machines. Deficiencies in any of these micronutrients are
linked with brain-related disorders, including low IQ,
autism, depression, and dementia.
Few know the link between diet and mental health better
than Dr. Felice Jacka, director of Deakin University’s Food
and Mood Centre, and someone whom I’ve had the
privilege of interviewing. In 2017, she published the world’s
first randomized control trial showing the antidepressant
effect of healthy food (I detail her findings on page).
Previously, she found that women who didn’t eat Australia’s
national recommendation of three to four servings of beef
per week were twice as likely to be depressed, or suffer from
an anxiety or bipolar disorder, as those who did.^2 (She also
found that while some was better than none, more wasn’t
necessarily better—women who consumed more than the
recommended amount were also at increased risk.) In
Australia, cows tend to be grass-fed by default—an
important caveat.
What about the value of meat to the cognitive function
of a particularly vulnerable group: children? Far from the
reach of food delivery apps, malnourishment still poses a
public health problem in various parts of the world. One of
these places is Kenya, where Charlotte Neumann, a
researcher at UCLA’s Fielding School of Public Health,
observed that children who consume more meat actually
tend to perform better, physically, cognitively, and
behaviorally. To see what effect, if any, meat consumption
might have on the developing brain, Dr. Neumann designed
a trial.
She divided children from twelve Kenyan schools into