Slashdot Mirror

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...
"Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett argues that supernormal stimulation govern the behavior of humans as powerfully as that of animals. In her 2010 book, Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose,[9] she examines the impact of supernormal stimuli on the diversion of impulses for nurturing, sexuality, romance, territoriality, defense, and the entertainment industry's hijacking of our social instincts. In the earlier book, Waistland,[2] she explains junk food as an exaggerated stimulus to cravings for salt, sugar, and fats and television as an exaggeration of social cues of laughter, smiling faces and attention-grabbing action. Modern artifacts may activate instinctive responses which evolved in a world without magazine centerfolds or double cheeseburgers, where breast development was a sign of health and fertility in a prospective mate, and fat was a rare and vital nutrient. ..."

http://www.healthpromoting.com...
https://www.drfuhrman.com/libr...
"An abundance of food, by itself, is not a cause of health problems. But modern technology has done more than to simply make food perpetually abundant. Food also has been made artificially tastier. Food is often more stimulating than ever before--as the particular chemicals in foods that cause pleasure reactions have been isolated--and artificially concentrated. These chemicals include fats (including oils), refined carbohydrates (such as refined sugar and flour), and salt. Meats were once consumed mostly in the form of wild game--typically about 15% fat. Today's meat is a much different product. Chemically and hormonally engineered, it can be as high as 50% fat or more. Ice cream is an extraordinary invention for intensifying taste pleasure--an artificial concoction of pure fat and refined sugar. Once an expensive delicacy, it is now a daily ritual for many people. French fries and potato chips, laden with artificially-concentrated fats, are currently the most commonly consumed "vegetable" in our society. As Dr. Fuhrman reports in his excellent volume Eat to Live, these artificial products, and others like them, comprise a whopping 93% American diet. Our teenage population, for example, consumes up to 25% of their calories in the form of soda pop!
    Most of our citizenry can't imagine how it could be any other way. To remove (or dramatically reduce) such products from America's daily diet seems intolerable--even absurd. Most people believe that if they were to do so, they would enjoy their food--and their lives--much less. Indeed, most people believe that they would literally suffer if they consumed a health-promoting diet devoid of such indulgences. But, it is here that their perception is greatly in error. The reality is that humans are well designed to fully enjoy the subtler tastes of whole natural foods, but are poorly equipped to realize this fact. And like a frog sitting in dangerously hot water, most people are being slowly destroyed by the limitations of their awareness. ..."

Sorry to say, from the slurring of the interviewer in the video, which suggested clogged arteries throughout your body. Check out health ideas here for unclogging them through nutritional changes:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/libra...
http://www.diseaseproof.com/ar...
"Cardiovascular disease (CVD) accounted for 32.3% of deaths in the United States in 2010, but you can protect yourself. A significant number of research studies have documented that heart disease is easily and almost completely preventable (and reversible) through a diet rich in plant produce and lower in processed foods and animal products."

More in general:
http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
http://slashdot.org/comments.p...
http://www.changemakers.com/mo...
http://www.changemakers.com/di...
https://www.newschallenge.org/...

Good luck Rob, I think we may have we met once briefly around 1999 at an Open Source conference in NYC (one where Ralph Nader spoke), and thanks for all the stories.

And the shift does not have to be that unpleasant as your tastes will adapt after six weeks:
https://www.drfuhrman.com/libr...
"Scientific evidence suggests that the re-sensitization of taste nerves takes between 30 and 90 days of consistent exposure to less stimulating foods. This means that for several weeks, most people attempting this change will experience a reduction in eating pleasure. This is why modern foods present such a devastating trap--as most of our citizens are, in effect, "addicted" to artificially high levels of food stimulation! The 30-to-90-day process of taste re-calibration requires more motivation--and more self-discipline--than most people are ever willing to muster.
Tragically, most people are totally unaware that they are only a few weeks of discipline away from being able to comfortably maintain healthful dietary habits--and to keep away from the products that can result in the destruction of their health. Instead, most people think that if they were to eat more healthfully, they would be condemned to a life of greatly reduced gustatory pleasure--thinking that the process of Phase IV will last forever. In our new book, The Pleasure Trap, we explain this extraordinarily deceptive and problematic situation - and how to master this hidden force that undermines health and happiness."

Another good health resource if you are willing to take one week to do a medically supervised water-only fast in Santa Rosa, CA for a quick reboot of your taste buds. Compared to a heart bypass operation or years of physical therapy for a stroke, you won't even have to stop posting to Slashdot the whole time during a fast. Posting would help keep you busy and distracted as your body re-calibrates itself and goes into "garbage collection" mode and shifts to new biological pathways during the fast. See:
http://www.healthpromoting.com...
"TrueNorth Health Center was founded in 1984 by Drs. Alan Goldhamer and Jennifer Marano. The integrative medicine approach they established offers participants the opportunity to obtain evaluation and treatment for a wide variety of problems. The staff at TrueNorth Health Center includes medical doctors, osteopaths, chiropractors, naturopaths, psychologists, research scientists, and other health professionals. The Center is now the largest facility in the world that specialize

These can sometimes help. A collection of health links I put together:
https://www.changemakers.com/d...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R...

Laughter can help too. http://www.humorproject.com/

Medically-supervised fasting can also help sometimes. http://www.healthpromoting.com...

Better nutrition implies avoiding various problematical food additives. http://fedup.com.au/factsheets...

Getting enough sleep is also important of good health. Try to avoid looking at screens a couple hours before going to bed. And before going to sleep, try to make a mental list of all the things that you would still want to be there in the morning and that you are thankful for (e.g. enough to eat that day, water to drink that day, a safe place to sleep, garbage collection services, etc.), as gratitude helps mental health, and what you think about before going to sleep often programs the subconscious mind as to what to think about.

A lot of people creating startups and working long hours may ending up eating poorly, not exercising, and not getting enough sunlight for vitamin D. So they are at risk.

Deeper issues in the sense that we live in a crazy-making society with many organizations emphasizing unhealthy aspirations, even celebrated ones: http://www.pdfernhout.net/read...

Good luck!

"The few weeks of discipline crap has been disproved, both scientifically and by human experience over and over again"

Citations needed... Examples where it can work:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/hea...
http://www.heartattackproof.co...
http://www.healthpromoting.com...

I would agree that it can be a difficult path to walk sometimes in our society -- especially when the entire family does not make the change at once, and so essentially keeps re-infecting each other with bad eating habits by bringing junk food into the house. The battle of the "bulge" is generally lost or won in the supermarket, since food brought in to the home is pretty much guaranteed to be eaten in reverse order of healthfulness. As Paul Graham said in his essay:
http://paulgraham.com/addictio...
"Already someone trying to live well would seem eccentrically abstemious in most of the US. That phenomenon is only going to become more pronounced. You can probably take it as a rule of thumb from now on that if people don't think you're weird, you're living badly."

