Poor Diet Kills

**I am using two personal examples because I knew these people. Though I regret having to add personal details where I see fit, hopefully that gives you a more complete picture...


1. My Father
My father used to eat the most unhealthiest food, basically meat and potatoes with gravy and lots of salt and the occasional beer.

He also would respond to defiance to his authority with anger, and took delight emotionally abusing my mother.

Yet he also would have social anxiety sometimes.

Then he had a stroke in 1995 and died on May 2, 2007, age 86. He gradually faded away over 12 years.

Yet the emotional abuse continued because my mother opted for home care until he requested he be placed in a hospice.

My suspicion is that he may have been depressed all along, since men display depression differently from women.

The social anxiety and the aggression are clues that possibly diet played a role in his mental health. anger management issues are associated with depression in men.

2. My Best Friend

To add to this refutation that a poor diet does not affect a person's disposition, let me give you a brief history of my best friend.

My best friend passed away May 27, 2006, age 52, from pancreatic cancer. He'd been diagnosed circa 2004.

A recovered alcoholic, he'd stopped drinking circa 1991.

Between 1996 and 2004, I can recall that he had a sweet tooth and smoked alot, but had cut down A LOT since his heart attack in 2004.

The meals he ate contained meat and potatoes, and he explained that well-cooked vegetables cannot be determined by sight alone, he'd always been shy of cooking them.

Clinical depression is associated with pancreatic cancer, and, when the cancer impairs the pancreas' ability to secrete insulin, diabetes -- which is associated with schizophrenia.

In the case of my friend, I suspect that because he relied on alcohol for most of his calories for most of his adult life and loved sugar, that both substances mainly and possibly exposure to industrial solvents, including the use of isopropyl alcohol to relieve joint pain, and the use of painkillers may have contributed to both the heart attack and accelerated the development of pancreatic cancer.

He also had anger management issues especially with respect to social communication. Yet he evolved from having a god complex to a philosophy of "it's my way or the high way" mixed with "only the most loyal should endure my final moments".

And endure his final moments I did.

In retrospect, both my parents liked him a lot because he was sociable.