizations pledged to bridge the equity gap. However, during the worst waves of the pandemic, low-income countries were left without life-saving vaccines.

6 Leaders of three of the four organizations maintained that lifting intellectual property protections was not needed to increase vaccine supplies – which activists believed would have helped save lives.”

As detailed by Politico, through Gates’ lobbying and financial might, the international response to COVID rapidly shifted from individual governments to “a privately overseen global constituency of nongovernmental experts.”

“What makes Bill Gates qualified to be giving advice and advising the U.S. government on where they should be putting … tremendous resources?” ~ Kate Elder, senior policy adviser for the Doctors Without Borders’ Access Campaign

In the U.S., president Biden has earmarked $500 million to CEPI alone in his $5 billion COVID budget, which has yet to be approved by Congress. But, as noted by Kate Elder, a senior vaccines policy adviser for the Doctors Without Borders’ Access Campaign:8

“What makes Bill Gates qualified to be giving advice and advising the U.S. government on where they should be putting … tremendous resources?”

Lawrence Gostin, a Georgetown University professor who specializes in public-health law told Politico:

“I think we should be deeply concerned. Putting it in a very crass way, money buys influence. And this is the worst kind of influence. Not just because it’s money — although that’s important, because money shouldn’t dictate policy — but also, because it’s preferential access, behind closed doors.

[It’s] anti-democratic, because it’s extraordinarily non-transparent, and opaque [and] leaves behind ordinary people, communities and civil society.”

Many have pointed out that Gates, through his billions in donations to the WHO, has significant leverage over the WHO’s decisions. In September 2021, Astrid Stuckelberger, Ph.D., a WHO insider, blew the whistle on Gates, explaining how the WHO is, in fact, controlled by Gates, who in turn dictates policy for his own personal financial benefit.

Of the four organizations Politico focuses on, GAVI, the Vaccine Alliance, may be the most important. GAVI, founded by Gates, is headquartered in Switzerland. In 2009, GAVI was recognized as an international institution and granted total blanket immunity, including qualified diplomatic immunity, which is extremely odd considering the organization has no political power that would warrant diplomatic immunity.9

Odder still is that GAVI’s immunity clauses go beyond even that of diplomats. GAVI’s immunity covers all aspects of engagement, including criminal business dealings. Equally strange is the fact that they’re completely tax exempt.

GAVI can basically do whatever it wants without any repercussions. Police can’t even investigate or collect evidence from GAVI were they to be implicated in a criminal investigation. That’s how well-protected they are. And, according to Stuckelberger, GAVI is the entity that is really directing the WHO.

According to Stuckelberger, Gates did, in 2017, request to be put on the WHO’s executive board — like a member state — ostensibly because he gives them so much money. There’s no evidence that Gates was ever officially granted the status of a member state, but it appears he figured out an alternative power play.

Stuckelberger pointed out that Gates and the WHO entered into a three-way contract agreement with Swissmedic, the Food and Drug Administration of Switzerland, which is highly unusual. So, essentially, when Gates did not get voted in as a one-man nation state, he created three-party contracts with member states and the WHO, essentially placing him on par with the WHO!

One curiosity that supports the idea that Gates is either the real power behind the WHO, or has the same amount of power as the WHO, is the fact that Gates has repeatedly been the first to announce what the world needs to do to address the pandemic, and then the WHO would come out with an identical message that member states then had to follow.

But who the heck is Gates to direct global health and pandemic responses? He’s a nobody. He has no medical training. He’s completely unqualified to speak to any health issues whatsoever. He didn’t even graduate college. And he’s never been elected to represent the people in any capacity.

Basically, what we have here is one wealthy individual who figured out a way to unofficially monopolize the decision-making ability of a global health authority in order to enrich himself, which is beyond crazy.

Gates’ influence over the WHO is undoubtedly why the WHO allowed these four Gates-funded groups to direct the global response to COVID in the first place. As reported by Politico:10

“The WHO was crucial to the groups’ rise to power. All had longstanding ties to the global health body. The boards of both CEPI and Gavi have a specially designated WHO representative.

There is also a revolving door between employment in the groups and work for the WHO: Former WHO employees now work at the Gates Foundation and CEPI; some, such as Chris Wolff, the deputy director of country partnerships at the Gates Foundation, occupy important positions.