How can talking about better urban planning be a "fantasy"? Communities can improve themselves. See for example, Albert Lea, MN:
http://www.bluezones.com/progr...
"Our team of experts Dan Burden, Dr. Brian Wansink, and Dr. Leslie Lytle, empowered the community to make a few small lifestyle and environmental changes. Citizens improved in four areas: eating better, becoming more active, connecting with one another and finding a greater sense of purpose, and reaped the positive benefits of revitalizing their bodies, their spirits and their town. The community made a variety of changes including adding workplace wellness policies, revised restaurant menu and vending machine offerings, community gardens, walking clubs, walking school buses and new hiking trails.
Community Successes
* Life expectancy increased an average of 3.1 years
* Participants lost a collective 12,000 pounds
* An average 21% drop in absenteeism by key employers
* City employees showed a 40% decrease in health care costs"

Many cities in Europe have zoning policies that encourage walk-ability and discourage sprawl that leads to automobile dependency.

Also, for your other comments, it sounds to me like you're mostly just being pessimistic without really looking at alternatives such as I've outlined. We may lack the political will to improve ourselves, but for the most part, we collectively know how if we wanted to. Much of the stuff I've outlined is about moving forward. For example, with dish washing machines, high-powered blending machines, ceramic knives, improved heating devices and pots, home grocery delivery in many areas, YouTube example videos, and so on, home cooking is probably a lot easier than it has even been. And that is even before talking about the potential for home gardening robots and home cooking robots. Or even purchased prepared meals that are just prepared *better*.

See also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S...

As for women specifically, compared to a basic income, how is it "freeing" an individual to for her to separate her from her young children she cares about and move her from a position of great autonomy in the household and part of a distributed network of peers to one where she is statistically a bottom-ranked person on a hierarchy who has a boss staring at her back all the time and is subject to other degrading regulations (like when she can go to the bathroom)? And for the most part ultimately for little economic gain after paying for child-care expenses, a business wardrobe, more purchased meals, and a second car?

http://www.bluezones.com/programs/blue-zones-communities/albert-lea-mn/
http://www.bluezones.com/live-happier/thrive-centers/
"Our team of experts Dan Burden, Dr. Brian Wansink, and Dr. Leslie Lytle, empowered the community to make a few small lifestyle and environmental changes. Citizens improved in four areas: eating better, becoming more active, connecting with one another and finding a greater sense of purpose, and reaped the positive benefits of revitalizing their bodies, their spirits and their town.
The community made a variety of changes including adding workplace wellness policies, revised restaurant menu and vending machine offerings, community gardens, walking clubs, walking school buses and new hiking trails.
Community Successes
* Life expectancy increased an average of 3.1 years
* Participants lost a collective 12,000 pounds
* An average 21% drop in absenteeism by key employers
* City employees showed a 40% decrease in health care costs"

Yes, people are up against tough odds. But isn't the point of a "health care" as opposed to "sick care" system to help people succeed in implementing known effective solutions towards greater health?

Related resources on diabetes reversal with various slightly different approaches -- McDougal may be easier for many than Fuhrman as far as diet -- and medically suprvised fastign may work for others:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/med_hot_diabetes.html
http://www.drfuhrman.com/disease/Diabetes.aspx
http://www.rawfor30days.com/
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/05/20/5-steps-to-reversing-type-2-diabetes-and-insulin-resistance/
http://drbass.com/disease-cure.html
http://www.healthpromoting.com/condition/diabetes

All have similarities. By reducing foods with high glycemic loads, in the diet, while also reducing a person's body fat, and also improving the nutrient density of the food so the human body works better in general, and also getting adequate vitamin D and exercise which also help improve bodily functioning, most Type 2 diabetics can reach the point where they do not need supplemental insulin or other drugs because their needs for insulin have fallen to what their bodies can manage without aid.

But yes, it can be hard. Maybe the biggest part of the issue is that doctors are trained to write permission slips for unhealthy behavior (called prescriptions) instead of being trained in how to help patients change their lifestyle. How many hours of training does the typical MD have in lifestyle discussions? Especially in the ten minutes at most a typical doctor will spend with a typical patient. More than ten minutes, and a doctor's partners will yell at him or her.

And where is the sick care system's profit in curing diabetes? There is so much money to be made in glucose test strips, drug prescription renewals, insulin pump operations, amputations, and so on. There is a fundamental conflict of interest here.

Meanwhile, when a patient does not make the change, the doctor can just blame the subsequent health problems on genetics and the patient's lack of willpower to follow whatever advice was haphazardly given. Convenient for the well-paid doctor.

Contrast with the advice from the True North Health Center which includes training on how to cook healthier ood (as do other like McDougal's approach):
http://www.healthpromoting.com/
http://www.drfuhrm

http://www.bluezones.com/programs/blue-zones-communities/albert-lea-mn/
http://www.bluezones.com/live-happier/thrive-centers/
"Our team of experts Dan Burden, Dr. Brian Wansink, and Dr. Leslie Lytle, empowered the community to make a few small lifestyle and environmental changes. Citizens improved in four areas: eating better, becoming more active, connecting with one another and finding a greater sense of purpose, and reaped the positive benefits of revitalizing their bodies, their spirits and their town.
The community made a variety of changes including adding workplace wellness policies, revised restaurant menu and vending machine offerings, community gardens, walking clubs, walking school buses and new hiking trails.
Community Successes
* Life expectancy increased an average of 3.1 years
* Participants lost a collective 12,000 pounds
* An average 21% drop in absenteeism by key employers
* City employees showed a 40% decrease in health care costs"

Yes, people are up against tough odds. But isn't the point of a "health care" as opposed to "sick care" system to help people succeed in implementing known effective solutions towards greater health?

Related resources on diabetes reversal with various slightly different approaches -- McDougal may be easier for many than Fuhrman as far as diet -- and medically suprvised fastign may work for others:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/med_hot_diabetes.html
http://www.drfuhrman.com/disease/Diabetes.aspx
http://www.rawfor30days.com/
http://drhyman.com/blog/2010/05/20/5-steps-to-reversing-type-2-diabetes-and-insulin-resistance/
http://drbass.com/disease-cure.html
http://www.healthpromoting.com/condition/diabetes

All have similarities. By reducing foods with high glycemic loads, in the diet, while also reducing a person's body fat, and also improving the nutrient density of the food so the human body works better in general, and also getting adequate vitamin D and exercise which also help improve bodily functioning, most Type 2 diabetics can reach the point where they do not need supplemental insulin or other drugs because their needs for insulin have fallen to what their bodies can manage without aid.

But yes, it can be hard. Maybe the biggest part of the issue is that doctors are trained to write permission slips for unhealthy behavior (called prescriptions) instead of being trained in how to help patients change their lifestyle. How many hours of training does the typical MD have in lifestyle discussions? Especially in the ten minutes at most a typical doctor will spend with a typical patient. More than ten minutes, and a doctor's partners will yell at him or her.

And where is the sick care system's profit in curing diabetes? There is so much money to be made in glucose test strips, drug prescription renewals, insulin pump operations, amputations, and so on. There is a fundamental conflict of interest here.

