They Are What You Feed Them: How Food Can Improve Your Child’s Behaviour, Mood and Learning

They Are What You Feed Them: How Food Can Improve Your Child’s Behaviour, Mood and Learning Dr Alex Richardson Dr Alex Richardson, one of the UK's leading authority on how nutrition affects behaviour and learning, exposes the truth behind the foods we are feeding our children and offers simple, practical solutions all parents can use. An empowering book that will transform the lives of children and help them reach their full potential.Senior Research Fellow at Oxford University and former school teacher, Dr Alex Richardson is one of the UK's leading expert on how what we do and do not feed our children impacts their learning, concentration, co-ordination and behaviour.Empowering and extremely practical, this book sorts out food fact from food myth and shows parents how to bring the best choices into their children's everyday diets. Includes simple meal plans and recipes as well as practical guidance on other lifestyle factors, such as time spent in front of TV and computer screens.A highly influential book that offers concerned parents concrete information and real solutions. They Are What You Feed Them How food can improve your child’s behaviour, mood and learning Dr Alex Richardson Table of Contents Cover Page (#u331f1637-68fb-563b-8685-36651f0b386b) Title Page (#u403722ee-e9c2-5681-bdac-4ba76ced5be2) Part One Food And Mood The Basics (#ue63d592c-241a-5395-9ef7-976b0a968522) Chapter 1 Starting Points (#u68967ad2-648b-559d-873e-e0ef726dadfc) Chapter 2 Facing The Facts (#u47a5cbef-88d2-5cbc-a588-a33aebc8da8f) Chapter 3 What’s The Problem? (#u65a8b48d-7aba-5071-80ea-4c66ed8c48ad) Part Two The Good, The Bad And The Unhealthy (#u3a0675d9-7521-52d2-a880-27e5f820c764) Chapter 4 Essential Nutrients And Your Child’s Diet (#u0587b10a-e07a-5c47-90cb-fc7f07ab1dd0) Chapter 5 Digestion: They Are What They Absorb (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 6 What To Avoid Additives, Anti-Nutrients, Allergies And Addictions (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 7 Eating For Balanced Energy Putting The Right Fuel In The Tank (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 8 Getting The Fats Right (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 9 The Omega-3 Revolution Food For Thought (#litres_trial_promo) Part Three The Way Ahead Transforming Your Child’s Diet (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 10 Top Tips For You And Your Child (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 11 Your 12-Week Plan (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 12 Recipes Ground Rules, Breakfasts, Snacks And Packed Lunches (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 13 Recipes Light Meals And Sweet Stuff (#litres_trial_promo) Chapter 14 Recipes Main Meals (#litres_trial_promo) Appendix (#litres_trial_promo) RefeRences And Resources (#litres_trial_promo) Index (#litres_trial_promo) Copyright (#litres_trial_promo) About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo) Part One Food And Mood The Basics (#ulink_c3e36d60-62b2-5ab3-9f21-3f4360e12fb4) Chapter 1 Starting Points (#ulink_2c0d80b6-249d-5a40-a57d-5f6a6d5c950f) Who Will Benefit from Reading this Book? I’ve written this book primarily for those of you who are parents and carers, and the information and advice have been tailored accordingly. Parents or guardians are usually the ones who have most responsibility for and influence over their children’s development, at least in the early years, and this is particularly true when it comes to food and diet. What parents don’t usually have, however, is easy access to reliable information about just how important good nutrition is to their child’s development—and especially to their child’s brain and behaviour. Having said that, many of the parents I’ve met have taught me a great deal about the links between food and behaviour, and in this book I’ll be doing my best to share with you the insights I’ve gained from working with these parents and their children. Many of them know a great deal more about this subject than most specialists in child behaviour, and I’ve sprinkled quotes from them throughout the book. They have often gained their knowledge the hard way, however, and sadly the professionals officially in charge of helping them and their children have not always been receptive to suggestions that diet could in any way be relevant to these children’s difficulties in behaviour, learning or mood. This book is about you taking charge and helping your child and yourself. For this reason, although this book is written mainly for parents, I hope that the material here will also be useful to the many practitioners in health, education, social services or other fields who are struggling to help the children in their care, as well as to the many support groups and charities whose invaluable work has been helping to fill the huge gaps left by official research, policy and practice. In my experience, it is parents, along with some professionals and support groups, who have often been the unsung heroes who have actually made some of the most important discoveries about how diet can affect children’s behaviour. Science is only just starting to follow up some of these discoveries—and, as usual, government policy tends to lag way behind. Why I Have Written This Book For almost 20 years now I’ve been involved in scientific research into the nature and causes of many common difficulties in behaviour and learning. The children affected may have been labelled with terms like dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD or autism. In many cases there is no official ‘diagnosis’—and even when there is, this doesn’t always lead to effective solutions. For those who know what to look out for, the first signs of conditions like dyslexia, ADHD or other syndromes are there from early childhood, but these are not always recognized until much later—if at all—while the effects of the unexpected difficulties with behaviour and learning usually last a lifetime. They can also cause untold distress and misery if not properly identified and treated. Early recognition, along with effective help, can make all the difference. My primary aim as a researcher has always been to find better ways of identifying and helping people whose lives are affected by these kinds of difficulties. From my earlier background in teaching I first became aware of just how many children were actually affected, although most of them were not being given the help they really needed. What was preventing most of these children from achieving anything like their true potential, I realized, was our sheer ignorance of how human brains and minds really work—especially with respect to individual differences. This is what led me out of teaching and into the world of neuroscience research. At first, my scientific research had nothing to do with nutrition…or so I thought! But that view began to change as I recognized that nutritional issues cut across everything I was studying. What on Earth Is Really Going On? In both research and practice in health and education, children who have particular difficulties with behaviour or learning are often diagnosed as having conditions such as ADHD (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder), dyslexia or specific reading difficulties (SRD), dyspraxia or developmental coordination disorder (DCD) or autistic spectrum disorders (ASD). For children with behavioural problems, ‘conduct disorder’ and ‘oppositional defiant disorder’ are the terms commonly applied. Learning difficulties may attract diagnoses such as ‘speech and language disorder’. Unfortunately there is still a great deal of controversy over what these labels actually mean. They may do a good job of describing specific patterns of difficulties that are common to many children, but they do little or nothing when it comes to explaining them. If help is to be effective, then it really is important to know what’s actually causing these children’s problems, but this crucial information is not something that any of these ‘diagnoses’ actually provides. These so-called ‘developmental disorders’ also lack any clear boundaries. Not only do they overlap considerably with each other, but their core ‘symptoms’ also occur in milder forms in so many children in every classroom that it is a matter of opinion (and considerable controversy) where the dividing lines should be drawn. In the UK, around one child in every four or five would now meet the criteria for one or more of these ‘disorders’, leading many people to ask, ‘What on earth is really going on?’ Diagnostic labels like ADHD or dyslexia can obviously be very useful in some respects—perhaps most importantly because they provide official recognition that a child is not ‘lazy’, ‘careless’, ‘stupid’, ‘selfish’ or something even worse. Sadly, these very negative labels are all too often applied by people who know no better. If left unchallenged—and particularly if your child starts to believe them—such labels could obviously do irreparable damage to his or her self-esteem and opportunities in life. Many children and adults have told me what a relief it was when someone finally identified their difficulties as being typical of dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD or ASD. A diagnosis may also be invaluable in opening the way to appropriate treatment. In school, it should allow your child access to whatever specialist assistance may be on offer, because the school can probably get extra funding to meet your child’s special needs. The help on offer doesn’t usually consider something very fundamental indeed: your child’s diet. Not every child with behavioural or learning problems will necessarily even qualify for any official diagnosis, of course. But even if they do, these officially recognized labels, which parents have often had to fight for years to obtain, don’t always lead to the kind of help that parents really want. For instance, if the diagnosis is ADHD, their child will usually be offered treatment with drugs. If the diagnosis is dyslexia, then some special teaching help may be available. If the diagnosis is dyspraxia or DCD, then behavioural therapies or physiotherapy might be offered. And if the diagnosis is an autistic spectrum disorder, parents may well be told that there is nothing anyone can do. There is always something that can be done. Don’t ever believe it if anyone tells you otherwise. One of the very real and fundamental issues that affects every child, and which every parent would benefit from knowing more about, is nutrition. The problem is that information and advice about food and diet currently feature absolutely nowhere in standard practice for either assessing or treating children’s behavioural and learning difficulties. In my view, this situation is simply indefensible. Over the years I have seen not just hundreds but thousands of children and their parents, as well as many adolescents and adults, all of whom have been struggling with difficulties in behaviour, learning and mood that neither they nor the experts they’ve turned to for help can really explain. I’ve also read and absorbed the findings from a huge and diverse range of the very best scientific research. In addition, I’ve attended and presented my work at many scientific and professional conferences in the UK and abroad, given hundreds of talks and lectures to both public and professional audiences, published numerous peer-reviewed research papers, contributed chapters to several books and written many articles for charities, support groups and the media. (#litres_trial_promo) As a result of the high profile my work has achieved, I receive thousands of enquiries and requests for advice from parents and professionals. These parents and professionals all have the same concerns and aims I have: to help the children they care for, and find some effective, practical ways that can help these children overcome the behavioural and learning difficulties preventing them from achieving their potential. In my view, all of these people are being badly let down. They are often being told things that aren’t true, and they are not being given the help that they need and deserve. I see huge sums of money being wasted in our health systems, our education systems, our social services and our criminal justice systems (let alone what happens within the worlds of employment and self-employment which generate the tax revenue that pays for most of these systems). It has also become very clear to me that a similarly large proportion of the resources devoted to research in the name of helping people is simply being wasted, because we continue to ignore some of the most basic facts that are staring us in the face. Nutrition matters! A Quite Extraordinary Denial Food and diet are important to all of us at the most fundamental level, because without the right nutrients it simply isn’t possible for our brains and bodies to develop properly, to grow properly and to function properly. It is also a fact that the diets of a huge number of children (and adults) in developed countries like the UK simply are not providing all the essential nutrients they need. Official figures from the latest National Diet and Nutrition Surveys bear this out—but oddly enough, the shocking findings have not been given any media coverage. (#litres_trial_promo) Results from the most recent official survey of the nutritional status of children in the UK, carried out in 1997 and published in 2000, are not even freely available on the Internet (like the results from the adult survey are), despite this research having been funded by UK taxpayers’ money. Perhaps the Government would rather we didn’t know? Later in the book, you’ll read about some of these findings, and I hope you will agree that they really don’t give us any cause for complacency. We keep being told that ‘a well-balanced diet can provide all the nutrients you need’. That may be true, but the truth is that many children’s diets are a very long way from being well-balanced…and the effects of this malnutrition on their behaviour and learning can be devastating. What I see going on in almost every sphere is a mixture of ignorance and a quite extraordinary denial of how food and diet can influence our brains and our behaviour. They Are What You Feed Them In recent years public concern has finally been mounting about the unhealthy nature of many children’s diets, but it took Jamie Oliver’s dramatic expos? about school dinners to put the shocking issues right in front of us. The British Medical Association, not usually known for its radical stance, has since joined in and demanded that something be done about children’s nutrition. The evidence is now undeniable that poor nutrition is putting children’s physical health at risk. Many children are now expected to die before their parents—as a direct result of their unhealthy diets and lifestyles. The epidemic of overweight and obesity in children is the most obvious sign that all is not well, and has become rather difficult to ignore. For years, the food industry and its supporters have always got away with blaming the expanding waistlines of our children purely on lack of exercise—but as anyone with half a brain can see, poor diets are equally, if not more, to blame. The physical health problems that accompany, and in most cases precede, such unhealthy weight gain are not usually so obvious to the naked eye. The underlying problems that are leading to Type II diabetes (in which the body stops responding normally to insulin), even in children, often go unnoticed until this has already caused major health problems. Type II diabetes used to be a rare disease that occurred mainly in old age. If you follow the advice given in this book, however, I can almost guarantee that your child will not fall victim to this ‘silent killer’. The effects of food on behaviour are also invisible, but very real. The brain is part of the body, and it relies on the same food supply to meet its needs. However, despite this obvious fact, almost no attention has been focused on the importance of nutrition for children’s behaviour and learning. Many children’s diets are high in sugar, refined starches and the wrong kinds of fats, as well as artificial additives. They are high in calories (energy), but lacking in essential nutrients. The risks to physical health of such a ‘junk food’ diet are now recognized, but their potential effects on children’s behaviour, learning and mood are still largely ignored. The (very limited) research that actually exists into human requirements for different nutrients has never even taken brains and behaviour into account. Spending on Behaviour Doesn’t Include Diet In the UK, the Government has recently been forced to spend an additional ?342 million on school behaviour-improvement programmes, and the World Health Organization predicts a 50 per cent rise in child mental disorders by 2020. (#litres_trial_promo) The brain, like the body, needs the right nutrients to function properly. But scientific research aimed at finding out the extent to which better nutrition could improve children’s behaviour and learning is not something that anyone seems prepared to fund—so our ignorance continues. Nonetheless, as this book will reveal, there is in fact already evidence to show that for many children (and adults) the improvements in behaviour, learning and mood that can follow from some remarkably simple changes in diet can be quite dramatic. The problem is that too many people don’t even know about this research. Instead, far too many parents who actually suspect that food may be part of their child’s problem—and have good evidence of their own to support this—are often told dismissively by the supposed experts, ‘Oh, there’s no evidence that diet can make a difference.’ This is simply untrue. There is quite a lot of evidence, and much of it is first-class…but it tends to be in different places, and is rarely pulled together. If you add it all up, the case for doing something to improve the diets of children in the UK (and other countries) is now overwhelming. This book will tell you how to go about improving your child’s diet, with particular emphasis on the impact this can have on mood, behaviour and learning. In my view, it’s actually verging on negligence for any professional to deny to parents that food and diet can affect their children’s behaviour—although of course there will always be other factors to consider, and dietary approaches should always be complementary to other proven management methods. However, I can’t really blame individual professionals for reflecting the training that they’ve been given and the culture in which they live and work. We Need to Change Our Legacy The real problem is that we’re dealing with a legacy of ignorance and complacency about nutrition that has now gone on for many decades. In relatively rich, developed countries like the UK, it’s simply been assumed that no one is really likely to be at risk of malnutrition. Rising rates of obesity are taken as evidence to confirm this—but of course there is a big difference between being overfed and being well nourished. What too few people seem to recognize and acknowledge is that our diets—and particularly children’s diets—have changed out of all recognition during the past few decades. To make matters worse, the education that any of us receives about how our brains and bodies work, and what nutrients we need not just to stay healthy, but to allow our minds and brains to function properly (let alone at their best), is extremely limited. School syllabuses do cover diet, but there is little time to teach children what they really need to know. What’s more, healthy eating messages can easily be subverted by the heavy advertising of ‘junk foods’ and peer pressure that our children face. Generally speaking, most adult education in this area is limited to information in the media. Sadly, most of this actually comes from the food, supplement and diet industries, and is often little more than marketing and advertising for their latest products and services. This doesn’t help anyone to make properly informed choices. Over the years, many parents have asked me where they can get information that they can really trust on the food and diet issues that most concern them as they try to do the best they can for their children. When you’ve read this book, if you’d like more information about the scientific research in this area that is independent of commercial influences, and any further details on some of the information provided here, you can find it on the website of the charity Food and Behaviour Research (see www.fabresearch.org). Where to Go Next I’m not going to pretend that we have all the answers, because we don’t. There’s still a huge amount that we don’t know about how nutrition can affect mental health and performance. Many of the answers to key questions would not actually be hard to find if there were a will to investigate. If this kind of research received just a tiny fraction of the resources that go into pharmaceutical and other approaches that have so far failed to deliver, we would have much of the evidence we need. This is why I’ve dedicated the entire proceeds of this book (which would otherwise go to me, the author) to the Food and Behaviour (FAB) Research charity. I hope you enjoy this book, I hope you learn something from it that will be useful to you, and I also hope you decide to act on its guidelines. Please know that I’d prefer it to become ‘dog-eared’ and covered in highlighter and notes than put neatly on a shelf to gather dust. There are numerous issues I’ve not been able to include or cover in depth here, and no doubt many corrections that you can help me with. I’m open to your feedback. Please let me know how you get on. FAQs My doctor doesn’t believe in food intolerances and pooh-poohs what I say. What should I do? There are some more enlightened doctors out there who keep up with the research in this field; try to seek one out. To be fair—their workload makes it almost impossible for most doctors and other health professionals to find time to read up on nutrition. What’s more, most of them still receive very little training in this area—and as you’ll see in Chapter 6, the whole area of food allergies and intolerances is a highly complex one that still needs more research. Do tell your doctor about the FAB Research website, though, because many health professionals I know find this a very useful resource, allowing them to see some of the scientific research for themselves. I also don’t think many doctors would take issue with most of the dietary advice you’ll find in this book, but the decision on what to do has to be up to you. If I were you, I’d get a second opinion from a doctor who does listen—but I’d also read up as much as I could, talk to other people and then make my own choices. In any case, I wish you the best of luck. I’m a teacher and have three main frustrations: because of the crowded syllabus I have so little time to explore the need for good nutrients with my pupils; we have vending machines that sell soft drinks and sweets (the Head says we need them to fund non-teaching staff); since we were forced to put the school dinners out to tender, they have gone from healthy spreads to mainly junk food. I hear these frustrations a lot. Show this book to your head teacher, other staff and governors. Write to your local MP and the education minister, and join FAB Research and the many other not-for-profit groups who are campaigning for things to change. Summary 1. This book is mainly written for parents, but it is also for anyone in the health, education and social services who has children in their care. 2. I’ve written this book to share my discoveries with you about how food and diet can affect children’s behaviour, learning and mood. This may be particularly relevant to those affected by conditions like autism, ADHD, dyslexia and dyspraxia, but the fundamental issues affect all of us—because we all need to get from our diets the nutrients needed for mental as well as physical health. 3. Labels like ADHD, dyslexia or autism can be useful, but they do little or nothing to explain these conditions, and they have many features in common with each other and with what’s considered normal functioning. 4. If your child has been given one of these labels, you may have been told there’s little or nothing you can do. You can do something, and one very fundamental thing that may help is to look at your child’s diet. 5. The latest official survey of the nutritional status of children in the UK shows that many of them are lacking in essential nutrients. Little publicity has been given to these findings or their potential implications for physical and mental health. Results from the survey are not even freely available on the Internet, despite this research having been funded by UK taxpayers’ money. 6. Many school meals are unhealthy, and the limited education that children do receive on food and diet cannot begin to compete with the promotion of unhealthy foods via advertising and other media. Many of the adults who care for them are no better informed. 7. Rising obesity has been blamed mainly on lack of exercise. This can obviously be a contributory factor, but in most cases diet is equally if not more important. 8. This book will present evidence that children’s diets can affect not only their physical health but also their mental health and performance. 9. ‘Junk food’ diets are now being recognized as a serious risk to the physical health of our children, but their effects on behaviour, learning and mood are still largely ignored. 10. You can help to redress this neglect—starting with your own child. Chapter 2 Facing The Facts (#ulink_b5fa9fb2-397b-5cf3-b156-5083f478b6ce) When it comes to how much we—the public—usually get to know about the foods we eat, and what we’ve been feeding to our children for years now, I’m afraid it’s rather like the old joke about the ‘mushroom’ style of management, namely: ‘Keep them in the dark, and feed them ****.’ For a long time, both the food industry and successive governments have effectively kept quiet about many things they’ve known (or should have known) about the appalling nutritional quality of much of our food—and children’s food in particular. Many of these appalling facts are available to anyone willing to read up about this subject (although, ironically enough, I’ve found that some of the best books are often in the ‘politics and economics’ section of bookstores rather ‘nutrition’). (#litres_trial_promo) It took Jamie Oliver’s stunning TV series on the state of school dinners to bring some of these issues to public attention and make the UK Government finally admit that there is a problem. A poor diet leads to poor health. The real trouble is that cheap, low-quality foods and drinks bring big profits to those who get away with selling them. (All the better if the contract is with a Government agency and lasts for years, as some school dinner contracts do.) Reading through this chapter, have a think about whether there might be a connection between diet and why your child misbehaves, gets moody, is often tired, or has problems learning. If you saw Jamie’s School Dinners, you may remember that many people interviewed spoke about the dramatic changes in some children’s behaviour after ‘dumping the junk’ and feeding them with real, freshly cooked food. When the media followed up on this, they naturally wanted to track down the ‘scientific evidence’ for this remarkable phenomenon, and speak to the scientists involved in such research. So on one particularly memorable morning, I got four different phone calls on my mobile as I dashed between meetings in Oxford, London and Cambridge (via Luton airport to pick up a colleague!). When even the Financial Times joined in I realized that the ‘food and behaviour’ issue really had hit home. This was the aspect they all seemed to be interested in—and no surprises there, really. The only trouble was there clearly weren’t enough scientists to go around, so I found myself deluged for some time. Where’s the Good Evidence? The reason so many enquiries came to me is that when it comes to the kind of research that really can provide firm evidence of cause and effect, (#litres_trial_promo) there are actually remarkably few studies of how food and diet may affect children’s behaviour and learning. Fewer still are by researchers in the UK. My own investigations of this kind have mainly involved omega-3 fatty acids (found in fish oils)—belatedly recognized as essential ‘brain food’ as well as beneficial for your heart, joints and immune system. In our latest study, children given omega-3 showed faster reading and spelling progress, better attention and memory, and less disruptive behaviour than a matched comparison group over a three-month period. We still need more evidence, but I can understand why parents, teachers and the media are interested. You’ll hear more about these special fats—and our research findings—in Chapters 8 and 9. Healthy Strawberry Yoghurt, Anyone? Check your labels: ‘strawberry yoghurt’: contains some real strawberry ‘strawberry-flavoured yoghurt’: there’s a tiny bit of strawberry, somewhere ‘strawberry-flavour yoghurt’: no strawberries at all The cheaper ones are usually the last of these three, and some of their ingredients can be dubious: gelatine, pectin/gum, flavourings, colourings, and corn sugar. Low-fat ‘healthy’ yoghurts usually contain even more thickeners (corn starch this time) along with plenty of sugar or artificial sweeteners. Other scientific studies have looked at other aspects of diet. For example, many well-controlled trials have looked into whether artificial food additives might aggravate hyperactivity and related behaviour problems. Many of these were carried out years ago, but variability in their designs and results made it hard to know what to believe. More recently, two important studies have confirmed that some common food additives with no nutritional value really do seem to worsen behaviour in many children. Might your child be one of them? How much more evidence will we need before we take action? When you read about these issues in Chapter 6, you can decide for yourself (and your children) what you want to do. ‘Cheap Trick’ Frozen Chicken Nuggets* Ingredients Chicken carcasses Chicken skin ‘Mechanically recovered’ bits of bird Artificial additives (colourings, flavourings, preservatives, texture-modifying agents) Hydrogenated (bad) fats Procedure Scrape the skin and other bits off the machinery or factory floor. Add to chicken carcass and put in high-speed blender. Add the bad fats, texture-modifiers and other additives. Form into nugget shapes and cover with ‘bread crumbs’ (more additives). Freeze and package attractively. Sell to parents to feed to their children. Sell to schools and restaurants en masse for the same purpose. *with due credit to J. Oliver and Co for showing that consumers do often change their preferences when you tell them what they’re really eating. It’s not just what has been added to our food that matters—it’s also what’s been taken away. In Chapter 4 we’ll look at essential nutrients. As you’ll see, there are lots of these—but many are seriously lacking from the diets of children, adolescents and adults in the UK. How would you know? Well, deficiencies in some nutrients lead to well-documented physical symptoms, but these are not always recognized as such—and may be treated with medications that can make matters worse. What about mental symptoms? Can a poor diet alone really cause bad behaviour? Later, you’ll hear more about a rigorous study of young offenders carried out in a high-security prison. (#litres_trial_promo) In this study, giving just the recommended daily amounts of vitamins and minerals (with some essential fatty acids) with no other changes actually reduced the number of violent offences by more than 35 per cent. Can you imagine that effect translated into the wider community? What might be achieved in your child’s school, or your neighbourhood, if aggression and antisocial behaviour fell by that amount? Given the potential implications, wouldn’t you think the Government would be keen to follow up on these kinds of findings? In the UK, sadly the answer is ‘No, not yet.’ The funding for this particular research (including replication studies now underway) has been provided almost entirely by charities. (#litres_trial_promo) Healthy Apples? Supermarkets force producers to grow larger apples (so people end up buying more) which means the apples’ vitamin and mineral content declines. Want Fries with That? McDonald’s got into trouble for selling their fries as fit for vegetarian consumption when their reformed spuds had been cooked in beef tallow. So they switched to vegetable oil (which incidentally produces bad trans fats when heated). Now the distinctive taste of the fries comes from an infusion of synthetic beef tallow. In fact, many of the flavourings now used in our foods are synthetic chemicals: you can’t smell or taste the difference, but there is no nutritional value in them. Slowly But Surely… Even if policymakers are lagging behind, it seems that consumers are beginning to turn. Sales of bagged snacks, sugar confectionery, fizzy soft drinks, frozen meals and pizzas have apparently declined over the last year, while sales of fruit juices, cheeses, bread and drinking yoghurt have increased. McDonald’s has had to close at least 25 of its UK branches (even though it began to introduce supposedly ‘healthier’ ranges—but let’s not go there!). The media tell us that confectionery and soft drinks companies such as Cadbury-Schweppes may be planning to put health messages on their packaging (is this to provide them with some defence if they find themselves sued like the tobacco companies?). The makers of sausage rolls and pasties are apparently seeing a large drop in profits. And I know I’m not the only one pleased to see that one of the big supermarkets has finally taken a certain brightly coloured, additive-laden drink pretending to look like orange juice off its shelves. ‘Surly Despair’ would be a better name for this one, given the amount of sugar and artificial additives it contains. If I had a pound for every time a parent, professional or support group leader has complained to me about the way that this (and similar drinks) can ‘send our children up the wall’, we could probably fund our whole next year’s research programme on the proceeds. As it is, these kinds of companies have been raking in the money and yet few people have seen the need to finance research to see what these and other ‘junk foods’ might really be doing to our children’s brains. Not All Sweetness and Light A survey for Food Magazine in 2004 revealed that a single drink of Ribena or Lucozade could give your child more than a whole day’s recommended sugar intake. 