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intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence reflects how well the brain works regardless of knowledge, whereas crystallized intelligence is a measure of accumulated knowledge and skills. An alternative definition of fluid intelligence is the ability to understand and solve novel problems. A related concept, mental clarity is a measure of how well the brain performs various kinds of tasks, regardless of knowledge. This text defines “mental clarity” as the sum of fluid dimensions of academic, emotional, and social intelligence.
    A number of studies have shown that consuming artificial ingredients, such as various food additives (refined sugar, food coloring, nitrites, nitrates, and others), in high doses can have negative effects on mental abilities. Other studies have shown that cooking of animal products (meat and fish) at high temperatures leads to the formation of mutagenic chemicals. These chemicals can have adverse effects on physical and mental health, when taken in high doses. The same is true of chemicals formed by cooking of some plant products (grains) at high temperatures. Some of the above chemicals can have noticeable negative effects at doses present in food. In theory, a “natural diet,” which consists of raw food only and is free of any artificial ingredients, should have none of these negative effects. Some researchers have shown that children who consumed their mother’s milk (“natural” food) during infancy have an IQ about 5 points higher than children who subsisted on a baby formula (“unnatural” food).
    Based on these observations, this book proposes the natural nutrition theory of intelligence (abbreviated as “natural intelligence theory”). This theory suggests that a raw diet, which is free of any artificial chemicals, will improve mental clarity. One implication of the theory is that a similar but safe diet should also improve intelligence. This is because those diets are similar to the diet of primates in the wild or to the diet of evolutionary predecessors of humans (the ancestral diet). Free-living primates do not consume any food additives and do not cook their food. This was also the case for evolutionary predecessors of humans before the mastery of cooking with fire approximately 300,000 years ago. The modern diet of humans for the most part consists of cooked and processed food supplemented with numerous chemicals. The natural intelligence theory suggests that the modern human diet has negative effects on mental abilities. This is because humans did not have sufficient evolutionary time to adapt to this diet through natural selection.
    There are several limitations to the natural intelligence theory. Humans may have adapted to cooked food, at least partially, during the last 300,000 years of evolution. It is impossible to determine what a “natural diet” for modern humans is. On the other hand, numerous synthetic chemicals (food additives) entered the human diet only a few centuries ago. Therefore, the additive-laden diet may still be “unnatural” for the majority of the population. Another limitation of the theory is that raw meat and fish can contain pathogens that cause serious infectious diseases. This is a drawback of the presumed ancestral diet of humans.
    Nonetheless, it is possible to design balanced diets that are both safe and similar to the ancestral diet. One example is a diet that excludes all artificial ingredients and consists of fruits, vegetables, water extract of grains, pasteurized low-fat milk, and unprocessed unsalted cheese. For convenience, I call it the “antidepressant diet.” Practical testing suggests that this diet improves intelligence in much the same way as the ancestral diet consisting of raw fruits, vegetables, meat, and fish. Cooking fruits and vegetables at moderate temperatures (by boiling or steaming) does not make any appreciable difference, and neither does pasteurization of dairy products. Addition of meat and