Meanwhile, when a patient does not make the change, the doctor can just blame the subsequent health problems on genetics and the patient's lack of willpower to follow whatever advice was haphazardly given. Convenient for the well-paid doctor.

Contrast with the advice from the True North Health Center which includes training on how to cook healthier ood (as do other like McDougal's approach):
http://www.healthpromoting.com/
http://www.drfuhrm

No apology needed; thanks for the thought though. Glad if you found some of the stuff I wrote interesting or useful. Probably you finding anything I wrote interesting is explained by the psychedelics? :-)

Yeah, it's hard to know where to start sometimes, especially with complex interwoven stuff like this:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=3862853&cid=44084615

Sometimes the best way to start is just to stop. :-)

I just came off a ten day water-only fast I started the evening after visiting someone I know who is in a hospice with an inoperable brain tumor. I've been meaning to get back to fasting for a while to reset my taste buds, and that (along with some other things) was enough to get me over some threshold. Now I've moved onto vegetable juices, and this afternoon had a bit of shitake mushroom and kale soup with wakame and some brown rice miso. Most of the fast fit over weekends or holidays. I would have fasted longer, but had to get back to various obligations that require moving around more (which is not that compatible with fasting, when your body tries to conserve energy so every movement feels harder). I've done one longer fast before about three years ago (31 days) which I had built up to after five or six other much shorter fasts. I got interested in fasting mainly from reading "The Pleasure Trap" book. I actually found Fuhrman's nutrition (and fasting) stuff while already fasting. But, there are many reasons why water-only fasting is not right for everyone. And ultimately the biggest benefits come from eating well, so fasting by itself may not help much unless it is part of a general shift.

I might continue some juice "fasting" or "feasting" for a time, but it is a totally different thing from water-only fasting.

In water-only fasting, the body switches into fat-burning ketogenic mode and does more garbage collection like of pre-cancerous stuff it is suggested. Basically, water-only fasting boosts the immune system in otherwise healthy people, which can help destroy pre-cancerous cells, plus the body is selectively breaking down problematical tissues it is claimed, and also cancer cells run off of sugar but when your body goes ketonic, normal cells go into self-protective mode and generally burn fat, but cancer cells don't and so still need sugar and so starve. Spending some time in the sun helps too, giving vitamin D to help the immune system do its job. Lots to learn, the most important thing is to break a long fast slowly on simple water-heavy foods like vegetable juice or part of an orange:
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/fasting-cancer/
http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/020127shelton.III/020127.toc.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Fasting-Eating-Health-Medical-Conquering/dp/031218719X
http://www.quickfasting.com/

Fasting is not something someone on any kind of prescription medication should do without coordinating it with their doctors, as medication needs will likely change, or the medication dose may need to be tapered off beforehand. Dr. Joel Fuhrman knows a lot about that sort of thing, and his group does phone consultations. The True North Health Center in CA is another great place (the authors of the Pleasure Trap help run it).
http://www.healthpromoting.com/

Anyway, it's a fine balance of psychology to navigate health and our society and possible addictions. Our lower level drives (as in the Pleasure Trap) to seek pleasure, avoid pain, and minimize energy use, are generally directing us to healthy ways to be (at least in a pre-historic world). But the newer part of our brain has helped make

It is an essay by Paul Graham, not a book: http://www.paulgraham.com/addiction.html

Sorry, the full title is "The Acceleration of Addictiveness" not "addiction".

From there: "What hard liquor, cigarettes, heroin, and crack have in common is that they're all more concentrated forms of less addictive predecessors. Most if not all the things we describe as addictive are. And the scary thing is, the process that created them is accelerating. ...
    Already someone trying to live well would seem eccentrically abstemious in most of the US. That phenomenon is only going to become more pronounced. You can probably take it as a rule of thumb from now on that if people don't think you're weird, you're living badly. ...
    But if I'm right about the acceleration of addictiveness, then this kind of lonely squirming to avoid it will increasingly be the fate of anyone who wants to get things done. We'll increasingly be defined by what we say no to."

There is an argument I've seen elewhere that it is good to get hooked on "healthy" addictions while you are younger -- for example, the joy of helping others, or the splendor of walking in nature, or some challenging "hard fun" productive enterprise like metal working or playing the piano, and so on.

One of the values of conventional religion is it may steer us away from some self-destructive behaviors including addiction -- especially by peer pressure. One example of a such a long lived population:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seventh-day_Adventist_Church
"The church is also known for its emphasis on diet and health, ..."

On "The Pleasure Trap":
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx
http://www.healthpromoting.com/the-pleasure-trap
http://www.amazon.com/The-Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines/dp/1570671974

On "Supernormal Stimuli":
http://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/B0057DC3VY
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_stimulus

Thanks for asking and looking into this.

I'll copy it here:

By the way, here are some key useful health related links, and these are some of the issues I'd like to use such a system to discuss, refine, rebut, or promote.

On healthy diet:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/foodpyramid.aspx
http://drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx
http://www.amazon.com/Food-Revolution-Your-Diet-World/dp/1573244872
http://www.amazon.com/Diet-New-America-John-Robbins/dp/0915811812

Knife and blender skills for eating better:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0RhfAE6McrM
http://greensmoothierevolution.com/

On medically supervised fasting (both water and juice) and health:
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/healthy-food-dr-fuhrman-on-fasting....
http://www.healthpromoting.com/why-water-fasting
http://www.fatsickandnearlydead.com/

And on getting enough vitamin D (in decreasing levels of recommended supplements):
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/about-vitamin-d/how-to-get-your-vitamin-d...
http://www.grassrootshealth.net/recommendation
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/vitamin_D_recommendations.aspx

On vitamin D and pregnancy:
http://www.webmd.com/baby/news/20100504/high-doses-of-vitamin-d-may-cut-...
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/health-conditions/neurological-conditions...

On autism and health care in general:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-mark-hyman/autism-research-discovery_b_...

Understanding about good and bad fats:
http://peakperformance.runnersworld.com/2011/05/may-9-the-great-fat-deba...
http://nutsci.org/2011/05/04/the-great-fat-debate/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21515108

Mental health:
http://books.google.com/books?id=bCuC2H-6k_8C
http://books.google.com/books?id=RKZreNYKNHQC
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/06/what-makes-us-happy/...
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200912/dobbs-orchid-gene

Treadmill workstations for computer users (but be sure to get vitamin D being indoors so much):
http://www.engadget.com/2005/06/08/the-treadmill-workstation/
http://www.squidoo.com/wal

http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx
http://www.healthpromoting.com/article/breaking-free-dietary-pleasure-trap

And also: "Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose"
http://books.google.com/books?id=HQlg3rQquUoC

All to support your concern...

Another aspect, that animals may turn to addictive-seeming behavior under stress:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park

See also Larry Niven's fictional "Droud":
    http://www.technovelgy.com/ct/content.asp?Bnum=207

Thanks for the David Drake suggestion. I don't especially recall reading anything by him, though I have "The World Turned Upside Down" which he helped edit.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Drake
Anyway, I'll have to look through my sci-fi collection. I can guess I've read similar things though. Maybe his stuff might be similar to themes in the Bolo (honor) or Beserker (survival) series? Or stuff like by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle, like in The Mote in God's Eye (and the sequel someone mentioned to me recently, where biogenetic change of the Mote's was a theme)? Jack L. Chalker's Well World series also talks about the interplay of genetics, environment, and culture.