500ml bottle Ribena: 70g sugar (equivalent to at least 15 teaspoons) 380ml bottle Lucozade Energy: 64g sugar 330ml bottle Coca-Cola: 25g sugar That means a bottle of the soft stuff can give your child the same ‘sugar hit’ as one to four packets of sweets. In some cases, the sweetener may be in the form of high-fructose corn syrup (which is cheaper to produce than sugar). ‘No added sugar’ varieties just put in artificial sweeteners instead, which some good evidence shows may carry different kinds of risks. Regular consumption of fizzy, sweet drinks can lead to a decline in body levels of important minerals In the news, we hear that 40 per cent of patients in our hospitals are suffering from malnutrition—which can add serious complications to their treatment and care, and significantly slow their recovery. (#litres_trial_promo) In most cases it probably contributed to their illness too—but at least the links between nutrition and physical health are starting to be acknowledged by our health services. (They have long been recognized by top performers in physical sports!) What we need now is a similar acceptance that food and diet also affect mental health and performance. It really should be ‘barn door’ obvious. The brain is part of the body—and has nutrient and energy requirements of its own. But remarkably little systematic effort has so far been devoted to finding out what those requirements really are—and just how our mood, behaviour and learning really can be affected when these needs are not properly met. Still, it’s encouraging to see that consumers are beginning to wise up to some of what’s been going on, and to change their shopping and eating habits as a result. For the sake of your children, I do hope you are one of them—and I hope this book will give you some of the help you’ll need. There Is a Good End in Sight Before we go any further, let’s just consider what’s possible, and what isn’t. Right now, your child’s mood, behaviour and learning (or all three) are probably giving you cause for concern, or you wouldn’t be reading this book. I can guess that what you’d really like to find here are some simple, rapid and effective solutions to your child’s difficulties. Well, I obviously can’t promise that this book will solve all your particular problems. But if you choose to act on the information I’ll be giving you, the rewards could actually be greater than you might think possible. If you’re sceptical—I don’t blame you. But by feeding your child well, you can at least be confident that you’ll be taking some fundamental and necessary steps towards unlocking your child’s true potential. What’s more, I hope you’ll also apply what you learn here to your own diet. (If you want to improve your child’s eating habits, then ‘Do as I do’ is much more effective than ‘Do as I say!’). If you do, expect benefits not only for your child, but also for yourself and any other members of your family who are willing to join in. Better health is one thing that should definitely follow from this plan—and for that reason alone you’re unlikely to regret it if you choose to take the advice I’ll be giving you. If you understand why you need to improve the dietary choices that you and your child have been making, then learning how to do it is so much easier—although I’ll be helping you with that as well. Food and diet really are key to making the most of your child’s potential, both mentally and physically. We are what we eat, and our children are what we feed them. I can give you the information, but putting it into practice is clearly up to you, and I’m not going to promise that this will be easy. Quite a lot of people will probably tell you that you are wasting your time. Some of them may do more than that to try to undermine your efforts. Remember that such an attitude is their problem, not yours. In Chapter 10 you’ll find plenty of tips on how to get in the right frame of mind to move ahead without making it difficult for yourself. You’ll probably find yourself changing a good deal more than your child’s diet if you choose to follow the plan completely. Whether you’ll want to do this or not is again for you to decide, but presumably what you’ve been doing so far hasn’t been working too well, or you wouldn’t still be looking for new solutions. So isn’t it worth trying something else? Something that is completely natural, involves no drugs and no special equipment, and costs you very little? You’ve already taken an important step by picking up this book. Hopes and Promises One other thing I want to make very clear at the outset is that this book is not about ‘miracle cures’. We are all prone to believing all kinds of things that turn out not to be true, simply because they fit in with what we want to believe. It’s called ‘the triumph of hope over experience’ and we are all prone to it. Our society tends to emphasize the ‘quick fix’, and the wonders of modern technology have led to a situation in which we’re surrounded by all kinds of goods and services—from electronic gadgetry to air and space travel—that seem to ‘work like magic’. Amazing brain-imaging techniques can show you how your brain lights up when you solve a problem; global satellite navigation systems can talk you through the narrowest side-streets in a foreign country; guided missiles are said to need no human intervention to find their target; wonder drugs will apparently rescue men’s failing sex lives and turn them into super-studs overnight. Yes, really. Advertising has become so clever and so insidious that we are all prone to falling for promises of things that either couldn’t possibly be delivered—or which come at a cost (often a hidden one) that none of us can actually afford. Against this background, we are all too easily fooled into parting with good money for some miracle treatment that will reverse ageing, cure baldness, allow us to eat all that we like and still lose weight, and more. If you’ve already fallen victim to promises like these, you are certainly not alone. But perhaps it’s time to try a different approach. The plan set out in Chapter 11 really needn’t cost you much money, and in fact may turn out to save you a great deal. Good nutrition (and the avoidance of toxins as far as possible) can of course only provide your child with the basic foundations for better mood, behaviour and learning. Many other factors are important, including general health, physical activity and sleep, as well as a wide range of social, educational and cultural factors. Could parenting skills or the family situation be in need of a rethink? What educational input is your child really getting—and from whom? Does your child seem to be more influenced by his friends, or by what’s on TV, than by anything you or his teachers say or do? Children are exposed to all kinds of influences in our modern age—many of them quite pernicious (#litres_trial_promo)—so your child will need all the help you can give him or her. Only minimal guidance on these issues can be provided here, but plenty of good books have been written on these subjects. You’ll find some of these in the References and Resources chapter, which also includes helpful sources of information. ‘Miracle cures’ are certainly not common, but when the dramatic changes that can attract this label do happen, they usually reflect something very important—and often very simple—that has hitherto been overlooked. The story of Patrick, an eight-year-old boy whose moody and defiant behaviour had his loving parents at their wits’ end, is a good case in point. A highly intelligent and sensitive child, Patrick suffered unpredictable mood swings and temper-tantrums. He was underachieving at school, found it hard to make or keep friends and knew how to manipulate his parents and siblings. Most of all, he was clearly unhappy. Talking about the situation with him just seemed to make things worse. Patrick also looked unhealthy and tired when I saw him, but, with his mother’s help, we gathered some basic information and drew up a plan that he was willing to try. It quickly turned out that he was very intolerant to cows’ milk and anything made from it. Once milk products were removed from his diet, Patrick’s ‘moody’ spells simply vanished. His mother Sarah wrote to me: ‘Patrick is a transformed child following your diet. His aunts and uncles just couldn’t believe the change in him after such a short time. They want to know how I did it. I can hardly believe it myself, but I will never be able to thank you enough. Keep up the good work.’ The media are very fond of ‘miracle stories’, of course—and one superb example of how to influence public opinion with no more than anecdotes came from the BBC TV series Children of Our Time. Children born in the millennium year are monitored at intervals for the purposes of this popular TV series. Early in 2004, one episode focused on just two of these children, who had been showing serious behavioural problems. ‘Miraculous’ improvements were reported after their diets were supplemented with fish oils. It certainly made great TV—and the Internet bulletin boards were buzzing for some time afterwards. Sales of all fish oils (many of dubious quality and content, and some quite unsuitable for these purposes) went through the roof, and I found myself on the receiving end of yet another deluge of enquiries from the media, public and professionals, as the only UK scientist who’d actually done controlled trials in this area. As the more responsible journalists pointed out (and as I tried to emphasize), there were many other possible explanations for the improvements shown by these two particular children. Whenever possible, try not to base any important decisions you make on purely anecdotal evidence. If we want to be able to predict anything with reasonable certainty, we need to adopt ‘scientific methods’. To be confident that any treatment really does ‘cause’ positive changes, we ideally need what are called ‘randomized controlled trials’ (RCTs), as explained in the Appendix, page 375. These are very difficult to carry out, however, and are in some cases just not feasible. In these cases, other evaluation methods have to be used. Even then, the best we can do is to assess probability. Your child may be different from the ones studied. In short, there are no miracles and no guarantees, I’m afraid. Having said this, ‘scientific’ is the word to describe many of the case studies carefully carried out by parents and practitioners I’ve met. Often, these people have observed and experimented with dietary changes for years, and many of them have done so despite the scorn of the so-called ‘scientific establishment’. Although some of them may be misguided or plain wrong in what they have come to believe, it is my view that we would do well to pay more attention to some of their ideas, as I’ve always tried to do. In many cases it’s their insight and observations that have led to some extraordinary breakthroughs, opening up new and highly fruitful lines of scientific investigation. (#litres_trial_promo) Whom and What Can You Believe? Most of the parents I see have already consulted many other specialists and experts in their search for some effective solutions to their child’s apparent difficulties in mood, behaviour or learning. Some of the advice they’ve received has been helpful; some of it has been anything but. Many have also read numerous ‘self-help’ books and articles from magazines or newspapers, and these days a good proportion will also have spent hours and hours on the Internet trying to find out how to help their children. The feedback I usually get is that when it comes to food and diet, the amount of conflicting information leaves most people totally confused. People ask, ‘What am I supposed to believe when so many people are telling me such different things?’ Well, to start with, just ask yourself, ‘Who really benefits if I believe this?’ Apart from weighing up carefully the potential risks and costs of any course of action, the best advice I can give you is: always consider who will actually gain from your believing any information you are given. Sadly, I’ve come across a great many unscrupulous companies and individuals who are happily making money for themselves by exploiting parents’ desperation. Rule number one: don’t be too gullible. Always think first about whether anything you are recommended could actually do your child harm, but also be particularly wary when it comes to parting with your money. Companies’ Influence Isn’t Always Obvious You can of course get plenty of information and advice about food and diet for free. Quite enough to drown in! In these cases you want to ask, ‘Do the people giving me this information really know any better than I do?’ Let’s start with the newspapers and magazines. Some are more reliable than others, but sadly, very few allow their journalists time to research a story properly. (#litres_trial_promo) Deadlines are the name of the game. Press releases, for instance, are often picked up and turned into articles without anyone checking the sources or their credentials. Basically, the fact that you ‘read it in the papers’ or ‘saw it on TV’ is no guarantee that it isn’t just a cleverly disguised advertisement. I’m sorry to say that much, if not most, of what passes for ‘news’ on food and health in the media is likely to have come from some company that stands to make money if you’ll only believe what they’re telling you. Remember, virtually all papers and magazines and most TV channels are supported by advertising revenues, either directly or indirectly. It’s well over 10 years now since my own research first started making headline news, and if it hadn’t been for my own personal experience of the media I really wouldn’t have believed the extent to which what you see or hear through these channels is influenced by companies who will benefit when you believe their stories. The food and drinks industry is a massively powerful force to be reckoned with. Quite apart from the direct advertising that they do—which is powerful enough—they exert a huge degree of less visible control over the information you are given and the choices available to you. The name of the game for big companies is sending out press releases, holding press conferences, wining and dining journalists and hiring the experts they need to back the stories that will benefit them. ‘I was looking at websites which talked about the effects of sugar substitutes, as I’d heard that some of them are bad for you. One site in particular did a very good job of listing everything wrong with artificial sweeteners…but it was only later that I found out that this site was hosted by a sugar company! Now I know why they said nothing at all about avoiding sugar itself.’—Sonia Worse still, the enormous profits that the big food and drink companies make can allow them to ‘buy’ only the research they want to see done (as also happens with pharmaceutical products, of course). And if they know they aren’t going to like the results, they’re just not going to do the study. Truly independent research looking into how food can affect behaviour really has been extraordinarily limited, because, apart from a few charitable trusts, nobody has been prepared to fund this kind of work. There’s just no profit in it for the companies—and Government agencies and other conventional funding bodies have been either too blind, too conservative, or maybe too much ‘under the influence’ to look into this rather important area. As well as the conventional food industries, we have the ‘diet industry’, the ‘health food industry’ and the ‘food supplement industry’. All of them are in the business of making money, whatever else they may tell you. As long as you keep this in mind, you can actually get a lot of useful information from these sources—but always take care to read around, weigh up the different points of view, and make your own decisions. Read around, weigh up the different points of view, and make your own decisions. The Pharmaceutical Industry The pharmaceutical industry is a major beneficiary from the status quo because impoverished diets which will cause or exacerbate all kinds of diseases and disorders suit the drug companies just perfectly! These huge multinationals have an extremely powerful influence on what you are led to believe, and they really do help to set the research agenda in medicine and other health-related areas. Having worked alongside doctors and within medical schools for many years, and attended numerous conferences in the fields of medicine and psychiatry, I have become appalled at the extent to which the influence of so-called ‘Big Pharma’ dominates the medical training that our doctors and allied health professionals receive. Their influence on scientific research has also become so great that any line of enquiry that doesn’t fit with their preferred ‘medical model’ (ideally, one that requires you and your child to take their drugs—in the long term if possible), or which could serve to undermine some of their most profitable markets, is likely to go unfunded by conventional sources. If the research does get done anyway, it can then be very difficult to publish if it might upset these vested interests. (#litres_trial_promo) The Specialists Do the specialists advising you know anything about food and diet, and its potential effects on brains and behaviour? Sadly, unlike vets, most doctors in the UK and other Western countries still receive very little training in nutrition and its implications for health. They do learn about the basic ‘deficiency diseases’ (such as scurvy, pellagra or rickets) and there is now an increasing focus on ‘preventative medicine’—which usually includes at least some attention to nutrition and diet. But even though good nutrition is essentially about the body’s biochemistry, medical training usually puts far more emphasis on the way in which drugs can be used to manipulate this. Synthetic drugs can be patented for profit. With some rare exceptions, naturally occurring nutrients can’t. It’s rather ironic that veterinary training involves far more emphasis on nutrition