[CarylB]

Originally Posted by Steve6

Not only did I have an addictive problems, I had severe anxiety and despression, and I didn't decide I had it, I did have it. If people have no reaction to caffeine or any sort of stimulant that's fine.

I said you had decided that your diet might be responsible for depression and anxiety (which latter I never suggested you did not have) in the sense "you came to the conclusion". Never suggested it was on a whim.

You can sit behind your computer and criticize everything I wrote because you never suffered from any mental problems, because of this stuff. You are one of the lucky ones who gets away with consuming drugs on a regular basis which is what caffeine and alcohol is.

I merely disagreed with your apparent stance that McDonalds are putting something any more sinister in their burgers etc than foods which are harmful if consumed to excess, and that a range of foodstuffs should be banned because a minority suffer from what you term mental problems.

What makes me angry, is what the likes of doctors, psychiatrists, and drug companies get away with.

I can see you were and are angry.

I mean the cause of mental problems is soley dietary in my opinion.

That I strongly disagree with. There are many root causes of depression and anxiety, just as there are to other psychological problems. To suggest that the only problem is diet is ludicrous imo, and casts aside so many other causes, from bereavement or catastrophe to abuse.

It's very hard for me to explain stuff like this to you, because you have no interest in it, and never suffered from anything like I said before.

Sorry, but you know very little about me or my life experiences, next to nothing in fact, so that's a rather arrogantly dismissive statement at worst, over simplistic at best. You say I have no interest in "stuff like this"? Wrong. You say I have never experienced anything like this? Wrong again. I have experienced acute depression; it was not caused by anything to do with my diet. I had to deal with the root causes and fight my own way out of it. I have had friends who did the same who I have helped. I have a relative who has suffered from bi-polar disorder most of her life, who without the drugs you so casually dismiss as some kind of evil, would probably not be alive today.

I agree that some psychlogical conditions can be due to chemicals; children's behavioural responses to certain E numbers for eg, or their responses to poor diet. I agree with Jamie Oliver 100% that school meals need to be of the type and quality that encourage attentiveness and discourage obesity. But not all symptoms of ACDH can be laid at the door of what they consume, and children's diet is a responsibility of their parents also. And the fact is that the majority of people will not have adverse reactions to the foodstuffs you call to be banned as long as they exercise restraint and moderation, and ultimately it's down to education and the fact that we all have to take responsibility.

I congratulated you for dealing with your own addictive issues, but like Stuart, I think that our world would be a sad place if everything that posed a problem to anyone was removed from it.

Caryl