The non-fiction book (and DVD) called "The Pleasure Trap" by Doug Lisle (and a coauthor) talk about a human brain adapted for scarcity and not abundance (and the obesity epidemic being an example of things going wrong).
"The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happines"
http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx

Another similar book (but with less good advice, but more general):
"Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpos"
http://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/039306848X

Also related on how people may turn to compulsive addictive-seeming behaviors in stressful environments:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park

Anyway, how we express our genes is still related to environment and mind. So, even if there is a potential for violence, we have options as to what we do with out feelings.

Gregory Clark has a theory of evolution related to capitalism, btw (I'm not saying I agree, but it relates to your point):
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/07/science/07indu.html?pagewanted=print
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Clark_(economist)#A_Farewell_to_Alms
"A Farewell to Alms (the book's title is a non-rhotic pun on Ernest Hemingway's novel, A Farewell to Arms) discusses the divide between rich and poor nations that came about as a result of the Industrial Revolution in terms of the evolution of particular behaviors originating in Britain. Prior to 1790, Clark asserts, man faced a Malthusian trap: new technology enabled greater productivity and more food, but was quickly gobbled up by higher populations. In Britain, however, as disease continually killed off poorer members of society, their positions in society were taken over by the sons of the wealthy, who were less violent, more literate, and more productive. This process of "downward social mobility" eventually enabled Britain to attain a rate of productivity that allowed it to break out of the Malthusian trap."

However, that does not explain the Haudenosaunee. In general, "sexual selection" can drive a lot of evolution, as can just random changes, or other non-obvious things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sexual_selection

Do whales and dolphins kill each other off? Still, I'm not saying humans don't have various different proclivities. But even then, environment and culture can shape how they are expressed. James P. Hogan's Voyage from Y

You're welcome. Thanks for the comment. I've been refining the message. I hope the meme continues to propagate and others adapt it for local circumstances and their own unique style. James P. Hogan's Voyage From Yesteryear is one big source of that meme for me. Marcine Quenzer was influential too:
    http://www.marcinequenzer.com/creation.htm#The%20Field%20of%20Plenty
As was Doug Lisle:
    http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm
And others (Gerry Pournelle to an extent with his "Survival with Style" essay, lots of other writers with a bit here and there, including Theodore Sturgeon and "The Skills of Xanadu"). So I'm just standing on the shoulders of giants. :-)

BTW, if you like Edgar Cayce, how do you feel about Herbert Shelton, Joel Fuhrman, and Blue Zones?
    http://www.soilandhealth.org/02/0201hyglibcat/shelton.bio.bidwell.htm
    http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/foodpyramid.aspx
    http://www.bluezones.com/

The Flexner Report (by Abraham Flexner, in conjunction with the Rockefeller and Carnegie Foundations) is where things really started to go wrong with US medicine, as someone with success doing hands-on stuff with K-12 education tried to apply it to medicine where it was less appropriate since prevention, infrastructure, and complex psychology/spiritual issues are more important for wellness:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flexner_Report
Ironically, now we have hands-on treatment focused medicine, and abstraction-oriented K-12, mostly just the opposite of how it should be...

More on that from one perspective:
    http://www.sntp.net/fda/piper_griffin.htm
"In the meantime, while doctors are forced to spend hundreds of hours studying the names and actions of all kinds of man-made drugs, they are lucky if they receive even a portion of a single course on basic nutrition. Many have none at all. The result is that the average doctor's wife or secretary knows more about practical nutrition than he does."

More on how medical and other research has gone wrong in the USA (another post I made to this story):
    http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1964112&cid=34989572

If this cold fusion thing does work out (or even if it does not), these issues may help explain why it (as well as alternative medicine) encountered so much resistance. Still, I hope things may have improved somewhat from the days of Ignaz Semmelweis:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

I do talk about escapism and drug addiction in passing here:
http://knol.google.com/k/paul-d-fernhout/beyond-a-jobless-recovery/38e2u3s23jer/2

Summarized in a new way here:
http://www.journal-of-nuclear-physics.com/?p=360&cpage=6#comment-20270

As I say there, after talking about positive alternatives of a a basic income, a gift economy, democratic resource-based planning, and local subsistence: "There are some bad "make-work" alternatives also that could prop up the status quo for a time and are best avoided, like endless war, endless schooling, endless bureaucracy, endless sickness, and endless prisons. All of those just keep people busy in an addictive or destructive or mindless way to little good end and to little human happiness. Unfortunately, people turn all too quickly to those bad alternatives sometimes to deal with social problems related to abundance or uneven wealth distribution. I outline that in more depth in the knol."

So, I might consider drugs part of the "endless sickness". But maybe it deserves its own category for the reason you outline? Thanks for the suggestion. It also feeds into the prison "solution", too, as you point out. And, as you say indirectly, it connects to the notion of being a "Millionaire Wannabee" as well:
http://www.conceptualguerilla.com/?q=node/47
"But here's something I'll bet the dittoheads haven't thought of. Maybe they're the chumps. Maybe they've been sold a bogus "American dream" that never existed. Maybe "the rules" they play by were written by the people who have "made it" - not by the people who haven't. And maybe - just maybe - the people who have "made it" wrote those rules to keep the wannabes chasing a dream that's a mirage."

BTW, here is a way to break out of food-related "drug" addiction, in the sense that refined sugar and cheap salt and excessive refined-oil/factory-farmed-animal fat are all drugs in a way too:
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm
Combined with this or something similar:
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/foodpyramid.aspx

This 1970s study (ignored and terminated) showed that addictive behavior may be mainly a response to environmental stress:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park
"To test his hypothesis, Alexander built Rat Park, an 8.8 m2 (95 sq ft) housing colony, 200 times the square footage of a standard laboratory cage. There were 16-20 rats of both sexes in residence, an abundance of food, balls and wheels for play, and enough space for mating and raising litters.[3] The results of the experiment appeared to support his hypothesis. Rats who had been forced to consume morphine hydrochloride for 57 consecutive days were brought to Rat Park and given a choice between plain tap water and water laced with morphine. For the most part, they chose the plain water. "Nothing that we tried," Alexander wrote, "... produced anything that looked like addiction in rats that were housed in a reasonably normal environment."[1] Control groups of rats isolated in small cages consumed much more morphine in this and several subsequent experiments."

A claymation about that:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3swVNAaoDgw

Could that go for computer addiction and workaholism and so on, too?