and health than does ordinary medicine—probably because the economic factors surrounding animal health are rather different. When farm animals get sick, for example, dietary considerations and possible nutrient deficiencies or imbalances are usually one of the main factors considered. That said, vets’ patients don’t usually attend their appointments demanding a course of pills that will make them better! We would do well to learn from this. What other specialists might you and your child see? Clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, education professionals, and those working in social services or related fields receive little or no formal training in how food and diet can affect behaviour and mental health. For this reason these professionals can often be very sceptical about dietary issues, even when parents try to raise these. Good nutrition is the essential foundation for health—and poor nutrition is guaranteed to lead to ill-health of one kind or another, sooner or later. This is as true for the brain as it is for the body. Unhealthy children generally do not feel well, do not behave well, do not learn well, and—surprise, surprise—do not perform well. The same goes for unhealthy parents, so I do want to emphasize that this book is written for you, not just for your child. It also applies, of course, to unhealthy teachers, unhealthy doctors, unhealthy social workers or any other unhealthy people whose opinions and decisions are important to your child’s welfare! You may already have met some of these. You may want to look at what the statistics say about health, life expectancy and job satisfaction among members of our education, health, social service and criminal justice systems. Most of the sad facts are easily explicable in terms of the conditions and the culture in which these professionals are expected to work, the ever-increasing targets they are supposed to meet, the training and resources with which they are provided, and the systems and people that govern them. Most of them know very little about nutrition, as I have pointed out already. Those that do are not usually encouraged (or even allowed) to use that knowledge in their work… It’s Up to You to Take Charge It’s easy to blame the health services, your child’s school, the social workers or other professionals for ignoring any dietary issues that you think are affecting your child. In the current climate, though, strict financial controls, superficial ‘efficiency’ criteria and short-term goals have come to dominate. These will obviously colour both the motives and the information available to managers and policy-makers in these areas. I share your frustration—but these are not things that most of us can hope to influence very easily, so there’s little point in dwelling on them for long here. It’s your life, and your child’s life, that we are focusing on in this book. You may already have adopted some dietary strategies with your child. If so, I hope you’ve already seen some benefits. You’ll also need some luck, though, because much of what you’ll have read or been told about the effects of food and diet on your child’s behaviour and performance is not actually supported by any reliable evidence—usually because the studies needed to provide this just haven’t been done. This is a real problem that I’ll do my best to help you with in this book. Mind you, the same is also true of a remarkable number of ‘interventions’ (treatments or management methods) that are part of ‘standard practice’ in medicine—not to mention the education, social services and criminal justice systems. Some research into how food and diet may be affecting our behaviour is almost impossible to do—either because the ‘uncontrolled experiments’ have been going on for so long that there is no control group left, or because ethical issues make some types of studies difficult or impossible. For example, in the Western world we have all been consuming ‘trans fats’ for many decades now. (You can read more about these in Chapter 8.) These artificially twisted fats are found in hydrogenated vegetable oils (used in many cheap margarines, fried foods and commercially baked goods of all kinds), and are now known to damage our physical health. Given that the brain is 60 per cent fat, might these artificial fats alter its structure or function, too? Very probably…but it would be extremely hard now to find a well-matched control group who have not been ingesting trans fats for most or all of their lives. What’s more, extracting brain tissue from living subjects to study how its fat composition may relate to psychological well-being or performance is just not an option! Similarly, a huge number of different food additives have been permitted following individual ‘safety testing’ for potential toxic effects. Do these tests look at how these food additives might act in combination? Well, no, actually—that would be far too complicated. With the number of additives now in use, it’s just not feasible. In fact, it is only very recently that some careful studies have looked into how the growth of nerve cells may be affected by just two common food additives in combination. Even though more work is still needed, the first results (discussed in Chapter 6) will give every parent cause for concern. Show Caution and Take Practical Steps Although the scientific studies needed to answer some important questions simply can’t be done, in my view we would often do well to follow the ‘precautionary principle’, especially when it comes to ingredients that are used purely for cosmetic appeal and the convenience and profits of the manufacturers (as is the case with many artificial flavourings and colourings, or hydrogenated fats). My aim is to give you a new way of thinking about your child’s health and performance as a whole, and provide you with a better understanding of the issues surrounding food and diet, and how these can affect your child’s well-being. I’ll be giving you some facts that may well be new to you, but I will also do my best to provide a framework that allows you to integrate any new information with what you already know. I’ll encourage you to start thinking about the information you get from other sources, so that you don’t find yourself confused by the apparently conflicting advice you hear or read about elsewhere. Overall, I urge you to gather what reliable and relevant information you can, weigh up the likely risks and costs against the potential benefits, and then make your own informed choices. ‘When I told my doctor I thought my son (then 7) was intolerant to cows’ milk, he sneered at me and prescribed some drugs. Because it was a short appointment, I held my tongue, but binned the prescription, switched my son to goats’ milk and cheese, and his symptoms improved dramatically. You know, apart from the doctor’s arrogant belief that his way was the only way, I think the fact I was dressed as a “mum at home” had a lot to do with his not listening to me properly! I find if I’m dressed smartly, I get listened to much more than if I’m wearing jeans and trainers.’— Sarah Ask Questions All the Time Of course, anything you read here will inevitably be coloured by my views, ideas, beliefs and prejudices, along with the knowledge and experience I’ve gained over the years that I want to share with you. At the end of the day, you are the only one who can decide what—among all the information you gather—can actually be trusted. If you’re not sure, keep asking questions: Is this information really independent, or just another piece of advertising? What sources are the most reliable if I want a second opinion? Is there any alternative explanation that would make sense? Are there any approaches—however unusual—that mainstream practice has overlooked, but which could actually be important? Are there any risks involved in trying these? Are there good reasons to believe this approach could work for my child? What are the chances (actual probabilities) that these approaches might help? Throughout this book, I will try to help you through the minefields by doing my best distinguish between: 1 evidence that can reasonably be trusted to be ‘objective’ and reliable (based on independent research carried out according to established scientific principles and practice) 2 evidence that comes from research carried out or directly funded by those with a vested commercial interest in its outcome 3 theories and observations that make sense, but which have not yet been backed by much firm evidence, including some of my own personal opinions and beliefs. Past, Present and Future ‘What have I been doing wrong?’ is a question I’ve heard from countless parents—parents who care deeply about their child, and who have tried every which way to solve their child’s problems, and still not succeeded. Things have not been turning out as they hoped—and, like most parents, they are prepared to take more than their fair share of the responsibility. They have ‘tried everything’, following all the best advice they could get—and still things don’t seem to be working out. You, like some of them, may have had no idea of the effects of a poor diet (nor indeed what really constitutes a poor diet) before now. Or you may have read up a great deal on the subject already, and cried ‘If only I’d known this before…’ Whatever the case may be, you need to focus on where you are now. What’s past is past: you need to let go of any feelings of guilt or anger towards yourself or ‘the establishment’, and use today as the starting point. The most important things for you to focus on are the ones that you can most easily influence, govern and control. Those things really should include what you put into your own and your child’s mouth. Although many other factors are also important, good nutrition is simply crucial to your child’s health, well-being and functioning. Your child’s eating habits are affecting his or her behaviour, learning and mood now, and they will continue to do so in the future. Please remember it took a long time to get to where you are, so don’t expect things to improve instantly. In some cases (for example, after excluding additives to which your child reacts badly) improvements can happen almost ‘overnight’. In most cases, however, the benefits from improving your child’s diet are far more likely to happen gradually. It may take weeks, months—or even years in very severe cases—but with a diet that actually suits your child, happen it will. What You Can Do to Improve Things The advice I give to parents follows broadly the same three stages. These are the steps I’ll take you through in detail in this book. They are not difficult, and one or more of them will almost certainly apply to your child. I always emphasize that I am not officially qualified to give individuals advice on nutrition per se—and when parents need that kind of guidance, as many of them do, I always refer them to either a dietician or another suitably qualified practitioner who can advise on their child’s individual dietary needs. (#litres_trial_promo) 1. Your child may be consuming foods or other substances to which he reacts badly. To my mind, avoiding unnecessary additives that are suspected of causing behaviour problems is a ‘no-brainer’. You may be surprised at how many of these additives there are, but we’ll look at this issue in Chapter 6. When it comes to avoiding specific foods, then unless it’s patently obvious what’s causing the problem (and it’s not a ‘major food’) I’d advise you to seek expert advice. Improving your child’s diet and digestion should come first, as you’ll learn in Chapter 5. ‘My friend had mysterious pains since his childhood that no doctor could help. He eventually found a practitioner who advised him to focus on improving his bad digestion, and told him how to go about this. Once he changed his diet, the pains (and the grumpiness!) went away.’—June 2. Your child may be ‘hooked’ on sweet, sugary and starchy foods. A diet containing too many refined starches and sugars is guaranteed to wreak havoc with the fuel supply to your child’s brain—swinging him or her on a rollercoaster of energy ‘highs’ and ‘lows’ throughout the day. The same ‘fast-action’ foods and drinks are also damaging your child’s digestive and immune systems, which can lead to a whole array of health-related problems that may be closely linked to difficulties in mood, behaviour and learning. In Chapter 7, we’ll see what foods you and your child can eat (and which ones to avoid) to ensure balanced, calm energy throughout the day. 3. Your child probably eats too many ‘bad fats’ and not enough ‘good fats’. This is a very easy one for me to identify, not only because it’s even more common than the sugar and ‘energy imbalance’ problems, but also because my own specialist research to date has been focused mainly in this area. ‘Bad fats’ are found in many processed foods and margarines. The ‘good fats’ include the very special omega-3 fats (EPA and DHA) which are found in fish and seafood, and are absolutely essential to brain development and function. In Chapter 8 you’ll learn how to ‘get the fats right’, and in Chapter 9 I’ll take you through the latest research into omega-3 for child behaviour and learning, sorting the facts from the myths and explaining what the research has—and hasn’t—shown. Facing the facts isn’t always easy—but as we’ve seen in this chapter, you can’t rely on the ‘powers that be’ to look after your child’s interests where issues of food and diet are concerned. However, there are some simple steps that you can take to help your child—the first of which is getting informed. In the next chapter we’ll look at some of the labels that are often given to children with behaviour or learning problems, and see how diet may relate to these. Then we’ll look at essential nutrients and digestion (these really are the basics you need to understand) before moving on to the chapters that will take you through the three main steps I’ve outlined above. In the last few chapters of the book we’ll focus on putting what you’ve learned into practice. FAQs Why is there so much conflicting advice, and how do I know which advice to follow? Much of the information and advice you get about food and diet is really aimed at selling you something. Many news and media stories are actually based on company press releases, so always be suspicious. Look carefully at the results and conclusions of proper trials (many can be found on the Internet with user-friendly summaries—see the FAB Research website for examples). In some areas, reliable evidence really is lacking. The best thing you can do is to keep an open mind—but not so open that your brains fall out, as they say! Read, observe, talk to people, ask questions, weigh up all the evidence and make your own mind up which advice you’re going to follow. I thought doctors say a good diet is important so we don’t get fat? My child seems slim and fit even though he eats mostly chicken nuggets and chips, and he won’t touch fruit and vegetables. A poor diet doesn’t always make you fat, and your child may look ‘slim and fit’, but have you seen his insides? It can sometimes take years for the effects of bad eating habits to show, but a diet of highly processed foods and insufficient fruit and vegetables really can damage physical and mental well-being. Some children are more resilient than others—and yours may be one of the lucky ones (so far)—but the time to start making some changes is now. Surely if what the big companies say is wrong, the Government would ban them from saying it? I wish! Sadly, economics and politics play a huge role here—for example, look at how long it took for the tobacco industry to be exposed for what they were really doing. The Government can’t regulate everything, and their perspective is usually very short term. They are also keen to avoid offending the big players in industry—for many reasons, some good (to try to protect jobs that might be lost, for example) and some not so good. Why aren’t doctors and many other health professionals trained more in nutrition? In my view, they need to be—and the more enlightened ones carry on studying such subjects after their initial training. In defence of the others, they are often so busy dealing with acute problems that preventative approaches may take second place, and they have little or no time to study. In my opinion, some training in the effects of nutrition on behaviour really would reduce the workload of most professionals in our health, education, social services and criminal justice systems, with benefits all round. Who am I to question the experts? Well, for a start, you’ll find that the experts usually disagree! As to ‘who you are’, please try to have a little more faith in your own good sense. If you’re a parent, you’ll probably know more about your child than anyone, and if you’re reading this book then you’ve got what it takes to find out more. Then make your mind up as to the best course of action. It’s usually one based on common sense and grounding in all the facts. I’d say always question the experts. (If they can’t handle that—they’re no experts!) Summary 1. The fast food and ‘convenience’ foods that dominate many children’s diets are often of very poor nutritional quality. If you knew what really goes into some of these, it’s very unlikely that you’d keep buying them. 2. The big food and drink companies and the pharmaceutical industry have been making huge profits out of our ignorance, although there are signs that you—the consumers—are starting to wise up and ‘dump the junk.’ 3. It’s now accepted that poor nutrition will affect your child’s physical health. Recognition of the impact on mental health and performance is taking longer, and most professionals in health, education and other public services still receive little or no training in this area. 4. The big drug companies’ influence over medical publishing (and most other media) has become so great that the editors of several top medical journals have felt the need to ‘go public’ about this. Drugs are not the only approach to many common ailments, and aren’t always as effective as they’re made out to be. 5. Dietary changes can improve behaviour, learning and mood—although these are not a substitute for other approaches, and we still need more research into the brain’s nutritional needs. 