Much of the groups’ clout with the WHO stems simply from money. Since the start of the pandemic in 2020, the Gates Foundation, Gavi, and the Wellcome Trust have donated collectively more than $1.4 billion to the WHO — a significantly greater amount than most other official member states, including the United States and the European Commission, according to data provided by the WHO.”

It would be one thing if these organizations actually did an excellent job. But they didn’t. An independent review11 by Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a New York policy advisory firm, found the initiative created by Gates’ groups, the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-A), failed on all fronts.

Despite a $23 billion budget,12 ACT-A procured only 16% of its target number of tests for low-and middle-income countries, and of the 245 million treatments it was supposed to deliver to low- and middle-income countries, they only allocated 1.8 million. Similarly, of the 2 billion COVID shots that were supposed to be delivered by the end of 2021, only 319 million doses were delivered.

Of course, one could argue that failure to deliver fraudulent CPR tests and dangerous treatments and mRNA shots were a blessing in disguise. But the fact remains that these organizations are far from excellent and fail miserably in reaching many of their stated goals.

They overpromise and underdeliver. They’re willing to sacrifice lives to maintain control over moneymaking patents. And, while they’re more or less singlehandedly shaping the global response to pandemics, there’s no one to hold them to account for their performance.

While Politico’s report is sweeping in breadth, it still failed to include a number of important puzzle pieces listed in Chudov’s Substack article. For example:13

• SARS-CoV-2 appears to be an intentionally engineered bioweapon.

• The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation helped organize Event 201, a tabletop pandemic preparedness exercise in October 2019 that prophetically predicted COVID-19 — and the need for a massive propaganda and censorship campaign to quash “conspiracies” about the virus.

• Gates purchased 3.1 million shares of BioNTech in September 2019 for $55 million.14 15 At the time, BioNTech was working on patient-specific immunotherapies for cancer and other chronic diseases. In mid-March 2020, BioNTech partnered with Pfizer to develop a COVID mRNA jab.16 By August 2021, Gates’ prescient investment was worth $1.7 billion.

• The Gates Foundation financed EcoHealth Alliance,17 the organization suspected of having a hand in the development of SARS-CoV-2.

• The Gates Foundation also financed the University of North Carolina (UNC) with at least 56 different grants, where Ralph Baric, Ph.D., conducted gain-of-function research linked to the development of SARS-CoV-2. Baric also worked with EcoHealth Alliance and the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV).

As noted by Chudov in his closing remarks:18

“Nevertheless, the mere publication of this article has huge importance. The things that most of us know and talk about, are appearing in the so-called ‘mainstream press’ — after the damage was all done, of course.

The virus was released; millions died; over a billion young people were force-vaccinated under false pretenses. When it is too late to change anything, Politico is finally stating the obvious. Still, it is better than nothing.

Almost everything in the Politico article was known a year ago. Where was Politico then? Busy taking government COVID vaccine advertising money. The pandemic was a crime, not an accident.”

Gates is far from the only nemesis in this orchestrated drama, however. Dr. Anthony Fauci is another key player. Ironically, Gates claims he’s “taken the brunt of COVID conspiracy abuse” because Europeans are not familiar with Fauci. He recently told Fortune magazine:19

“It was quite a phenomenon; here in the U.S., it focused on myself and Tony Fauci, and internationally it was more just me because they didn’t know who Tony was — he really missed out on that!”

But while Gates tries to pass it off people’s concerns about his undue influence over their health as a joke, there’s no shortage of evidence that he really is pulling strings he’s far from qualified to pull.

In “Bill Gates Lays Out Plan for Global Takeover,” I review Gates’ role in the WHO and the WHO’s plan to, ultimately, seize control over all health care decisions, worldwide. I’ve also reviewed how Gates and Fauci have collaborated, forming a formidable public-private partnership that wields incredible power over the American public.

As early as 2000, Fauci and Gates formed an agreement to control and expand the global vaccine enterprise, which in 2021 culminated in a plan to inject every man, woman and child on the planet with an experimental COVID shot. Gates and Fauci’s collaboration are detailed in Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s best-selling book, “The Real Anthony Fauci.” The video at the top of this article summarizes their joint scheme.