Its ironic how the totalitarian USSR needed to guard its borders to keep people from escaping, and we in the USA rightly said that was awful, but the USA is finding it ne

Please see this post by another parent about how nutritional issues (dairy in that case) were the cause of autistic-seeming behavior:
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1947552&cid=34849468

Also, while I'd agree that a lot of stuff that happens in the womb or the early years can't really be improved (short of Star Trek 24th century medicine we don't have), nutrition and vitamin D clearly can improve a lot of things, and not just for your son, but even in your own life, so you can take better care of your son for a long time. It is not natural for humans to get little sunlight exposure. It is not natural to eat processed and refined foods, or so much factory-farmed animal products (especially weird dairy). Neither is it normal to have so many heavy metals and other toxins in our vitamins, which *increase* the need for a better diet, when instead we have a worse one. Whether fixing all these issues can improve ASD, they certainly can help prevent (or in many cases reverse) heart disease, diabetes, cancer (prevention only mostly), arthritis, and other chronic diseases.

Other links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPiR9VcuVWw
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/foodpyramid.aspx
http://www.drfuhrman.com/children/default.aspx

Genetics do affect part of health and part of behavior. But the vast majority of health and behavior reflects the interaction of genes and environment, and you can effect the environment.

Vaccines are a distraction in that sense, where even if they work to some extent, and even if they are safe to some extent, the focus on a "magic bullet" is like a permission slip for ignoring the big picture about wellness. Dr. Fuhrman's work is heavily based on science, so you can find thousands of studies he references in his works (more than anyone else probably).

And here is other scientifically based advice on wellness:
http://www.bluezones.com/

Anyway, call it "garbage" if you want. But science more and more is telling us the same thing that old wisdom told us about health -- eat a diversity of mostly whole plant foods for health.

Ask yourself, where have you gotten your nutritional and other health information? What conflict-of-interests or profit-making influences have been involved in shaping your opinions about what is "normal"?
http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/11/the-subsidized-food-pyramid.html

In general, if you read something like Dr. Fuhrman's advice on nutrition in its entirety, and use a basic supplement, plus others as he recommends like vitamin D, it is highly unlikey you would do "more harm than good".

Doctor Hyman, a different doctor I linked to who suggests in addition to many other things, chelation. I'd agree chelation is risky. I'd pass on the chelation until trying everything else (and even then, adequate iodine might help a kid excrete heavy metals rather than using chelation). But making sure a kid is not eating processed foods and is eating more whole foods is almost certainly not going to hurt them (one could probably invent behavioral scenarios or monodiets where there could be issues, so I'm not saying there are not things to think about at all).

Do you own research, since most doctors are clueless about chronic conditions.

Even look into info for spiders:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arachnophobia
"The alternative view is that the dangers, such as from spiders, ar

By the way, two counter links:
http://open.salon.com/blog/rahul_k_parikh/2009/09/06/huffington_post_health_watch_mark_hymans_faux_autism_cure
http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2009/09/dr_mark_hyman_mangles_autism_science_on-.php

But, while I agree with the dangers of chelation (I think appropriate iodine supplementation might be safer and as effective), in general, I feel Mark Hyman is right about the big picture.

The problem is that in the USA, dermatologists and cosmetics companies have scared everyone about being in the sun, which along with and indoors lifestyle have led to vitamin D deficiency (which is involved in dealing with heavy metals). And with the way the meat, dairy, and processed/refined food industries have captured the US FDA, we have a crazy food pyramid that contributes to most people in the USA getting about half their calories from animal products and about the other half from refined and processed foods, with less than 10% percent of calories from fruits, vegetables, beans, nuts, and seeds. We need to turn that around so less than 10% of calories comes from animal product and refined/processed foods, and 90% of calories comes from whole plant foods.
http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/11/the-subsidized-food-pyramid.html
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/diet-myths-the-food-pyramid-of-the-insane.html
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/foodpyramid.aspx

Unfortunately, because of the "Pleasure Trap", people have a hard time breaking out of that bondage to deadly foods and thus come up with endless rationalizations for why they are not harming us:
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm

And we've been told for so long by so many people to avoid the sun (whether for health or energy), it's hard to think it is important. A little story about that is at the end of this:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/2008-october.shtml
"Then, new priests of science and medicine, told the people the Sun God was only a star, one of trillions, nothing special. Great temples called hospitals and research institutes arose, which admitted only filtered sunlight and where the people offered sacrifices to the gods of science and medicine, sacrifices that enriched the new priests. Then, thirty years ago, the new priests of dermatology told the people to shun the Sun God. "Banish her from your lives", they said, "She is evil." The people listened to the new priests and kept their pregnant women out of the Sun God's warmth, and told their children she was wicked. The people stayed inside, their children with them and traveled behind glass in their cars and wore sunblock and sunhats to keep the Sun God away. The Sun God grew vengeful...."

Look, we've been told for decades that type 2 diabetes in incurable, when it is in most cases cured within a week of a better diet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46_GInjBeQU
http://www.rawfor30days.com/
Above is a link on how to get past the "pleasure trap" keeping people from changing their diet for the better and readjusting their tastes to healthy food.

We've been told heart disease and cancer are just inheritable and "genetic", when most of that is

I saw a British video about obesity where they took an obese woman who claimed to have tried every diet and to have a slow metabolism, and they actually tested her in a hospital with a special test for that (respiration rate), and she had an average metabolism.

As Dr. Joel Fuhrman says inhis book "Eat To Live", tryng to control portion size breaks down eventually because no one can deny themselves foods they crave forever.

What works, reliably, is to switch ot a diet emphasizing vegetables fruits, and beans, where your stomach fills up with only 200 to 400 caloires of nutrient-dense plant matter, as opposed to, say, 3500 calories to fill your stomach with essentially phytonutrient-deficient cheese.

You may also need specific supplements, like vitamin D and DHA and B12 and some others.
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml

See Dr. Fuhrmans' presentation:
    "Nutrient Density is the Key to Good health "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZGgeGHU1Bs

Or also:
    "Eat For Health"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPiR9VcuVWw

Such a diet can cure most Type 2 diabetes too in a few weeks:
"Dr. Fuhrman Cures Diabetes - But Drug Companies Object "
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46_GInjBeQU

And he is not the only one who says that:
http://www.rawfor30days.com/

And Herbet Shelton said it decades ago.

Most medical intervention in industrialized countries is unneeded and just covers up the symptoms of malnutrition (not lack of calories, but lack of phytonutrients and fiber). There are of course some other lifestyle issues (smoking, stess, lack of sleep, lack of exercise) as well as exposure to human-made toxins, so diet is not everything. But diet is still a really big thing for preventing (or in some cases, treating) chronic disease like much heart disease, diabetes, stroke, cancer, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, and others.

The problem is, there is very little profit in telling people to eat more vegetables, get enough vitamin D, exercise more, and so on. The money is in things like (totally unneeded in most cases it turns out) heart operations like angioplasty for conditions more safely and more effectively treated with dietary changes.

Another part of the puzzle:
http://www.healthpromoting.com/the-pleasure-trap

So you are right to suggest the possibility there is a broad social problem, with profits to be had in harming people or endlessly treating them, but little profits to be had in prevention or cure. With more grassroots information, hopefully we can move past this medical problem of US malnutrition and free up a lot of resources and create a lot of positive energy to then address other unmet social needs.