6. Conflicting information and advice on food and diet has left most people very confused. Beware of hidden advertising, but do seek out and weigh up the information you need make up your own mind. 7. You need to think about your child’s health and performance as a whole. Diet is only one aspect, so you will need to look at other areas, too. 8. There are no quick fixes or miracle cures—you must take charge, start from where you are and work slowly but steadily towards a healthier diet and lifestyle for your child. 9. Three basic dietary problems affect many children, and probably yours, too. Your child may react badly to some additives or foods, may be ‘hooked’ on simple carbohydrates, and is probably eating too many ‘bad fats’ and not enough essential fats. In this book you’ll find out how to improve these things. Chapter 3 What’s The Problem? (#ulink_9a8c8b8f-b4ec-5c66-bbcd-ce47c5a6800e) Could Your Child Be Doing Better? All parents will ask themselves this question at some time or other, and in most cases the answer will probably be ‘Yes!’ But if your child generally enjoys life, seems happy and fulfilled (most of the time) and causes no major problems for other people either at home or at school, then you should have no serious cause for concern. Nobody’s child is perfect—just as there is no such thing as the perfect parent, or the ideal relationship—and every child has her own particular pattern of strengths and weaknesses. All children also go through ‘phases’ or periods when they seem to have specific difficulties in one or more areas. They may even appear to lose some skills or interests that they’d previously mastered. These are all normal aspects of development and ‘growing up’. However, if you think your child is struggling with real and persistent difficulties that are affecting her behaviour, learning or mood, what can you do? You obviously need to find out what’s wrong, but do remember that things aren’t always what they seem: the real, underlying problems aren’t necessarily the ones you think they are. You have to start somewhere, though – so first, try to identify the broad areas that are causing most concern: Does your child have trouble making and keeping friends, or getting on with other family members? Does his performance at school fall short of what you’d expect from the abilities he shows in other ways? Does your child seem unhappy, or behave in a way that upsets, worries or puzzles others? Does he seem genuinely ‘different’ in some way from other children, to the extent that this is causing difficulties? Next, discuss your concerns with others who know your child. If you’re convinced that there really is a problem, always seek professional help. Start with your doctor, to check that your child has no physical health problems that could explain things. Talk to your child’s teachers or carers. Referral to other specialists may be appropriate, but will usually come through these routes. If formal assessments are carried out, this may or may not lead to a ‘diagnosis’ of some kind of recognized behavioural or learning disorder—such as ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia, autism or some other label. (There are so many possible diagnoses that I won’t even try to cover more than these, which are the most common ones.) Labelling a child in this way can be helpful—but it can also have its drawbacks. Even if the diagnosis you’ve been given is an accurate one (which it may not be), there’s still a great deal more to be discovered. A ‘diagnosis’ is only a description; it is not an explanation. These ‘diagnoses’ tell you nothing at all about the actual causes of your child’s difficulties, which will vary from child to child and always involve a complex web of interacting factors. The experts who make these diagnoses rely on checklists of particular features or symptoms, backed up with what they call a good ‘case history’, and sometimes (but not always) on the results of psychological or other tests. Sometimes the information is gathered mainly from parents, although at least some input from others is usually required—typically teachers or others who are familiar with the child in other settings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, parents often tell me that when they are finally given a diagnostic label for their child’s difficulties (often after years of struggle and heartache), in the end this tells them nothing they didn’t already know! A diagnostic label can be very useful, though, for a number of reasons: You now have an explanation for yourself, and to give others. It explains that your child’s difficulties are not down to ‘laziness’, ‘carelessness’, ‘stupidity’ or any desire to misbehave or otherwise cause offence. Sadly, though, it does not explain why your child has these difficulties. Your child now knows it’s not his fault . This is worth emphasizing to him, if he’s capable of understanding at this level. Most children dislike any label that makes them feel different—but try to help your child to see that this is not a disease, and is something he can overcome with the right strategies and help. You now know it’s not your fault, either. Anything past is past—and you’ve now opened up opportunities to find out what works best for other children like yours. A formal diagnosis can often allow you to access specialist help and resources. Medical or other therapies may be available if needed; your child’s school may be able to get funding for him to have extra help, or you may be able to get other assistance you may need with his care or education. You don’t have to just accept a label—let alone things that may be offered along with it. This is not to say that you should ever just dismiss out of hand medications or other treatments that your child’s doctor or other professionals may offer, but do always discuss with them any concerns you may have, and get a second opinion (or referrals to other specialists) if necessary. I’m not going to dwell for long on issues concerning the diagnosis of different kinds of behaviour and learning difficulties. These are beyond the scope of this book, and good information is available elsewhere. (#litres_trial_promo) What’s more, the information I’ll be giving you applies to pretty much all children, although I’ll point out wherever I can the issues that may affect some kinds of children more than others. It’s worth emphasizing that the ‘symptoms’ or features that define ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia or autism are almost all ‘dimensional’. That is, they are not categorical things that children do or don’t have. They occur to differing degrees, and most of them simply form part of normal, individual variations in children’s behaviour, learning and mood. There are no ‘hard’ objective tests and no ‘biological markers’ for any of these conditions. The patterns of behaviour or learning that define ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia or autism are not ‘diseases’ or ‘disorders’ in any conventional medical sense. This may help to explain why these kinds of conditions now seem to affect, to some degree, around 20 per cent of school-age children in the UK. (#litres_trial_promo) In most cases these children’s difficulties don’t even attract a formal diagnosis; and in many cases they go unrecognized by both parents and teachers. For reasons we don’t yet know, more boys than girls are affected—though there’s growing concern that many girls with these kinds of difficulties are underachieving and suffering in silence, simply because they don’t behave the same way that boys with these difficulties do, so the problem goes unrecognized. (#litres_trial_promo) So what should you look for? I’ll give a brief overview of each of these conditions here, and the Resources chapter will tell you where you can get more information if you need this. Dyslexia If your child is dyslexic, this can only be formally diagnosed after he’s spent many years struggling (and failing) to learn to read and write to the level expected for his age and general ability. Dyslexia involves more than just difficulties with written language, though. Early clues may include an unusual curiosity and an ‘intuitive’ kind of intelligence, with a tendency to think ‘holistically’, ‘laterally’ or ‘divergently’ rather than in a linear, sequential way. Dyslexic children are often particularly good at solving complex problems by seeing the bigger picture and using their creativity and logic to find original solutions. By contrast, despite their best efforts they experience failure and frustration in some tasks that other children find (literally) as simple as ABC. A classic dyslexic area of weakness is ‘working memory’, especially for verbal, sequential information. Things can seem to go ‘in one ear and out the other’—particularly sequences of information with no intrinsic meaning, like telephone numbers, security numbers or the sequence of letters in the alphabet. (If your child is dyslexic, you’ll need to make sure that any important information of this kind is heavily ‘over-learned’, and/or that there are good back-up and reinforcing strategies.) Learning any verbal sequence—like the days of the week, or the months of the year—can be problematic, particularly more complex ones like reciting multiplication tables by rote. (This doesn’t necessarily mean that the mathematics isn’t understood – just that other ways of determining this will need to be found.) There may be persistent difficulties in telling left from right, and in learning to tell the time from a clock face. Difficulties with phonology (the sounds in words) are often regarded as a core feature of dyslexia, but this argument can be rather circular: We learn many of our advanced ‘phonological skills’ through learning to read—so any poor readers, including adults who are illiterate for social or cultural reasons, tend to find these tasks difficult. When it comes to strengths, many dyslexic individuals show unusual talent in business, the visual arts and/or the sciences. A number of top financiers and outstanding business ‘visionaries’ are dyslexic (#litres_trial_promo)—and other professions with an over-representation of dyslexic adults include the arts, architecture, engineering, physical sciences and information technology. People with this profile are far less well suited to repetitive clerical or administrative jobs, but—provided they can avoid being judged too harshly on their spelling and punctuation—there’s no reason why dyslexic individuals can’t succeed in any occupation they may choose. One in 20 children is severely affected by dyslexia, and a further one in 20 has mild to moderate difficulties of the same kind—although the frequency in boys is slightly higher. Common Indicators of Dyslexia Difficulties in reading and spelling that are relatively specific, and which interfere with academic achievement or daily living skills (#litres_trial_promo) Directional confusion (such as difficulty telling left from right) Poor working memory (especially for information that carries no obvious meaning in itself—like telephone numbers, or anything learned ‘by rote’) Particular difficulties in segmenting words into their individual sounds, or building up words from their component sounds, when writing or speaking May have early delays or difficulties learning spoken language Difficulties with ordering and sequencing information ‘Intuitive’, holistic style of problem-solving, using lateral or divergent thinking rather than following a linear, step-by-step strategy Dyspraxia Dyspraxia (or Developmental Coordination Disorder) is just as common as dyslexia, and again boys are more susceptible than girls. Praxis means ‘doing’, and the most obvious difficulties are usually in motor coordination, affecting either fine motor skills (like holding a pen), or gross (big) movements like running or throwing. Muscle tone may be poor, resulting in ‘floppy’ movement, or joints may be unusually flexible and ‘bendy’, leading to other kinds of postural and movement difficulties. As in dyslexia, left-right confusions are common—with particular difficulties coordinating actions between left and right sides of the body (‘crossing the midline’). Thus, complex tasks that involve using both hands together (tying shoelaces, or doing up buttons) can prove frustratingly difficult to learn. Not all dyspraxic children are overtly clumsy, though. The younger child may compensate for his unsteadiness by using excessive muscle tension, so the problems may go undetected. Later, when he tries to run, jump or dance, or to throw and catch a ball, his lack of coordination becomes apparent. Difficulty or failure in these areas can lead to anxiety or embarrassment, and more tension. He may therefore dislike and avoid team sports and games (or dancing, where he may epitomize the saying about having two left feet!). Dyspraxic difficulties apply more fundamentally to the planning and carrying out of any complex, sequenced actions. Organization and time-keeping are usually poor, and if he’s dyspraxic your child may be slow to start and finish tasks. He may be able to do one thing properly at a time, but can easily get distracted and try to do too many things at once, so none gets finished. As with dyslexia, this syndrome is independent of general ability, and strengths often include good reasoning and creative problem-solving skills, including lateral and holistic thinking. Verbal abilities are usually superior to non-verbal abilities, with particular weaknesses in visuo-spatial and attentional processing. Spelling and copying from a board, as well as handwriting, are usually areas of difficulty, although reading itself may or may not be a problem. ‘Our son was always a cause for concern amongst his teachers. We cut additives like tartrazine from his diet, and that helped a lot, so he was no longer hyperactive. The other problems remained, though. In the end, the new Special Needs teacher suggested he might have dyspraxia, which proved to be the case. Yes, it’s a label, but now that everyone understands, we have put strategies in place that will help him. One of those strategies is changing his diet to follow the principles you outline. It’s early days yet, but I’m convinced we’re already seeing a difference.’ – Jan and Andrew Because his verbal abilities may be very good, the discrepancy between these and his written work (particularly when under timed pressure) can lead others to think your dyspraxic child is just being lazy or careless, even when he’s trying very hard indeed. When time is not limited, his work may be outstanding, which can add to that impression. No surprises that he may be susceptible to stress and frustration, often appearing irritable and moody as a result. With respect to attention, ‘sensory overload’ (too much happening at once) is often a problem for the dyspraxic child—but once absorbed in something, he may have an unusual capacity to maintain his concentration, provided that the environment offers few distractions. While naming no names at all, I will say that in my experience dyspraxic tendencies are perhaps over-represented within academia, because in highly able individuals, dyspraxia often manifests as the ‘absent-minded professor’ syndrome! Common Indicators of Dyspraxia or Developmental Coordination Disorder Motor coordination skills substantially below the level expected from age, education and abilities in other areas (#litres_trial_promo) Delays in achieving motor milestones such as crawling, sitting and walking Difficulties with activities such as running, throwing and catching, tying laces, and handwriting (often using undue muscle tension in the efforts to compensate for poor coordination) Coordination difficulties interfere with academic achievement or daily living. Attentional and organizational difficulties may compound these problems. ‘Intuitive’, holistic style of problem-solving, using lateral or divergent thinking rather than following a linear, step-by-step strategy Verbal abilities usually superior to non-verbal abilities Moving away from the core defining features, many dyspraxic children seem oversensitive to touch (complaining about ‘scratchy’ labels in clothes, or the fabric itself)—but like some children on the autistic spectrum, they may respond well to gentle physical pressure (liking tight hugs, and heavy bedclothes, for example). There are often general health issues, too, especially with respect to allergies or poor digestion—although these can affect many other children, too, of course. Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) For their age, ADHD children are severely inattentive, or hyperactive and impulsive, or both. These difficulties must also be persistent over time and in different situations, and causing serious problems both at home and at school. If your child has ADHD, he probably has some other problems, too. ‘Conduct disorder’ and ‘oppositional defiant disorder’ (breaking rules and having problems with those in authority) are the most common ones, but anxiety, depression or other mood disorders are also linked with ADHD at both the individual and the family level, as are specific learning difficulties like dyslexia and dyspraxia. On the positive side, the energy of ADHD can be very productive when this is suitably channelled—and a willingness to take risks is part of most truly creative achievements in any domain. Common Indicators of ADHD In ADHD children, many of the following features or ‘symptoms’ occur much more than expected for the child’s age and developmental level. They also occur persistently, both over time and across different situations. Attentional Problems Makes careless mistakes in schoolwork and other activities, and doesn’t give close attention to detail. Has difficulty organizing tasks and activities Forgetful in day-to-day activities (often loses ‘tools’ for a job, e.g. pencils, ruler, homework diary) Has difficulty sustaining attention in work or play. Even if instructions are understood, and intentions are good, they’re not followed through Doesn’t like sustained mental effort and may try to avoid it Often ‘daydreams’ (may appear to be ‘elsewhere’ when spoken to) Is easily distracted from a task by other things that are going on Hyperactivity/Impulsivity Runs about or climbs when it’s not appropriate to do so Fidgets, squirms or shows other signs of restlessness Has difficulty sitting or playing quietly Talks or chatters excessively Interrupts questions, conversations or games, and has difficulty waiting for his turn Shows impulsive behaviour in other ways: can’t restrain himself, and often acts without thinking (may appear unaware or careless of potential dangers) The consensus is that full-blown ADHD affects around 1 child in every 20 (5 per cent), but in some parts of the US up to 20 per cent of children are medicated with stimulant drugs (such as Ritalin) for the condition. Diagnosing ADHD properly involves ruling out some other medical conditions that can mimic it, including some hormonal and metabolic disorders, infectious diseases, neurological disorders, blood diseases, metal intoxications, cancers, genetic disorders, and various other disorders! In reality, resources are scarce (and stimulant drugs are cheap), so I’m sorry to say that in my experience this kind of detailed examination and testing certainly does not usually happen. The ‘ADHD’ label can cover a multitude of different things. Any co-existing conditions can make a big difference; and either hyperactivity-impulsivity without inattention, or attentional difficulties without hyperactivity both fall into this same diagnostic category. (There used to be a separate label for the latter—Attention Deficit Disorder, or ADD.) This huge variability between different children who are given the ADHD label guarantees that no single management approach is going to ‘work’ with all of them. However, the first thing that’s usually offered to parents if a child receives this diagnosis is stimulant medication. (#litres_trial_promo) I am not opposed to medication for ADHD, when it is clearly warranted—as I think it can be for some children—but I do think that it should always be the last resort, not the first. We often hear that around 70 per cent of children with ADHD get at least some benefits from stimulant medications. That’s very impressive, but it still leaves 3 children in every 10 who gain nothing from this kind of treatment—and many parents are understandably worried about possible side-effects, which can include difficulties with appetite and sleep, stunted growth, undesirable mental symptoms and increased risks of certain physical disorders. Any ‘benefits’ are also limited to behaviour, as no advantages for academic achievement have ever been demonstrated from the use of stimulant medications. (If they behave better and concentrate better, why don’t they learn better?) Most children can pay attention in at least some situations—it just depends on what these are, how motivated the child feels (what’s the pay-off for him?), and what the child’s perception is of the situation and his role in it (what demands does he feel under, and whom is he trying to impress?). ‘…all that was needed was to change the ‘‘pay-off’’ [in a test], so that the child who tried to rush through the test without even trying would pay a worse penalty than the one who spent time trying to work out the correct answer. This time, the computer would not move on to the next item until some time had elapsed (the time that most non-ADHD children would spend, on average, trying to solve the problem). For any child who just pressed the button early, their reward was to have to look at a blank screen for the rest of the time period. The next item would appear no sooner that it would have done in any case. Under these conditions, the well-known “deficits” of the ADHD children simply didn’t show up!’ What we don’t usually hear is that in certain subgroups the proportion who benefit from stimulant medications is much lower. For example, it may drop to 30 per cent for children with anxiety as well as ADHD (and some evidence suggests that negative side-effects may be more likely in these children). (#litres_trial_promo) In other words, for 7 out of 10 of these anxious, often ‘moody’ ADHD children, stimulant drugs may be no use at all. Before accepting any stimulant drugs for your ADHD child, or antidepressants, do make sure that ‘bipolar disorder’ has been ruled out. A large-scale survey of parents of bipolar children concluded that children with undiagnosed bipolar disorder can sometimes be ‘thrown into manic and psychotic states, become paranoid and violent…unstable and suicidal…’ if they are given these drugs before their mood has been stabilized. (#litres_trial_promo) Worryingly, they suggest that one-third of all children diagnosed with ADHD in the US are actually suffering from early symptoms of bipolar disorder. According to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, ‘…a third of the 3.4 million children who first seem to be suffering with depression will go on to manifest the bipolar form of the disorder’. If medications are to be used, it’s worth making sure they’re the right ones. Autism (ASD) Autism is the most severe form of what is now recognized as a range of ‘autistic spectrum disorders’ (ASDs). Features include restricted or absent social and interpersonal skills; a preference for repetition and routine; and interest in objects over people. ASD is much more common in boys than girls (perhaps not surprisingly, given that autism has even been characterized as simply an extreme of the archetypal ‘male’ brain!). If your child is autistic, he will show poor social interaction—in fact, this learned skill may be absent altogether. He’ll try to avoid interacting through conversation or cuddles, and may be viewed as aloof, withdrawn and ‘living in a world of his own’. Autistic individuals generally find objects easier to deal with than people—probably because the behaviour of objects is much easier for them to anticipate. A small percentage of autistic children have islets of high functioning-to-genius abilities and are known as Autistic Savants, but as with all the conditions considered here, ASD can occur in children with any level of general ability. In those with normal or high ability, areas of strength may include computing, engineering and any occupations where good ‘people skills’ are not essential. The number of children diagnosed with ASD has increased dramatically in recent years. For example, in Scottish schools, diagnoses nearly trebled between 1998 and 2005. In the US, autism diagnoses in school-aged children rose from 5,400 in 1991-2 to a massive 97,800 in 2000-2001. Better recognition and diagnosis may account for some of this increase, but cannot explain it all away. Something else is going on. As I’ve emphasized, the autism label is purely descriptive, so looking for any single ‘cause’ is likely to be fruitless. The real causes are likely to be multiple, highly complex, and will vary between different children. In my view, the simplest broad-brush explanation is the combination of two things: on the one hand, increasing exposure to potential toxins (from synthetic chemicals, heavy metals and other environmental contaminants), and on the other, decreasing intake of many essential nutrients needed to ‘defuse’ and get rid of those toxins. For genetic reasons, some children may have less efficient ‘detoxification’ systems, and/or metabolic inefficiencies that increase their need for certain nutrients. It is interesting that the earliest reports of autism show that it was regarded as a metabolic disorder, and special diets were often recommended. (See the Resources chapter for some excellent books on this subject.) Common Indicators of ASD Autism is now recognized as having varying degrees of severity, captured by the term ‘autistic spectrum disorders’. Before the age of three, shows delays or regression (permanent loss of previously acquired abilities) in social interaction and language skills May show repetitive movements of part or all of the body (rocking, tapping, head-banging or self-stimulation) At any age, shows a lack of spontaneous, imaginative play appropriate to his age Shows poor or limited ‘non-verbal’ behaviours, such as eye contact, facial and body expressions Has difficulties making friends and reciprocating socially or emotionally (may not appear interested in showing or telling you things) Has difficulties with speech and limited use of gestures (if language skills are developed, conversational skills are still poor) Shows restricted patterns of behaviour, interests and activities (preference for repetition and familiarity, and behaviour may be ritualized) May be preoccupied with certain objects or their parts (for example, often attracted by things that move or spin) Alternative labels have been springing up in recent years. Some emphasize the more positive aspects of these conditions, and tend to cross-cut the conventional diagnostic labels. The Highly Sensitive Child (HSC) is a good example, and in her popular book of the same name, Elaine Aaron does an excellent job of capturing many of the qualities that these children show. (#litres_trial_promo) Your child may be in august company: Einstein appears to have exemplified the ‘absent-minded professor’ syndrome. He was dismissed at school as a daydreamer with little or no potential, and he was also sacked from two teaching jobs for his poor spelling—consistent with dyslexic/dyspraxic traits. More recently, he has also been claimed for the autistic genius camp for his supposed obsessiveness and lack of social skills! Overlaps Although they’re usually regarded as separate conditions, in practice there’s a big overlap between dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD and the autistic spectrum. Most children who qualify for one of these labels also show features of one or more of the others. 30-50 per cent of dyslexic and ADHD children have clear dyspraxic tendencies. 30-50 per cent of dyspraxic children have notable dyslexic difficulties. Attentional and working memory problems are found in all three conditions. Always remember that your child is an individual. Reality is much messier than any of the discrete diagnostic labels we may use to ‘pigeon-hole’ children, so even if your child has one diagnosis already, be aware that this may not give the whole picture. This is a summary of a letter I received from Jane, a grateful parent: ‘As a baby, when Peter started on solid food he became tearful and wakeful, began to projectile vomit and lost weight dramatically. He developed a high temperature and a red rash so bad they thought it was scarlet fever! In fact, he reacted badly to many foods including eggs, wheat, artificial food colourings and other additives. When he started school, teachers said he was hyperactive – but with advice from the Hyperactive Children’s Support Group we modified his diet, and Peter improved dramatically. All was fine until he started falling behind at school, and this time (aged 10) he was diagnosed as dyslexic. I heard about your research and increased his omega-3 fatty acid intake. This seemed to do wonders, and he quickly became an above-average pupil. Then at 15, Peter started using cannabis, which he reacted to badly. Within a year he was admitted to an adult psychiatric ward and was prescribed powerful drugs (even though he still had easy access to cannabis in the hospital!). His prognosis was said to be poor. The hospital diet contained lots of foods I knew didn’t suit Peter, and I explained his history of food allergies, but they wouldn’t listen. The doctors just decided he had ‘‘mental health problems’’. At no time was his physical health investigated. Then I attended an inspiring conference on diet and behaviour. With specialist help, I was able to persuade the hospital staff to put Peter onto a new dietary regime. This made such a difference – and once he himself could understand what had happened to him, he agreed to stop smoking cannabis. Within four weeks he went from being a seriously ill young man to near normal. Six months later, Peter was back at college and enjoying a social life with family and friends. Without the help of researchers and scientists, I really think Peter would still be a lost child in an adult ward. Thanks to them, I have my son back – the greatest gift anyone could have given me.’ Keeping It in the Family Conditions like ADHD, autism and dyslexia tend to run in the same families, but the reasons for this aren’t always down to genetics. The predisposition to these kinds of difficulties is certainly under some degree of genetic influence—and research is starting to tease out some possible ‘candidate genes’ that may play a part. However, let’s get one thing clear: there are no individual genes ‘for’ any of these conditions. Many different genes can contribute to an individual’s risk; these differ between individuals, and some are widely distributed in the general population. What’s more, no genes can operate without an environment. This includes other genes, various influences that operate while a baby is still in the womb and many, many others that continue to switch genes ‘on’ and ‘off’ during every single moment of your child’s life. These influences include your child’s diet— because nutrition interacts with genetics in two main ways: 1 Some genes can affect the way in which your child absorbs and uses (metabolizes) different nutrients. This is just another way of saying that different people have different nutrient requirements. 2 Nutrients can actually affect the expression of many genes. This means that you might be genetically ‘at risk’ for something like ADHD or depression, but you won’t necessarily develop the symptoms if your environment (including diet) is good. Genes are not destiny—and it’s worth pointing out that families often share dietary habits as well as genes! How good are yours? What’s Beneath the Surface? Your child’s behaviour and performance at school (or in other things she does) are just the things you can see on the surface. These are often the main focus of programmes aimed at changing or influencing children’s behaviour and learning, some of which can be very helpful. But other powerful forces at work are often well hidden. What your child is thinking will affect her behaviour and performance. (If she thinks the teacher sees her as stupid or lazy, for example, she’ll be rather less likely to do what she’s told at school; or if she doesn’t understand why you won’t let her stay up late, this could lead to a tantrum.) What she’s thinking, though, is usually much harder to tell than what she’s doing. It’s beneath the surface. You can help here by doing your best to develop a good relationship with your child. Talk to her and try to find out what she thinks. Even more important—listen to her without judging; so that she feels able to tell you what’s going on in her mind. With some children, this kind of communication can be hampered by their very difficulties—especially if these are with language, for example, or social interactions. Sometimes a professional with the right experience can help—but keep doing what you can, and always remember that your child’s thoughts and beliefs (based on whatever her perceptions and powers of reasoning are) will affect her behaviour and performance. At the next level, your child’s feelings will colour her thinking. If she feels bad about herself, she’s more likely to develop negative thought patterns and beliefs, and this can prevent her from trying to learn how tackle her own problems. The same applies to you, of course. If you ever find yourself thinking ‘I’ve failed as a parent’ or ‘I really can’t deal with this’, it will be because your own feelings at that moment are negative ones. You may be feeling overwhelmed, but when those feelings pass, you’ll think differently. It’s the same with your child. Underneath your feelings (the things you can recognize, identify or put a name to), there is another level at work—and that involves your emotions. We’re on the physical level here—because your raw emotions actually reflect the constant shifts and changes going on at the level of your bodily functions, including your heart rate, your breathing, your digestion, and even the workings of your immune system. These things are governed by your ‘autonomic nervous system’ (which works without your conscious intervention, and usually without even your conscious awareness). They do, however, have a very powerful effect on everything you think, feel and do. In fact, your emotions are literally what ‘move you’ or motivate you to do anything. Think of them as ‘e-motions’—reflecting physical (electrical and chemical) energy in