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Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

• A labor shortage at Teva Pharmaceuticals, the top supplier of Adderall and its generic counterpart to the U.S., kicked off a shortage of the popular drug

• People from California, Indiana, Michigan and other states were told by their pharmacies that Adderall was out of stock during August or September 2022

• Among adults aged 22 to 44, the use of Adderall jumped 15.1% from 2020 to 2021; much of the increase is attributed to the loosening of regulations during the pandemic, which made it easy for people to get the drugs without seeing a health care provider in person

• As a Schedule II drug, Adderall is classified as a medication with considerable abuse potential

• Adderall and other stimulants can cause serious adverse effects, including psychosis, heart attack, cardiomyopathy and even sudden death

Supply chain issues have impacted the availability of everything from bicycles and lumber to hot sauce and cream cheese.1 Now it’s medications that are being affected — specifically Adderall, a popular stimulant drug often prescribed to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but which is also used by an increasing number of youth and young adults to increase productivity and stay awake.2

The problem began with a labor shortage at Teva Pharmaceuticals, the top supplier of Adderall and its generic counterpart to the U.S., during the summer of 2022. This led to a limited supply of the pills, which soon spread to other manufacturers, including Amneal Pharmaceuticals, Rhodes Pharmaceuticals and Novartis, all of which had generic Adderall on backorder.3

With the pills suddenly unavailable, a harsh reality set in for people across the U.S., as depression, irritability and difficulty concentrating occurred as symptoms of withdrawal. So many people are taking the drugs that a real dent in productivity is possible without them — a sad testimony to the state of mental and physical health, and the health care system in general, in the U.S. As ZeroHedge put it:4

“We would love to see the productivity metrics of performance-based companies over the next several months to see how an Adderall shortage impacted productivity. Then again, Wall Street has the luxury of another stimulant if an Adderall shortage affects Manhattan pharmacies; that is cocaine.”

Reporters from Bloomberg spoke with people from California, Indiana, Michigan and other states who were told by their pharmacies that Adderall was out of stock during August or September 2022. While the medication is meant to be taken daily, backlogs of up to a week were reported at pharmacies, while drug manufacturers reported the pills were on backorder for a month.

While the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has denied any widespread Adderall shortages, stating, “The demand is being met for the overall market,” pharmacists are reporting otherwise.5 A survey by the National Community Pharmacists Association further found that 64% of small pharmacies had trouble obtaining brand name and generic Adderall from July 25 to August 5, 2022, due to the medications being on backorder.6

“There are supply chain challenges with this drug,” Walgreens spokesperson Rebekah Pajak also told Bloomberg. The news outlet reported:7

“The disruptions are occurring at a time of record-high demand driven by increasing ADHD diagnoses. During the Covid pandemic, the federal government also made it easier for clinicians to prescribe the drugs through telehealth appointments, which removed barriers to access and also made possible the growth of online startups that connect patients with prescribers.

Some of those prescription startups have come under scrutiny. Bloomberg has previously reported on aggressive prescribing practices at the startups Cerebral Inc. and Done Health. Cerebral has stopped prescribing many controlled substances, including for ADHD, though Done continues to do so.”

The use of amphetamines like Adderall increased 2.5-fold from 2006 to 2016.8 Among adults aged 22 to 44, the use of Adderall, specifically, jumped 15.1% from 2020 to 2021.9 Much of the increase is attributed to the loosening of regulations during the pandemic, which made it easy for people to get the drugs without seeing a health care provider in person.

“In hindsight, it is clear that the emergence of digital mental health platforms enabled significant increases in prescribing, particularly for the Millennial generation,” Trilliant Health reported.10 They found that there are now more adults taking Adderall than there are adults with a formal ADHD diagnosis. “This discrepancy likely speaks to the number of individuals using a direct-to-consumer, self-pay service in this clinical scenario.”11

Overall, there were 41 million prescriptions for Adderall written in the U.S. in 2021, a 10% increase from 2020.12

Adderall, which is a combination of dextroamphetamine and amphetamine, acts as a stimulant to the central nervous system. In people with ADHD, the drugs are used to enhance attention, memory, self-regulation and executive function,13 but many people — from college students to athletes to executives — seek out the drugs due to their reputation as “smart pills” or “study drugs” that enhance productivity and brain power.14

The boost to focus and concentration comes with a price, however. As a Schedule II drug, Adderall is classified as a medication with considerable abuse potential. It increases levels of dopamine and norepinephrine in the body, which trigger a feel-good effect that makes users want more. According to the Addiction Center:15

“People abuse Adderall because it produces feelings of confidence, euphoria, increased concentration, and a suppressed appetite. These effects make Adderall a go-to choice for anyone looking for a boost in physical or mental performance.