Vitamin D is needed by the immune system: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7379094/Vitamin-D-triggers-and-arms-the-immune-system.html
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--NqqB2nhBE

And whole foods (especially vegetables, fruits, and legumes) help you have a disease resistant body:
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/diet-myths-the-food-pyramid-of-the-insane.html
http://www.seriouseats.com/2007/11/the-subsidized-food-pyramid.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPiR9VcuVWw
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm

Though a good mental attitude, exercise, infrastructure, good sleep, thankfulness, meditating on the great mystery, etc. can help with general wellness, too.
http://books.google.com/books?id=bCuC2H-6k_8C
http://books.google.com/books?id=RKZreNYKNHQC
http://www.bluezones.com/makeover-about
http://www.marcinequenzer.com/creation.htm#The%20Field%20of%20Plenty
http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/guide/important-sleep-habits

If you do someday read the previously linked information about the "Pleasure Trap" my Douglas Lisle or "Eat to Live" etc. by Dr. Joel Fuhrman, you would see you that what is recommended is very different from being a "neo-puritanical (pleasure is bad!) health food nut".

As Dr. Fuhrman says, healthy eating can be as pleasurable over the long-term as unhealthy eating (or more, because you know what you are eating is good for you and it tastes great). I would rather have a home-made sorbet from my blender than even the best ice cream from the store -- it tastes better now that I am used to it, and I know it is good for me. A fast can sometimes help with that transition to reset the tastebuds back to normal.

Essentially, most people probably will get less enjoyment from a lifetime of drinking coffee (given various ill effects and periodic withdrawal symptoms, and the "return to baseline") than someone with a lifetime of drinking green smoothies (or other healthful things with some variety, fruity sorbets, fruity ice creams, and so on). The whole point of the article is that there is a return to baseline whatever you do, which is also the point of the "Pleasure Trap".

While you are obviously very knowledgeable about coffee, there is a lot of nuance and subtly in vegetables, fruits, edible beans, nuts, seeds, and whole grains than can no longer be appreciated by someone (say, in the USA eating the S.A.D. Diet) who has been trained to prefer an unhealthy amount of salt, refined sugar, and animal fat in their diet. See for example, in the industries own words:
"The Hard Sell on Salt"
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/30/health/30salt.html
"Salt also works in tandem with fat and sugar to achieve flavors that grip the consumer and do not let go -- an allure the industry has recognized for decades. "Once a preference is acquired," a top scientist at Frito-Lay wrote in a 1979 internal memorandum, "most people do not change it, but simply obey it." "

Anyway it is your life. Opportunity can only knock. You need to open the door and look into this issue of "the pleasure trap" for yourself if you want. Still, as Dr. Fuhrman said in the stuff I quoted, "One cup of coffee per day is not likely to cause significant risks, but the more you drink over this one cup maximum, the more likely it will interfere with your health." So, enjoy your (organic, fair trade, shade grown, etc.) coffee in moderation. :-)

But learning about "The Pleasure Trap" and related issues may help you increase your health and happiness in other areas of your life,
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm
http://www.drfuhrman.com/library/article16.aspx (same as above at the authors site, but adds a chart)
as might "Eat to Live":
http://books.google.com/books?id=CX8huSU0n8AC&printsec=frontcover
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/debunking-diet-myths-the-food-pyramid-of-the-insane.html

Other good references on (mostly) healthier eating and cooking:
http://www.andreabeaman.com/
"Raw Food Made Easy DVD Preview"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo6AdFYIidc

And a great place for learning culinary knife skills (though with a more eclectic cooking style):
http://www.kitchenonfire.com/video.html

There is a lot more to enjoy in life than coffee, but sure, we all decide what our priorities are. The biggest issue is more about getting stuck in a "pleasure trap" where we are getting less fun over time being stuck on an addictive treadmill with supernormal stimuli that become the new normal (as the article suggests), so that in the end, coffee is not bringing you more pleasure than a healthy green smoothie might, and is probably bringing you less. See also:
    http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supernormal_Stimuli
    http://www.greensmoothierevolution.com/
   

"The Food Pyramid of the Insane"
http://www.diseaseproof.com/archives/debunking-diet-myths-the-food-pyramid-of-the-insane.html

Not that these doctors all agree, but there is a lot of overlap and they cover the essentials (typically lots of organic veggies, fruits, beans, nuts, seeds, maybe fish, vitamin D, and very little processed foods or factory farmed meats):
http://www.drfuhrman.com/
http://www.drmcdougall.com/
http://www.drweil.com/
http://www.mercola.com/
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml

Occasional fasting may help some conditions, too:
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm

This is a good video about the future of medicine based on nutrition, including teaching people how to shop at the grocery store, how to cook at home, and how to order in restaurants to stay healthy:
    http://www.drmcdougall.com/health_10_day_program_video.html

Another video on curing disease by better nutrition:
    "Eat For Health - Joel Fuhrman, M.D."
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPiR9VcuVWw

Someone (not a doctor) who puts a lot of these ideas together into cooking advice:
    http://www.andreabeaman.com/
"Read Andrea's inspiring story, The Whole Truth - How I Naturally Reclaimed My Health, and You Can Too! A story you can relate to as you make diet and lifestyle changes in your own life. Learn how to make health-promoting food taste absolutely scrumptious with the Eating and Recipe Guide. Infused with humor, in depth knowledge about food, and over 120 easy recipes, this is a wise tool to have in your kitchen."

A group helping communities be healthier by changing their public infrastructure:
    http://www.bluezones.com/makeover-about

Anyway, most disease in the USA could be prevented by better nutrition, moderate exercise, less stress (like through meditation), good sleep, adequate vitamin D from sunlight, more and better community interactions, more positive thinking, and a few other similar basic things.

The "Rat Park" experiment showed that addictive behavior results from stress.
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park
"""
Rat Park was a study into drug addiction conducted in the late 1970s (and published in 1980), by Canadian psychologist Bruce K. Alexander and his colleagues at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, Canada.
    Alexander's hypothesis was that drugs do not cause addiction, and that the apparent addiction to opiate drugs commonly observed in laboratory rats exposed to it is attributable to their living conditions, and not to any addictive property of the drug itself. [1] He told the Canadian Senate in 2001 that prior experiments in which laboratory rats were kept isolated in cramped metal cages, tethered to a self-injection apparatus, show only that "severely distressed animals, like severely distressed people, will relieve their distress pharmacologically if they can." [2]
    To test his hypothesis, Alexander built Rat Park, a 8.8 m2 (95 sq ft) housing colony, 200 times the square footage of a standard laboratory cage. There were 16-20 rats of both sexes in residence, an abundance of food, balls and wheels for play, and enough space for mating and raising litters. [3] The results of the experiment appeared to support his hypothesis. Rats who had been forced to consume morphine hydrochloride for 57 consecutive days were brought to Rat Park and given a choice between plain tap water and water laced with morphine. For the most part, they chose the plain water. "Nothing that we tried," Alexander wrote, "... produced anything that looked like addiction in rats that were housed in a reasonably normal environment." [1] Control groups of rats isolated in small cages consumed much more morphine in this and several subsequent experiments.
    The two major science journals, Science and Nature, rejected Alexander, Coambs, and Hadaway's first paper, which appeared instead in Psychopharmacology, a respectable but much smaller journal in 1978. The paper's publication initially attracted no response. [4] Within a few years, Simon Fraser University withdrew Rat Park's funding.
"""

