Randal,
Excellent contribution to this discussion!
Taking this one step further: remember how you energetic you felt when you had a bad cold or flu or chicken pox, allergy attack or any other illness. Full of vim, vigor and vitality - right? Able to breeze through your daily activities with a smile and enthusiasm, accomplishing all that needed to be done and more? Coming home, making a healthy, nutritious dinner and then going out for evening socializing/fun for hours. Is this only the vitality of youth or is it the vitality of a healthy person?
Remember the decisions you made during those times of illness, even if you would describe it as "just being under the weather"? Would you have made the same decisions or the same reactions to a situation if you were well? Would your decisions have been taking the easiest route rather than the harder, but clearly much wiser path? Would you jump to angry conclusions instead of thinking through the problem? Did you play the blame game?
Daniel Amen, MD. author of numerous NY Times best sellers, has shown before and after CAT scans of peoples brains. The before are taken when people are first enrolled in his clinics for treatment of assorted illnesses and the after are taken during and the end of treatment or followups. The before pix show brain shrinkage in many areas with people reporting diminished capacity, poor overall functioning and assorted illnesses/cravings that makes their life miserable. Within weeks of following a high quality natural diet plan (Amen recommends 70% plant, 30% protein) such as WB, you are now providing your brain the nutrients it needs for optimal functioning. These people start reporting improved mood, clearer thinking and a calm, relaxed mind and attitude. This shows up in CAT scans with those brain areas eventually recovering to normal sizes. These people now understand the direct influence that pro inflammatory foods have on their present life and how these same foods and bad dietary habits will diminish their futures. No more dinosaur mentality (large body, small brain, headed for extinction) for them!
I am sure that there will be an increasing amount of print concerning the relationship of food intake and behavior.