… The brain of an addicted person is dependent on Adderall to stimulate alertness and productivity. Without Adderall, addicted people often feel tired and mentally foggy. These are symptoms of Adderall withdrawal, a strong sign of an addiction.”

In addition to addiction, Adderall and other stimulants can cause serious adverse effects, including psychosis, heart attack, cardiomyopathy and even sudden death.16 When the pills aren’t available, regular users find themselves unable to function in their daily lives. BuzzFeed News spoke with 20 people in the U.S. who shared similar stories of declining productivity and plummeting mental health without access to the medications. Kyle, 27, told BuzzFeed:17

“I’m constantly nervous that I won’t be able to get my medicine, and I’ll get fired and not be able to find another job and turn back into a gross depressed garbage monster who hates himself for not being able to do his laundry. I’ll just be stressed and upset all the time.”

Anthony Anderson, a 34-year-old special education teacher, told Bloomberg that he’s having trouble concentrating during work, including when trying to have important conversations with students. “I even spaced out when I’m trying to have a serious conversation with this girl to console her, but I spaced out because I’m not able to focus,” he said. “This is a huge issue for me.”18

Children — even babies — are being prescribed powerful psychiatric drugs, setting them up for a lifetime of dependence on medications that carry serious side effects, many of which are unknown for long-term usage. In 2014, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a mental health watchdog group, highlighted data showing that in 2013, 274,000 babies aged 1 and younger were given psychiatric drugs, including 1,422 were on ADHD drugs such as Ritalin and Adderall.19

In the toddler category (2- to 3-year-olds), 10,000 were prescribed ADHD drugs, while among children aged 5 and younger, 1,080,168 were on psychiatric drugs. Considering these statistics are 6 years old, chances are they’re even higher today. Just what will happen to all of these youngsters as they grow up dependent on medications to function? As mentioned in the article:20

“When it comes to the psychiatric drugs used to treat ADHD, these are referred to as ‘kiddie cocaine’ for a reason. Ritalin (methylphenidate), Adderall (amphetamine) and Concerta are all considered by the federal government as Schedule II drugs — the most addictive.

ADHD drugs also have serious side effects such as agitation, mania, aggressive or hostile behavior, seizures, hallucinations, and even sudden death, according to the National Institutes of Health. And the Food and Drug Administration still mandates that all labels for ADHD stimulants state, ‘Long-term effects of amphetamines in children have not been well established.’”

When considering Adderall use for children or adults, it’s important to understand that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration categorizes it the same as cocaine, morphine and opium. The drugs have effects that are “similar to taking meth,” including heart disease, according to neurologist Dr. Don Gervais, who stated:21

“When you abuse these medications, it can lead to progressive and early drug-induced Parkinson-ism, which is just one more disease should you survive the cardiovascular complications past 40 years old … I’ve had people overdose on these medications and had inter-cranial hemorrhages, strokes from blood vessel problems, dependency, sleep disorders, cardiac dysrhythmias.

These are not to be used lightly or without supervision, and my opinion but this is just my opinion, I believe they tend to be overused and used too quickly.”

Whether you’re a child with ADHD or an adult with low energy and difficulty concentrating, medications like Adderall do not cure the disease or underlying conditions that are interfering with your quality of life. A holistic approach is necessary for addressing ADHD and other mental health conditions.

Exercise, for instance, appears to benefit cognitive, behavioral and socio-emotional functions in children and adults with ADHD.22 Exposure to food additives, an imbalanced gut microbiome and a deficiency in omega-3 fats23 are other essential pieces to mental health.

If you or your child is struggling with ADHD or ADHD-like symptoms, or other behavioral or mental health conditions, I recommend consulting with a holistic physician who is experienced in treating these problems using natural methods instead of simply covering up their symptoms with dangerous drugs.

For those in need of an energy boost, one of the most effective ways to optimize your energy and combat fatigue is to implement time-restricted eating (TRE), as it improves your mitochondrial health and metabolic flexibility. You also need to remove dietary and lifestyle factors that cause the energy depletion in the first place — factors like exposure to electromagnetic fields and leaky gut caused by lectins in your diet.