Many people in today's industrialized society are under a lot of stress. Creating healthier communities may help reduce addictive behavior. One example of how to do that is here:
    "About the AARP/Bluezones Vitality Project"
    http://www.bluezones.com/makeover-about

Another is here:
    "Surviving America's Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy"
  http://books.google.com/books?id=bCuC2H-6k_8C

Vitamin D deficiency from being indoors too much also contributes to obesity and depression.
    http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml

For more on breaking out of a "pleasure trap" leading to obesity, see these:
    http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm
    http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508
    http://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/039306848X

Most cancer can be prevented or sometimes cured with the right amount of vitamin D3 (5000 IU daily as a base for most adults with a few exceptions, but you need a blood test periodically to be sure), a diet of mostly organic natural foods (whole grains, fruits, vegetables), occasional fasting, and moderate exercise -- along with quitting smoking and some other lifestyle changes, and living in a cleaner environment (especially clean water), and some positive emotions, spirituality, and community helps too. These things (especially the right amount of vitamin D) will also sometimes prevent or sometimes cure a good amount of the many other chronic diseases of our modern society as well like heart disease, diabetes, depression, -- and maybe even autism which may result in part from inadequate vitamin D by parents before conception, during pregnancy, and while nursing (as dermatologists have told us all to fear the sun and we also live indoors more at screens). For references to all this, see:
Vitamin D:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/cancerMain.shtml
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/treatment.shtml
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/new-harvard-paper-on-autism.shtml
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/newsletter/2008-october.shtml
http://www.lewrockwell.com/sardi/sardi111.html
Fasting and better diet:
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508
http://www.amazon.com/Supernormal-Stimuli-Overran-Evolutionary-Purpose/dp/039306848X
http://books.google.com/books?id=nRurn6C142YC
Lifestyle and cancer:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/elaine-schattner/we-are-all-fat-and-have-c_b_506247.html
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204251404574342170072865070.html
Exercise:
http://www.letsmove.gov/
Community infrastructure:
http://www.bluezones.com/makeover-about
Positive emotions, community, and spirituality:
http://books.google.com/books?id=RKZreNYKNHQC
http://books.google.com/books?id=bCuC2H-6k_8C

Magic bullets like this RNA-loaded nanoparticle stuff are potentially great (if they have no side effects), but how about just encouraging (and making easy) the simple things first?

We don't have to wait for magic bullets to cure most ill health. Why not put a few trillion US dollars into these things? It would be enormously cost effective. One link above suggests curing vitamin D deficiency alone in Western Europe would save US$4.4 trillion dollars in health care expense over a decade (the USA might see a comparable amount in savings). Of course, in our current economic and sick

Well, that's how positive feedback loops work though -- you can start out with a little of a problem and watch feedback create a big problem. Consider even gaming or other computer use. Staying indoors a lot causes vitamin D deficiency, which may cause depression, which gives you less energy to go outdoors, and leaves you in more pain, and so you turn to the computer for pain relief, again as a positive feedback loop producing increasing dysfunction. This may be an important aspect of our current widespread social dysfunction in the industrialized world, especially the USA.

Anyway, some link to the science about vitamin D and mental illness, that is still emerging:
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/depression.shtml
http://www.vitamindcouncil.org/mentalIllness.shtml
"""
We propose vitamin D plays a role in mental illness based on the following five reasons:
1. Epidemiological evidence shows an association between reduced sun exposure and mental illness.
2. Mental illness is associated with low 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D] levels.
3. Mental illness shows a significant comorbidity with illnesses thought to be associated with vitamin D deficiency.
4. Theoretical models (in vitro or animal evidence) exist to explain how vitamin D deficiency may play a causative role in mental illness.
5. Studies indicate vitamin D improves mental illness.
"""

Things like depression in children can often manifest themselves in various ways other than withdrawal.

But sure, you're right to be wary of oversimplifications. Here is another big part of the problem, which is more social and cultural:
"Surviving America's Depression Epidemic: How to Find Morale, Energy, and Community in a World Gone Crazy" by Bruce E. Levine"
http://books.google.com/books?id=bCuC2H-6k_8C
http://www.amazon.com/Surviving-Americas-Depression-Epidemic-Community/dp/1933392711
"The rate of depression in the U.S. has increased more than tenfold in the last fifty years. By not seriously confronting societal sources of despair, American mental health institutions have become part of the problem rather than the solution. The good news is that age-old wisdom and legitimate science -- uncorrupted by the profit-margin pressures of pharmaceutical and insurance corporations -- have much to inform us about revitalizing depressed people and a depressing culture. Surviving America's Depression Epidemic provides an alternate approach that encompasses the whole of our humanity, society, and culture, and which redefines depression in a way that makes enduring transformation more likely."

Dr. Levine does not mention vitamin D though, but he does have a very tiny section on nutrition. Nutrition underlies a lot of this too. Here is one approach to dealing with resensetizing our tastes to healthier food:
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508

Cure vitamin D deficiency, while also improving our society with more face-to-face interactions in healthy communities with humane values, and with everyone getting nutritious food to eat, and the world would be a much much better place for everyone. And we have more than enough resources to do that, if we did not waste them all fighting over perceived scarcity and dealing with all the craziness that comes from artificial scarcity (like an artificial scarcity of sunlight by forcing kids to be indoors all the ti

See also: "The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happiness" by Douglas J. Lisle
and Alan Goldhamer:
    http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508
"""
A wake-up call to even the most health conscious people, The Pleasure Trap boldy challenges conventional wisdom about sickness and unhappiness in today's contemporary culture, and offers groundbreaking solutions for achieving change. Authors Douglas Lisel, Ph.D., and Alan Goldhamer, D.C., provide a fascinating new perspective on how modern life can turn so many smart, savvy people into the unwitting saboteurs of their own well-being.
    Inspired by stunning original research, comprehensive clinical studies, and their successes with thousands of patients, the authors construct a new paradigm for the psychology of health, offering fresh hope for anyone stuck in a self-destructive rut. Integrating principals of evolutionary biology with trailblazing, proactive strategies for wellness, they argue that people who are chronically overweight, sick and ailing, or junk food junkies aren't that way because they're lazy, undisciplined, or stuck with bad genes. The authors reveal that most are victims of a dilemma that harkens back to our prehistoric past-"the Pleasure Trap."
    Drs. Lisle and Goldhamer then call upon their clinical experience, scientific investigations, and a recent revoution of understanding in human motivational psychology to provide you with solutions for the challenges of keeping on a healthful course-and how to make the most of your life.
"""

More here:
  http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm

Basically, it is about progressive desensitization. In terms of food, fasting for a time can sometimes help reset our sense of what is a good amount of stimulation (the subtle taste of a carrot, the nuanced taste of other natural foods) and what is too much (too salty, too fatty, etc.).

