There’s been so much focus on food allergies and food additives in influencing ADHD, child learning and child behaviour that being on a wheat free or dairy free diet has become a source of public ridicule. Which sadly distracts from some very basic and important information that we all need to grasp. Nutrition is one of several building blocks – others include movement, emotional intelligence, authenticity and play, which will be covered in later articles. I want to share a story I heard about myself this summer – because although food seems an obvious issue I don’t think parents sometimes realise quite how important it can be.
Over the summer I stayed with a retired American lady who has known me since I was two years old. Her daughter and I shared our summer holidays together, and learnt to swim, dive, row, and explore together. “Our families used to have such fun together” she commented. “We’d do these barbeques in the back garden, and the kids would get sausages and tinned baked beans – you know, fast food to keep you quiet so we could have some peace – and then you’d go beserk. I think it was the sugar and additives in the beans – you would run around and climb over walls and go on way past dark – we couldn’t get you to calm down or come inside. You didn’t want to go to sleep. Thinking back over it now, I guess your bodies just weren’t used to the sugar rush. Wow, how times have changed”, she concluded.
What shocked me was not only her distinct portrayal of how baked beans made us run wild, but the physical memory of being totally hyperactive that I had as she spoke. It felt like being a sparking live wire that had to discharge – it wasn’t very pleasant. But then I grew up on a whole food diet, so a processed food like the baked beans would have been a total exception. Sugar is more addictive than cocaine – yet parents hand it out freely. Fizzy diluted sugar drinks are the norm. That’s very disconnected behaviour. Is it what you’d expect from civilised people? When scientists tell us the body is made up largely of water, shouldn’t we be giving children water to drink?
Up until i went to middle school (where they sold mars bars), I ate food that was cooked from raw plants and vegetables, some meat and fish – that was what we called food then.
Of course i went to the occasional party where i ate cake and crisps, but it wants often. My mother baked our wholemeal bread every few days – I remember the dough rising in the airing cupboard. What many children are given to eat daily at the present time may look like “food” but it is not made from ingredients that you held in your own hands, and contains many extras, some of which are toxic. They cause allergic and immune reactions in the human body. This isn’t new-age conjecture – it’s scientific fact. Sodium benzoate – a common preservative – is a known carcinogen. We made it in the science lab at school when I was 16 and learnt about it as a poison. So why is it found in “foods”? The story left me wondering how modern children get through their days and function when they seem to eat so little of what I would call actual “food”. My guess is that they don’t function – as indicated by exploding childhood disorder statistics. These and other factors are explored in my upcoming book Childhood Disorders – which gives parents tools to conduct their own investigations to support their children.
What does processed food do to the body?
When the body is overloaded with substances it can’t metabolise the system gets jammed up – the liver has to work hard to break down the toxins, we have less energy, feel physically bad, and react emotionally. In children we often call this mood swings or behavioural problems – and it’s the same for adults. Most mothers have had the opportunity to observe how their children react to certain foods, like milkshakes or ice cream sundaes. Some have to deal with asthma attacks or severe skin reactions triggered by certain foods – and when food becomes a life or death issue with severe symptoms it’s easy to understand that simple, clean fresh foods promote heatlh. When the symptoms are brain-focused, like behavioural issues or learning difficulites the link may be harder to spot. I have written about this in detail in another blog which details the link between the gut and the brain.
Whole, unprocessed foods are the answer
When a child starts their day with packaged cereal, goes on to eat crisps, bread, various spreads, meats and cheeses and a chocolate bar in a packed lunch, and then a pizza or ready meal for supper, they are consuming a constant stream of chemicals and substances (including sugar) that can disrupt their concentration, thought, perception and affect mood. Not to mention lower their energy level. The antidote is simple – don’t buy anything processed. Don’t worry about organic or not to start with – begin with basics. Clear the cupboards of processed foods. A hungry child will find a banana, avocado or rice cake in the cupboard to keep them going– it doesn’t mean hours of slaving in the kitchen. Spirulina chips make a great crisp alternative. So does seaweed (as long as it’s not from Japan!) Use whole foods and cook them from scratch – it’s the only way you can know what’s really in your food. And if you or your child have heatlh issues, this is the most effective starting point. The majority of issues can be solved or greatly improved with diet and supplementation alone.
Do we really want to raise a generation of morons?
Since I’m currently in the USA, i’m especially aware that there is a huge amount of non-food for sale as “food” in restaraunts and supermarkets here. And the Trans-Pacific Partnership – a trade and investment agreement that is just making headlines – will jettison food safety standards and regulations. I was recently talking to a Californian mother who said that if she gives her child carrot sticks as a snack (which she considers normal) she is ridiculed and otracised by other mothers as being whacko or our there. The nutritional situation for American children is really dire, because adults are conditioned to eat rubbish on a daily basis. The chemical effect this has on their brains (it makes them cloudy, and less perceptive) means they have little chance of understanding of the relationship between food and health. Utnil they get seriously ill and have to make changes to recover. Processed food is undoubtedly not the only thing contributing to these issues but it is a large factor. You only have to watch a parent feeding an infant a multicoloured ice cream with cream, or a huge spongy white donut to realize that they really don’t get what they are doing to the child. It looks like ignorance and complacency – not like an adult trying to poison a child. Even though that is effectively what is going on. I don’t have an answer unfortuntately – but if you know parents with children who are ADHD, Asperger’s, have learning difficulites, allergies and sensitivies or severe mood or behavioural issues, you could pass this article on as a starting point. Information is power that creates change.
All rights reserved. Mira Watson, November 8th 2015
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