Another dietary factor that decimates mitochondrial health, and thus energy production, is omega-6 linoleic acid (LA), which is found in vegetable oils and virtually every ultraprocessed food. LA contributes to insulin resistance, obesity and chronic inflammation, and when mitochondria detect inflammation, they dial down energy production to shift resources toward self-defense.

On a more general level, common threats that can result in reduced mitochondrial energy production — leading to low energy — include oxidative stress, poor nutrition, environmental toxins, psychological stress, light deficiency (lack of sun exposure) and sleep deprivation.

What you’ll notice is that no pill can effectively address all of the complexities that are necessary to truly experience boundless energy and razor-sharp focus. This requires your body functioning on a level of optimal health, which is only achieved when you commit to a healthy lifestyle. The best part is, though, that when you integrate these strategies into your day, no one can take them from you — not a pharmacy, not a doctor and not even a worldwide supply chain disruption.

You’ll be free to continue living your life feeling your best, without any interruptions. For those in the midst of a mental health crisis, it can feel overwhelming to make positive changes. Focus on making one small change at a time, and seek the help of a holistic psychiatrist who uses a whole-body approach to heal your mind and body.

Subscribe to Mercola Newsletter

Disclaimer: The entire contents of this website are based upon the opinions of Dr. Mercola, unless otherwise noted. Individual articles are based upon the opinions of the respective author, who retains copyright as marked.

The information on this website is not intended to replace a one-on-one relationship with a qualified health care professional and is not intended as medical advice. It is intended as a sharing of knowledge and information from the research and experience of Dr. Mercola and his community. Dr. Mercola encourages you to make your own health care decisions based upon your research and in partnership with a qualified health care professional. The subscription fee being requested is for access to the articles and information posted on this site, and is not being paid for any individual medical advice.

If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication, or have a medical condition, consult your health care professional before using products based on this content.

• Seven of the most nutrient-dense foods for fighting depression include oysters, mussels, seafood, grass fed organ meats, leafy greens, peppers and cruciferous vegetables

• Thirty-four nutrients known to be essential for humans were analyzed to find those deemed most beneficial for fighting depression, narrowing it down to the 12 with the most potential for the Antidepressant Food Score (AFS) list

• Among the foods on the AFS containing the highest amounts of antidepressant nutrients, three are animal-based and four are plant-based, but some have downsides to consider, such as pesticide residues and heavy metals

• The entire list of antidepressant foods is headed by watercress with a score of 127%, while the highest animal-based food is oysters with 56%

• Among people aged 15 through 44 years, mental conditions, including depression, are the leading cause of disability worldwide, so viewing food as a treatment option is considered “imperative” for people struggling with such issues

While there are hundreds of articles, dietary strategies, government agencies and food manufacturers designed to offer information on how to fight disease and optimize your health, you may be surprised to find that before the featured study, none concentrated on brain health or mental disorders as recently as 2007.

In September 2018, researchers reported the results of a study focused on finding the best foods to eat to help fight depression. Dr. Laura R. LaChance and a team from the University of Toronto, and Drew Ramsey from the department of psychiatry at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, tackled the initiative. According to the study:

“A systematic literature review was conducted to derive a list of Antidepressant Nutrients from the 34 nutrients known to be essential for humans using level of evidence criteria.

Nutritional data was extracted for a subset of foods with a high content of at least (one) Antidepressant Nutrient using a USDA (U.S. Department of Agriculture) database. These foods were analyzed for Antidepressant Nutrient density resulting in an Antidepressant Food Score (AFS).”

The list of antidepressant foods based on the AFS is headed by watercress, the plant food with the highest score of 127%, with the highest animal-based food being oysters with a score of 56%, as you’ll see below.

The prevalence of depressive disorders, as well as the potential expense and current state of inadequate management of such conditions, was the driver for developing the AFS. The researchers stressed that each of the top foods can be integrated into any type of eating plan.

You may notice that not all the foods are necessarily familiar to everyone throughout the world; people in the U.S., for example, especially historically, have not found bivalve foods or seafoods readily available, just as people in some areas may not have access to leafy greens or other vegetables.

However, availability doesn’t always mean people avail themselves of the easy access to healthy foods; in fact, most of the adult population in the U.S. fails to meet the daily recommendations for vegetable intake. The Healthy People 2010 initiative, designed to increase vegetable consumption and other healthy habits, revealed that only 27.2% ate three or more servings per day.