Related to your point:
"The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happiness"
http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508
"Learn how to escape the dietary pleasure trap!"
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm
"""
From the perspective of our natural history, a daily life with such dietary choices is extraordinary. For hundreds of thousands of years, our ancient ancestors scratched and scraped, struggling against the harsh forces of nature in order to get enough food to survive. Even today, in undeveloped countries, significant food shortages are still a great concern, with millions dying each year from starvation. Yet, in a mere blink of history's eye--in just a few decades--industrialized societies have arisen from environments of scarcity and have transformed themselves into societies of unprecedented abundance. The most striking feature of that abundance is a virtually unlimited supply of food.
An abundance of food, by itself, is not a cause of health problems. But modern technology has done more than to simply make food perpetually abundant. Food also has been made artificially tastier. Food is often more stimulating than ever before--as the particular chemicals in foods that cause pleasure reactions have been isolated--and artificially concentrated. These chemicals include fats (including oils), refined carbohydrates (such as refined sugar and flour), and salt. Meats were once consumed mostly in the form of wild game--typically about 15% fat. Today's meat is a much different product. Chemically and hormonally engineered, it can be as high as 50% fat or more. Ice cream is an extraordinary invention for intensifying taste pleasure--an artificial concoction of pure fat and refined sugar. Once an expensive delicacy, it is now a daily ritual for many people. French fries and potato chips, laden with artificially-concentrated fats, are currently the most commonly consumed "vegetable" in our society. These artificial products, and others like them, form the core of the American diet. Our teenage population, for example, consumes 25% of their calories in the form of soda pop!
Most of our citizenry can't imagine how it could be any other way. To remove (or dramatically reduce) such products from America's daily diet seems intolerable--even absurd. Most people believe that if they were to do so, they would enjoy their food--and their lives--much less. Indeed, most people believe that they literally would suffer if they consumed a health-promoting diet devoid of such indulgences. But, it is here that their perception is greatly in error. The reality is that humans are well designed to fully enjoy the subtler tastes of whole natural foods, but are poorly equipped to realize this fact. And like a frog sitting in dangerously hot water, most people are being slowly destroyed by the limitations of their awareness.
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Personally, I feel many hunter/gatherers twenty thousand years ago may have lived longer and better than some people say they did (even as things got worse with rising population, competition, and agriculture). It really depends on where exactly they lived in what time period and what the local climate was like. There are places and times where six foot and taller skeletons were common, like on the shores of inland places that had big lakes.

From:
http://www.primitivism.com/original-affluent.htm
"Hunter-gatherers consume less energy per capita per year than any other group of human beings. Yet when you come to examine it the original affluent society was none other than the hunter's - in which all the people's material wants were easily sat

Fasting can help some people too, by resetting the taste buds to prefer vegetables instead of salty, sugary, and other extreme foods.
"The Pleasure Trap: Mastering the Hidden Force That Undermines Health & Happiness"
http://www.amazon.com/Pleasure-Trap-Mastering-Undermines-Happiness/dp/1570671508
Comments:
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm

On having a healthy weight, see "Learn how to escape the dietary pleasure trap!"
    http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/PleasureTrap.htm
"The modern American diet contains concentrations of chemicals that we were never meant to consume. As food manufacturers have sought to compete with each other, foods have become increasingly artificial--loaded with ever-higher concentrations of pleasure-inducing chemicals, such as sugar, salt, and fat. But curiously, though the concentrations of these chemicals have escalated, the actual pleasure from eating has always stayed about the same. We now understand why. As our modern foods have become increasingly stimulating, our taste nerves are becoming desensitized--neuro-adapting to the modern diet's excessive stimulation. This sets the stage for a devastating trap, wherein a health-promoting diet is relatively unappealing. Fortunately, you now understand what it takes to escape this deceptive dietary trap. With consistent discipline, or perhaps an occasional period of supervised, water-only fasting, you can always get yourself back on track. In doing so, you will discover--or perhaps re-discover--that the diet of our natural design can be very enjoyable."

From what I've read, more than 90% of drug industry R&D goes into "me too" clones of existing drugs with proven markets and likely ways to produce slight variants. The other 10% maybe genuinely new, but even there, most of the research behind them was done by academics on grants paid by the US government usually spanning decades of academic work. It's true that in the 10% case drug companies are paying for human trials (which are now costing in amounts approaching a billion dollars), but that isn't really R&D in the way most people think of it, and that cost could also be paid by the government (and even is, in some cases). It might be better if the functionality of *producing* drugs could be separated from the functionality of *researching* drugs. In any case, in general, high costs for today's drugs harms people today, whereas it is just speculation that future profit-driven research might help somebody someday. With that said, I have little doubt most people who work in most drug companies sincerely want to help people and see working for these companies as their best alternative. But it is still, overall, a broken health care system.

Consider:
http://www.newint.org/issue165/testing.htm
"Out of more than 100 drugs approved each year by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), only a fraction represent major therapeutic advances'. For example, in 1984, there were 142 new drug applications approved, of which 22 were 'new chemical entities' - that is, used new chemical molecules and were not variations on existing drugs. Out of those 22 new chemicals (mostly antibiotics, antidepressants and agents for heart disease) only two were judged to be 'major advances' by the FDA and eight 'modest advances'. Most of the other 12 were the so called 'me too' drugs by which a company makes its own version of an already marketed drug ... To conclude: we have to have testing for the drugs we need. The colossal waste is in testing on apparently pointless new compounds. That's the problem."

By the way, for many of the conditions drugs make manageable, it is possible water-only fasting might be a better option for some:
From:
http://www.healthpromoting.com/Articles/articles/fasting.pdf
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Throughout most of the 20th century, which witnessed a period of remarkable medical innovation in surgical techniques, radiation therapies, and new "miracle" drugs, the self-healing mechanisms that are unleashed during water-only fasting were largely unappreciated. However, as the century drew to a close, something extraordinary began to occur. After decades of collective awe of modern medicine and its purveyors, a strong undercurrent of disillusionment began to appear. There came the beginnings of a philosophical revolution that would lead health science in a promising new direction. This new direction centers on the realization that health and healing are best supported when the biological roots of our nature are understood and respected. This new philosophical approach is based on the awareness that health and healing are natural processes. As a result, the focus of attention has increasingly shifted away from the traditional medical emphasis on drugs and surgery toward an exploration of the circumstances and requirements necessary to unleash and enhance these natural processes. Fortunately, unlike health problems in the past--including such phenomena as water-born diseases, nutritional deficiencies, and epidemics of tuberculosis and pneumonia--that at one time were confusing puzzles, our present day epidemics of obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer are not nearly so mysterious. It is becoming increasingly clear that the majority of present day health problems are the result of modern dietary excesses. Simply put, most of our health problems are the result of our getting too much of the wrong t

Unfortunately, life expectancy figures are very dependent on infant mortality rates. We measure infant mortality differently than a number of countries, and in a way which increases our reported rate.