The scientists concluded that the top antidepressant nutrients should be considered when other researchers design future intervention studies, and by clinicians developing dietary options to help prevent depression. Their top 12 antidepressant nutrients deemed best for such disorders were:

• Folate

• Iron

• Long-chain omega-3 fatty acids (EPA and DHA)

• Magnesium

• Potassium

• Selenium

• Thiamine

• Vitamin A

• Vitamin B6

• Vitamin B12

• Vitamin C

• Zinc

LaChance and Ramsey’s study noted that among people aged 15 through 44 years, mental conditions, including depression, are the leading cause of disability worldwide. Increasing treatment options, including by considering “antidepressant” foods, should be “imperative” for dealing with the growing number of people struggling with such issues. Further:

“A growing evidence base, including the first randomized controlled trial, suggests that dietary pattern and food choice may play a role in the treatment and prevention of brain-based disorders, particularly depression … They recommend following a traditional dietary pattern such as the Mediterranean diet … and avoiding processed foods, for example those high in refined carbohydrate or sugar.

Furthermore, an international consortium of mental health and nutrition researchers recently recommended ‘nutritional psychiatry’ become a routine part of mental health clinical practice.”

The basis for their research was centered, in part, around a meta-analysis involving scientists from Australia, Spain, Finland, the U.K. and France. Its aim was to address such disorders through dietary recommendations, along with a randomized controlled trial from 2017, dubbed “SMILES” (Supporting the Modification of Lifestyle in Lowered Emotional States).

SMILES, incidentally, involved the collaborative efforts of multiple experts from centers based in neuroscience, psychiatric, dietary, medical and other research centers throughout Australia. It concluded with the premise that “dietary improvement may provide an efficacious and accessible treatment strategy for the management of this highly prevalent mental disorder.”

It also noted that addressing the association between what a person eats and what they don’t would very likely impact the number of related deaths. However, the idea for nutritional psychiatry becoming a “routine part of mental health clinical practice” came from LaChance’s and Ramsey’s use of Lancet Psychiatry’s fundamental observation:

“Evidence for nutrition as a crucial factor in the high prevalence and incidence of mental disorders suggests that diet is as important to psychiatry as it is to cardiology, endocrinology and gastroenterology.

Evidence is steadily growing for the relation between dietary quality (and potential nutritional deficiencies) and mental health, and for the select use of nutrient-based supplements to address deficiencies, or as monotherapies or augmentation therapies.”

One important observation scientists made in the course of the featured study was that deficiencies in long-chained omega-3 fatty acids, B vitamins, zinc, magnesium and vitamin D are unquestionably implicated in the “pathophysiology” of depression.

More specifically, the impact foods have on inflammation, and the influence of dietary fiber on your gut flora, are two important factors when looking at the best foods to eat for mental health. One source came from a study focused on the “powerhouse” fruits and vegetables most strongly linked to lowered chronic disease risk. That said, the highest scoring plant-based foods for depression are:

• Leafy greens — Watercress, spinach, mustard, turnip, chicory and beet greens, Swiss chard, dandelion, collard greens and the herbs cilantro, basil, parsley and kale

• Lettuces — Red, green and romaine lettuce

• Peppers — Bell, Serrano and jalapeno

• Cruciferous vegetables — Cauliflower, kohlrabi, red cabbage, broccoli, Brussels sprouts

Vegetables are highly nutritious, often with an amazing array of phytonutrients that can’t be obtained from anything else, but there are downsides, thanks to modern food production.

Case in point: Although it’s been labeled a probable carcinogen, glyphosate, one of the most common and problematic pesticides, continues to be used on crops, poisoning many of your foods. Birth defects, infertility, neurological disorders, endocrine disruption and cancer are all listed as potential risks of exposure, according to multiple studies.

Genetically engineered (GE) growing operations are some of the worst examples of what’s being done to your food, and GE crops are commonly sprayed with glyphosate. As a result, an estimated 60 million acres of farmland are now overrun with glyphosate-resistant superweeds, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.

Based on the USDA’s Pesticide Data Program (PDP) Report, the Environmental Working Group provides annual lists of the “Dirty Dozen,” the vegetables and fruits with the highest amounts of pesticide residue (a list that changes slightly year by year) and the “Clean 15,” the plant-based foods that are the least likely to contain pesticide residue.

The 2018 list shows spinach as second on the list, and sweet bell peppers as twelfth, but there’s a remedy when you’re not sure how to deal with vegetables that may be contaminated with pesticides or other harmful chemicals: Scientists report that washing your fruits and veggies in baking soda can get rid of as much as 96% of the toxic pesticides that contaminate most fruits and vegetables. Buying organic is also important.

In regard to eating foods to offset depression, the focus has shifted from studying individual nutrients to evaluating overall dietary patterns. Traditional and whole foods (aka a healthy diet) can definitively be linked to symptoms becoming fewer and further between.

One study, among others, notes that people on the so-called “Western” diet, rife with unhealthy fats and sugars, may have a higher risk of depression, attention-deficit disorder and other problems.

As an example, an analysis known as the SUN cohort study followed more than 10,000 university students over a four-year period and found that those who stuck closest to the Mediterranean diet model had a more than 30% lower risk of developing depression in contrast to those with the lowest adherence to the Mediterranean diet.

While caribou and whale liver, blackfish, boar, antelope and longan fish were all excluded from the featured study due to the lack of availability, the highest-scoring animal-based food groups include the following foods, followed by possible caveats for your health:

• Bivalves (soft-bodied invertebrates in a two-part hinged shell) — Oysters, clams, mussels

• Various seafoods — Octopus, crab, tuna, smelt, fish roe (fish eggs), bluefish, wolfish, pollock, lobster, rainbow trout, snail, spot fish, salmon, herring, snapper

• Organ meats — Spleen, kidneys, or heart, and poultry giblets

It also should be noted that papaya, lemons and strawberries, each with a score of 31%, had higher AFS scores than several of the seafoods, such as snail, salmon, herring and snapper. Fish is considered the ultimate superfood, but be careful when purchasing to make sure it’s not on the list of the worst fish, as it’s liable to be tainted with heavy metals such as lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyl) and/or radioactive poisons.

There’s also rampant issues with concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) which more often than not involve diseases, pollution from excrement, a diet of too much grain and animal byproducts, banned antibiotics and carcinogens, not to mention horrific environments.

Tuna, with a score of 15 to 21% on the AFS, is one of the most-consumed seafoods, but it has serious issues for your health due to mercury toxicity. Wild-caught Alaskan salmon is one of the best foods you can eat, but be sure when purchasing that it’s not farmed fish, aka “CAFOs of the sea,” as it’s likely to be toxic due to its diet of GE soy and corn, not to mention mercury and other heavy metals.

Herring are one of the top five healthiest fish. According to NPR, Geoff Shester, California campaign director for the marine protection group Oceanalert, describes it as a “local, sustainable food source,” and says, “Herring are delicious, with flaky, mild meat and oil … .” Also, note that smaller fish like sardines, anchovies and herring generally have fewer contaminants and are high in omega-3 fats.

It’s very important (not to mention encouraging) that the medical community seems to be grasping the fact that food — not solely medical intervention in the form of drugs and/or psychotherapy — may very possibly be the best hope we have of regaining the mental foothold required, individually and collectively, to both approach and be successful at life. To sum up, the top seven foods to help fight depression are as follows:

1. Oysters, but avoid those from contaminated waters

2. Mussels, also be sure they’re from unpolluted waters

3. Seafood, particularly wild-caught Alaskan salmon, herring, sardines and anchovies

4. Organ meats, but only those from grass fed animals (not CAFO animals)

5. Leafy greens

6. Peppers

7. Cruciferous vegetables

Making it even easier for people to eat good foods without becoming overwhelmed by erroneous dietary restrictions, the researchers of the featured study noted another study from BMJ in 2016. It addresses issues with foods that many medical professionals had until recently insisted were “harmful.” The old-school narratives on saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium are being overturned based on more recent research.

Moreover, the harmfulness and potential benefit of nutrients such as saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium for both physical and mental health are being reevaluated based on more recent research, and cholesterol is no longer considered a nutrient of concern according to the most recent Dietary Guidelines for Americans.

The study authors also observe that mental health professionals may or may not be equipped to support behavioral changes, of which dietary change is simply an example. But the AFS list can be used as a tool, if not by medical personnel to refine their nutritional recommendations for their patients, then by you as a consumer to intelligently refine — or redefine — your nutritional choices.

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