motion. (#litres_trial_promo) At the very foundations, then, your emotions are affected by your physiology. In other words, the state of your body affects the state of your mind—and vice versa, of course. When you use your mind to choose to do something—like going for a walk, talking to a friend, eating something healthy, or hugging your child instead of shouting at him—your decision will affect what happens to you physically. The exercise and fresh air from going for a walk will affect your body chemistry positively (whereas slumping in front of the TV or drowning your sorrows with a drink will have different physical effects). Sharing your concerns with a friend, or showing your child you love him, can also help you (and them) to relax and feel better—so you think more positively, and as a result will probably perform better than you otherwise would. Either eating something healthy or consoling yourself with junk food will also affect your body chemistry—but rather differently in each case. I hope you can see why nutrition is the real bedrock of this physiological level—because your body’s repertoire will be influenced by the chemical raw materials that it has available. And the same goes for your brain. This is why food and diet really are fundamental to your child’s development, both physically and in the way his mind works. Your child’s behaviour (and the mind-body links that create it) can be likened to an iceberg: only one small part is showing, but a whole lot more is going on beneath. (#litres_trial_promo) What’s Behind the Labels? As we’ve seen, the ‘diagnosis’ of most developmental difficulties focuses only on a few core features of behaviour and learning—as though these exist in isolation from the rest of the child. In fact, some other features seem common to almost all children with these kinds of labels—and many of them are consistent with known nutritional deficiencies and imbalances. I’ve always pointed this out in my own talks and lectures, and parents and front-line professionals usually recognize the picture (even if many researchers and so-called ‘experts’ prefer to keep focusing on their artificial pigeon-hole labels). Then, a few years ago at a conference, I met another speaker whose introduction to her talk was almost exactly the same as mine! Her name is Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride, and you’ll hear more about her work in later chapters. When her own child was given the ‘autism’ label and she was told that nothing could be done, she went and studied nutritional medicine, and worked out a diet that got him doing well at a normal school. What Natasha had recognized—and what my own work was uncovering—is that it’s all to do with ‘guts and brains’, and the links between them—in which your child’s immune system plays a major part. But where my talk went on to focus on research into omega-3 fatty acids—which you’ll hear more about in Chapters 8 and 9—Natasha’s talk emphasized the critical importance of gut bacteria (often called ‘gut flora’), which you’ll hear more about in Chapter 5. These are crucial to your child’s digestion, helping him to absorb and manufacture key nutrients. What’s more, along with omega-3 fatty acids, they also play a vital role in programming and supporting his immune system. Guts and Brains Autistic spectrum disorders in particular have been linked with digestive difficulties—but in fact all the conditions I’ve been describing in this chapter typically involve a history of gut problems, immune dysfunction, and difficulties with mood, arousal and perceptual skills as well as behaviour and learning. In Natasha’s book Gut and Psychology Syndromes (#litres_trial_promo) she explains the connections between all these things, and provides details of her special diet for dealing with even extreme cases of autism. I’d recommend this book to any parent or professional dealing with these syndromes, and although the full diet is not necessary or suitable for every child, the principles are—and she includes some great recipes, too! To illustrate some of the features Natasha and I had noticed in the children we were seeing, ask yourself whether any of the following apply to your child: bottle-fed rather than breastfed (for whatever reason) prescribed antibiotics at a young age (for repeated ear infections, for example) prone to feeding difficulties/a fussy eater from weaning suffers from allergies, repeated infections or other immune-system dysfunction has other physical health problems (including digestive difficulties, headaches or other aches and pains) has sleep problems is prone to anxiety, depression or mood swings is very susceptible to stress, with low frustration tolerance, possibly aggression has perceptual as well as behaviour or learning difficulties, including visual and auditory symptoms. The immune system has an extremely powerful influence on both our guts and our brains, from early development right through life. It plays a huge part in the connections between mind and body—but to work properly, your child’s immune system needs both the right nutrients and a proper balance of healthy gut flora. If your child shows many of the features above, read on. Breastfeeding In most cases, breastfeeding provides babies not only with the best possible nutrition, but also with various immune-enhancing substances—including what should be good bacteria from mother to get the baby’s own population of gut flora started. (#litres_trial_promo) Allergies, Infections and the Immune System Children with dyslexia, dyspraxia, ADHD or autism seem unusually prone to ‘atopic’ (allergic) conditions like asthma, eczema and hay fever, indicating immune-system imbalances. Many have ear infections in early childhood, typically treated with antibiotics—which destroy the good gut bacteria along with the bad, weakening the immune system and perpetuating the problems. Other physical health complaints, including headaches, stomach aches and other digestive disorders, all fit the picture of ‘gut dysbiosis’ (an unhealthy imbalance of gut flora) and a lack of key nutrients including omega-3 fatty acids. Sleep and Arousal Disordered patterns of sleep and arousal from early infancy are common in children with behaviour and learning difficulties, and may reflect nutritional imbalances or adverse food reactions. Many parents of children given omega-3 fatty acids in our trials have reported that their child’s sleep improves as a result. This is anecdotal evidence at the moment (we were not formally assessing sleep), but it fits with existing evidence and needs investigating further. Emotional Sensitivity and Mood Swings If your child is underachieving because of his behaviour or learning difficulties, it’s understandable that he may suffer anxiety, loss of self-esteem or even depression. Mood swings or temper outbursts may reflect the sheer frustration he feels. However, some factors—including diet—could contribute to both the behavioural/learning difficulties and the emotional ones. The evidence that nutrition affects mental health has recently been reviewed by two UK charities as part of a campaign to raise public and professional awareness of these links. (#litres_trial_promo) ‘I’ve spent the last few years to-ing and fro-ing between the GP, the specialist and the educational psychologist. They’ve done their best but at no time has anyone suggested link between his social and physical problems and his diet. Why not? It makes so much sense. My son is changing physically and emotionally for the better since we changed his diet.’mdash; Jo Susceptibility to Stress Does your child become easily ‘stressed’ and show a low tolerance for frustration? (Do you?!) Some children show this as hostility and aggression. Others ‘internalize’ their stress instead, and may complain of stomach aches and nausea, or generally seem solemn or withdrawn. Stress is a likely consequence of the difficulties any child may experience if he feels ‘different’. Repeated feelings of failure and humiliation will only serve to exacerbate symptoms. Do what you can to support your child, but again, that has to include feeding him a nutritious diet (and making sure he gets enough exercise). We’ll be looking in more detail at the nutrient deficiencies and imbalances that can add to mental stress in Chapter 4, and you’ll find other tips and strategies that may be helpful in dealing with stress in Chapter 10. Perceptual Anomalies Perceptual problems can sometimes interfere with the development of communication and language skills (both spoken and written). (#litres_trial_promo) Standard auditory or visual tests may show your child’s hearing and sight are normal, or even super-sensitive, but do get this checked out. If you’re still concerned, specialist assessments may be helpful, as the perceptual skills we take for granted are highly complex: literally, your child may not see things the way you do! My interest in omega-3 came from my early work on visual symptoms in dyslexia, because these fatty acids (along with vitamin A and other essential nutrients) play key roles in vision. What You Can Do So, your child may or may not have a label. The great news is you can do something for him. In the following chapters I’ll explain why a varied diet based around fresh vegetables and fruit, good-quality protein, the right kinds of fats and the right kinds of carbohydrates (starches) could make a big difference to your child—and to you. We’ll also look at digestion and how it can go wrong, and I’ll point out three main things you can do to improve your child’s diet. Some helpful tips and a plan of action are provided in later chapters—but looking ahead, you should be able to ensure better health and well-being for your child (and you!) if you just stick to these essentials. If you apply the information in this book, you may well find that your child’s mood, behaviour, attention and learning will improve—and with them, his self-esteem. Remember, though, that diet is only one component in the effective management of behavioural and learning difficulties. Make sure you let any professionals dealing with your child know that you’ll be adjusting his diet, and discuss this with them if possible. In particular, if your child is taking any medications, the levels may need to be monitored more closely. Any good doctor should support you in implementing a healthy eating and exercise strategy—but some may be dismissive about ‘food intolerances’ or the effects of additives. If so, please feel free to show them this book or direct them to the FAB research website where they can read some of the evidence for themselves. Or find another doctor. Always remember that you probably know your child better than anyone, so don’t mistrust your own instincts and observations. Become better informed and always keep looking for support and advice from other people who are qualified to provide this—both professional experts and other parents in your position. ‘My son (12) has dyspraxia. I’ve finally worked out his symptoms are worse when he eats a high-carbohydrate diet with little protein or essential fatty acids. It’s hard work sometimes to get him to eat and exercise properly, but even he is beginning to see cause and effect, and the strategies are beginning to work.’— Abi FAQs The Educational Psychologist says my son is showing some symptoms of ADHD and dyspraxia, but he’s not fully in either camp. Can your programme still help him? Yes, it can. The approach shown in this book should be suitable for almost any child, but always remember that diet is only one component. You’re also likely to need other assistance in managing his symptoms, so discuss this with the Educational Psychologist and other professionals if necessary. My child fits a lot of the criteria you’ve outlined for dyslexia and dyspraxia. As I can see he probably has both, do I need to see a health professional? Yes. Ideally you want the help of both health and education professionals (working together) to assess your child and explore with you the best management methods. If your child does get formally ‘diagnosed’ with either or both of these conditions, his school may also be able to get additional funding so that he can receive any extra help or equipment he may need. You say there’s been a rise in the number of children suffering from these behaviour and learning disorders. Why is that? Many people have a ‘genetic tendency’ towards ADHD, autism and other conditions, but these syndromes simply aren’t triggered because of their good lifestyle and diet. Children today are often exposed to more potential toxins (synthetic chemicals and pollutants), less exercise, and a poor diet that’s lacking in many vital nutrients. These things can damage children’s brains as well as their physical health. Summary 1. Labels like dyslexia, dyspraxia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism can be both helpful and unhelpful. These diagnoses are descriptions, not explanations—but they can provide reassurance and should open the way to effective help. 2. These conditions affect around 20 per cent of school-age children in the UK to some degree, although more boys than girls are affected. 3. Most of the ‘core features’ used to define these kinds of behavioural and learning difficulties simply reflect extremes of normal individual differences. 4. There are substantial overlaps between all of these conditions. Children who only show symptoms of one of them are the exception, not the rule. 5. Genetic factors play some part in a child’s risk developing ADHD, dyslexia and autism, but environmental factors—including diet—are equally if not more important, and much easier to change. 6. Any child’s behaviour and performance are only the ‘tip of the iceberg’. These are affected by what that child is thinking and feeling, his emotions and, fundamentally, his physiology. Diet works at this fundamental level. 7. Our brains often reflect what’s going on in our guts—and the two are closely linked by the immune system and other chemical messenger systems. 8. Children with behavioural and learning difficulties often show other features and physical health symptoms (including allergies) that indicate digestive and nutritional imbalances. 9. A healthy balance of gut flora and the right dietary fats (such as omega-3) are needed for good digestion and a well-functioning immune system. A healthy, well-balanced diet (and exercise) can help to ensure this. 10. Dietary approaches should never be regarded as the only way to manage behaviour and learning difficulties, but good nutrition is fundamentally important and may enhance the effectiveness of other therapies. Part Two The Good, The Bad And The Unhealthy (#ulink_f05d79ac-fcfe-5a2b-b71f-a17140fda403) Chapter 4 Essential Nutrients And Your Child’s Diet (#ulink_c6566b56-c548-5088-92b0-a076e68d51bd) Whatever his specific difficulties may be, a balanced, varied, wholesome diet that provides all essential nutrients really can make a big difference to your child. Poor nutrition contributes to infections, inflammatory problems (like asthma) and obesity (with all of its knock-on effects); it can also affect your child’s sleep, mood, behaviour and learning. As you saw in Chapter 2, the facts about the food children are eating aren’t good, but until you—the parents—really take charge, there’s little sign that the Government or the big food-producing companies are going to look after you or your loved ones. In this chapter I’ll outline the basic dietary components your child needs, and point out some of the ones most likely to be lacking. In later chapters we’ll look at some of these in more detail. Briefly, your child must have enough: water protein fats (in the form of essential fatty acids) carbohydrates (in the form of complex carbohydrates and fibre) vitamins minerals antioxidants moderate exercise—yes, this is part of a good diet! A Long Time Ago Our hunter-gatherer ancestors ate a very wide range of nuts and seeds, edible roots and leaves, wild animals (usually small, and very occasionally a big one), fish, shellfish, berries and wild beans. So: plenty of protein, vitamins and minerals and complex carbohydrates, little saturated fat, and equal proportions of omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acids. Agricultural Revolution Smaller variety of foods eaten, a much greater proportion of cereals (grains), and less fruit and vegetables. Meat consumption decreased as well. So: decreased vitamin and mineral intake, and a higher proportion of omega-6s than omega-3s. Industrial Revolution This began in the late 18th century, so we needed lots of cheap food for workers who arrived in droves to work in towns and cities. New preservation and production methods were introduced, meaning foods could be transported long distances in bulk quite cheaply. The use of vegetable oils, refined starches and sugars rose sharply. Consumption of farmed meat rose by about 200 times per person per year! So: white flour goods became the norm…and carried less than a quarter of vitamins B and E, magnesium and zinc than their wholemeal counterparts. Sadly, most of our children eat diets lacking at least some key nutrients. Even for those of you trying to avoid the obvious junk, some of the dietary advice you’ve been getting from governments and their agencies has been positively misleading. In the US, government agencies offered the so-called ‘Food Pyramids’ as guidelines for planning a ‘balanced’ diet. Nutrition experts at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)1 have pointed out some serious flaws in these—and in the contribution of the food industry in helping to build these dodgy pyramids. In the Appendix you’ll find a more appropriate ‘Healthy Eating Pyramid’ which the Harvard experts have designed. (You may also find it educational to look at their website and play ‘spot the difference’!) The Twentieth Century This saw an increase in global food trade, and also discoveries about how to make synthetic vitamins. Foods began to be ‘fortified’ with vitamins and minerals. The irony was, during the two World Wars, we began to eat more healthily once again! Rationing meant poorer families received more proteins and micronutrients, and richer people ate less fat (from meat and processed foods) and sugar. At the same time, it was discovered how to dehydrate vegetables and eggs, and to produce processed meat. After WWII, policies were introduced to make sure we could produce our own food, and not rely too much on supplies from other countries. Ready-prepared foods took off. Buying flour and other ingredients plummeted, and meat consumption rose again. A decrease in the amount of fruit and vegetables eaten began, and there was a dramatic increase in the consumption of hydrogenated (including trans) fats, refined starch and sugar, and numerous artificial additives. The Twenty-first Century Where are we now? Well, eating more than ever, and suffering more diet-related problems such as obesity, mental ill-health and behavioural problems. In the last 60 years, there’s been a 34% decrease in UK vegetable consumption, and a 59% drop in consumption of oily fish (omega-6/omega-3 ratios have reached an all-time high). We are eating far more processed foods (and thus more saturated and hydrogenated fats, salt and sugar, more artificial additives and fewer micronutrients), especially those on low incomes. If you really don’t feel you need to know about all the details of the different nutrients your child needs, don’t worry. Just use the HSPH guidelines and the plan you’ll find in Chapter 11, and you shouldn’t go too far wrong. But understanding why the different nutrients are so important may help to motivate you, and your child, so in this chapter we’ll take a look at them (and then in Chapter 5 we’ll look at what actually happens to food once your child has eaten it). Water Is your child drinking enough water? Fizzy, sweet drinks (or tea or coffee) are not acceptable substitutes; most have undesirable ingredients and may even cause you to lose water. Your body is 50-70 per cent water (and your brain 85 per cent)—but you lose it constantly through breath, sweat, urine and faeces. You can only survive a few days without water, as its remarkable properties help to mediate every function in your brain and body. Without enough water your child will become dehydrated, which can lead to headaches and tiredness. His concentration and his digestion will be impaired, along with most other functions. Make sure your child drinks enough at home, and that he takes water to school with him if the school doesn’t provide this. Your child can also get water from food, especially fruit and vegetables, or fruit juices (best diluted—by you) or herbal teas. Unfortunately, vending machines that sell fizzy drinks are found in most schools. Most soft and fizzy drinks can upset blood sugar levels, but schools often depend on the income the vending machines generate. Macronutrients Macronutrients is the term used for the three main food groups: proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Each fulfils a particular nutritional need, and in a ‘balanced’ diet all of them must be present—within limits. It isn’t the overall quantity of protein, fat or carbohydrate that really matters, but the quality. We’ll discuss protein briefly in this chapter—but children’s consumption of carbohydrates and fats is so often ‘wrong’ in quality terms that we’ll look at these topics separately in Chapters 7 and 8. What’s the right balance? The most suitable dietary balance of macronutrients depends on your child’s lifestyle, current health and metabolism. Both low-fat’ and ‘low-carbohydrate’ (high-protein) diets have been popularized in numerous ‘miracle’ weight-loss programmes. Most of these are aimed at adults, but each usually claims to ‘cure’ all kinds of ills at the same time. Generally speaking, none of these diets is suitable for children (or you!), unless prescribed for medical reasons. A ‘reasonable’ balance of macronutrients includes around half of total energy (calories) from carbohydrates, one-fifth from protein and one-third from fat—but don’t even think of spending your time trying to calculate this! Some sensible ground rules about what kinds of foods your child should be eating (and which ones to avoid) should be enough, and those are provided, with recipes, in Chapters 10-14. The type and quality of proteins, fats and carbohydrates that your child consumes matter infinitely more than the overall quantities. Proteins Proteins are the main building-blocks of living things, so a regular supply of protein is essential for brain and body growth and maintenance. The very structure of most of our tissues—like muscles, tendons or bones—depends on proteins. The enzymes that assist or enable almost all biochemical reactions are usually made of proteins; the receptors and other channels for signalling within and between cells are mostly made of proteins. Many of the messenger-molecules that carry information via those channels are also proteins, or fragments of proteins called ‘peptides’. When we eat and digest proteins, they’re broken down into their component amino acids. There are 20 types of amino acids we use. When we need a new protein, it’s assembled from specific amino acids arranged in a particular sequence (a sequence dictated by your genes). The resulting chain of amino acids then folds up in a special way to achieve the proper structure of that protein. Peptides, which are used as important signalling molecules in many brain and body systems, are simply shorter chains of amino acids. There are eight ‘essential amino acids’ that we can’t make for ourselves, so they must come from our diets. You can make the other 12 amino acids your body needs. The eight essential amino acids go by the names of: isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophan and valine. Some lists include a ninth: arginine. Don’t worry about learning the names—just make sure your child eats a range of protein-rich foods. We need a regular intake of good-quality protein to build, repair and run many body systems, so make sure your child gets enough. Don’t overdo it, though—because too much protein can affect your kidneys—but most people don’t eat too much protein unless they’re on some diet that leaves out much of another food group (like carbohydrates), and that’s not recommended. Your child needs to eat only a handful of protein (a quarter or less of the plateful) at any meal, but just vary the type. This could include lean meat, fish, eggs, cheese, nuts, or beans and pulses. (#litres_trial_promo) Animal and Vegetable Protein Vegetarians need to be aware of the essential amino acids. Most animal foods contain ‘complete protein’, meaning that it provides all the essential amino acids we need. By contrast, most vegetarian foods contain only some of them, (#litres_trial_promo) so the others must be obtained by eating the right combinations of legumes, pulses, nuts and grains. (#litres_trial_promo) Protein—Summary of Key Points Proteins play numerous roles. They are: a source of amino acids/peptides key building-blocks of tissue used to translate DNA codes so the correct new proteins can be assembled what most enzymes are made from signalling molecules (e.g. neurotransmitters) Either too much or too little protein can have damaging effects on health. Fats (Lipids) Fat is not just a convenient store of energy. Certain dietary fats are absolutely essential to your child’s physical and mental health, being needed for: the structure and flexibility of all cell membranes regulating the transport of all substances into and out of cells supporting the immune system, heart and circulation and hormone balance maintaining the structure and function of your brain and nervous system. Fats are dealt with in detail in Chapter 8, but in summary, saturated (hard) fats like those found in butter, cream and meat fat are not a problem in moderation. In fact, it’s better to use these for cooking than vegetable oils (which can produce toxic fats when heated). Olive oil and other monounsaturated fats (found in nuts and seeds) have some health benefits, but the fats your child needs most are the natural polyunsaturated fats, particularly special ones called omega-3 fatty acids (found in oily fish and flax oils) and omega-6 (found in vegetable oils, grains, meat, eggs and dairy produce). You and your child are far more likely to lack omega-3 than omega-6 fats—which could even be increasing stress, anxiety or depression in both of you. (#litres_trial_promo) Carbohydrates Carbohydrates are dealt with in detail in Chapter 7, but basically fall into three types: 1 Sugars—used for energy and found in fruits, some vegetables, milk and most processed foods and drinks 2 Starches—used for energy and found in all grains (including rice), all vegetables (especially potatoes) and most refined foods 3 Fibre—used to help digestion and bowel function and found in vegetables, whole grains and unrefined foods Sugars occur naturally in fruit and milk, but can also be man-made (like sucrose or table sugar). We have no dietary need whatsoever for manufactured sugars, and these can play havoc with your child’s blood sugar levels, energy levels, health and well-being, and behaviour. Starches are made of many sugar molecules joined together. The body usually breaks them down into simple sugars (mainly glucose), which we use for energy. Some starches (like those found in mashed potatoes or chips, and the ‘refined’ starches in many processed foods) break down very quickly, causing your blood sugar levels to rise too fast. Adding protein (like cheese with your baked potato) or fibre (eating the potato skin too) can help to slow this process down. In Chapter 7 we’ll see why complex carbohydrates, which we digest more slowly, are much better for your child than simple starches or sugars. Micronutrients ‘Micro’ means small—so this term simply refers to nutrients that we generally need in much smaller quantities—vitamins and minerals, antioxidants, flavonoids and some others. Vitamins Vitamins are substances we absolutely need for health, but which must come from our diet, along with certain essential minerals. Unfortunately, many ‘fast’ foods are devoid of both. Let’s look at some of the main vitamins and minerals your child may be lacking, and see why they’re so important. Fat-soluble Vitamins Deficiency states are recognized for all vitamins, but let’s start by making clear that in some cases too much can make you ill, too. If you ate polar bear liver, for example (it has happened!), you’d end up dying a nasty death, as just 500g (about half a pound) of polar bear liver will send a lethal dose of vitamin A into your body. Fancy Trying Polar Bear Liver? Think Again You’ll suffer from: a throbbing headache stomach cramps diarrhoea drowsiness irritability dizziness hair loss enlargement of your spleen and liver… …and to cap it all, before you die, your skin will peel off! Why is polar bear liver so rich in vitamin A? Well, vitamin A originates in marine algae, and then passes up the food chain in ever-increasing concentrations until it reaches carnivores such as polar bears, seals and arctic foxes. Being stuck in the arctic with only a dead polar bear to eat is unlikely for most of us, but be aware of the risk of vitamin A poisoning. Don’t misunderstand me: vitamin A’s vital for your health, but it isn’t water-soluble, so an excess can’t be excreted in your urine (as happens with vitamins B and C). It gets stored in the body instead. As with all nutrients, you need a balance. Vitamins A, D, E and K are all fat-soluble, so any excess is stored in fat-rich body tissues, mainly the liver. Between them these vitamins are responsible for a vast array of functions. You can get them directly from organ meats, some fats (including those in dairy products and eggs) and nut or seed oils, but we make most of our vitamin D from sunlight (if we get enough!), and a healthy gut (if we have one) will house bacteria that produce vitamin K. Let’s see what these vitamins (should) do for your child. Vitamin A (Retinol) Vitamin A is critical for your immune system, vision, the brain and nervous system, the linings of your gut and lungs, and your bones and teeth. It’s also essential for reproduction and growth. In the developing world, vitamin A deficiency accounts for more infant blindness (and thus mortality) than any other single nutrient deficiency. Insufficient vitamin A can stunt your child’s growth, weaken his immune system, damage the delicate linings of his guts and lungs, and impair his vision (particularly in dark conditions). It’s essential to numerous cell-signalling systems in your child’s body and brain. Deficiency can reduce appetite and taste, and has been implicated in various autistic-type symptoms, including visual perceptual problems. (#litres_trial_promo) Relatively few foods contain the active form of vitamin A (retinol). Organ meats (liver, kidneys, heart and brain) and oily fish are the richest dietary sources, but egg yolks and full-fat dairy products contain some. An artificial form (vitamin A palmitate) may be added to skimmed and semi-skimmed milk, but in anyone whose gut may be unhealthy (as we’ll discuss in the next chapter) this might not be absorbed properly. Vitamin A can also be made within the body from beta-carotene and other carotenoids. These substances help give carrots and other orange, yellow or green vegetables their natural colours. There’s no danger of accidental overdose with this route, as you only make what vitamin A you need from carotenoids. (As we’ve seen, active vitamin A can be toxic in excess—which is why warnings are issued to pregnant women to be careful about their intake—especially from supplements.) According to the latest UK survey, your child is far more likely to get too little vitamin A than too much. In every age group, between one-half and two-thirds of all children were found to be getting less than the official daily ‘adequate intake’ of vitamin A from their diets. For those aged between 11 and 14 years, frank dietary deficiency was found in more than one in eight boys, and one in five girls. (#litres_trial_promo) If you think your child’s intake may be too low, you could encourage him to eat more oily fish, liver, p?t? or cod liver oil—but only in moderation, as these all provide active vitamin A. You can be more liberal with the carrots, oranges or other sources of beta-carotene from fruits and vegetables, as it’s hard to overdo it on these. The worst that’s likely to happen is that your child’s skin might temporarily turn a harmless shade of orange! (This did actually happen once to someone in my lab who adored tangerines, and ate them by the netful! She was a little alarmed, but came to no harm and learned her lesson: Vary what you eat.) Vitamin D Vitamin D is critical for building strong bones and teeth, and has extremely wide-ranging influences on most of your bodily systems—and your brain. Vitamin D is the ‘sunshine vitamin’, formed naturally by your skin when it’s exposed to the ultra-violet light that accompanies bright sunlight. In summer, you should make enough to last you through the darker days of winter. It’s fat-soluble, so we can store it—but only if we’re exposed to enough sunlight to build up a surplus, or get plenty in our diets. Few foods provide much vitamin D directly. Organ meats (liver, kidneys, etc.), oily fish or full-fat dairy produce are the main dietary sources. A severe lack of vitamin D causes rickets (softening of the bones, leading to physical deformities). Less obvious deficiency is a major cause of osteoporosis, and is implicated in unexplained muscle and bone pain. That’s because you need vitamin D—along with magnesium—to actually get calcium into your bones. Active vitamin D is also one of the most powerful pre-hormones in the human body. Deficiency can contribute to heart disease, stroke, hypertension, various autoimmune diseases, diabetes, depression, chronic pain, osteoarthritis, muscle weakness, muscle wasting, birth defects, periodontal (gum) disease, and 17 varieties of cancer! (#litres_trial_promo) There’s also some evidence that vitamin D deficiency in pregnancy may contribute to hyperactivity and mental health problems in the next generation. (#litres_trial_promo) This being so, it’s not good news that almost one in four children and adults in the UK are seriously deficient in vitamin D each winter, and those who rarely go outside are at risk all year round. What’s more: people with dark skins need up to 10 times the exposure to UV light that fair-skinned people do to make the same amount of vitamin D. This needs to be recognized, as indoor lifestyles (and even some habits of dress) can make it difficult to achieve enough exposure to sufficiently bright sunlight in the UK (or any other countries at a similar, or greater, distance from the equator). If more than a quarter of our children and adults are frankly vitamin D deficient for large parts of the year, why haven’t we heard more about this? Could it be because no one can patent sunshine, and there are no big profits to be made from selling vitamin D? Looking on the bright side (sorry)—at least sunshine is free: just make sure that you and your child get enough. Take care never to burn (if skin turns even slightly pink, that’s more than enough), but the evidence suggests that moderate exposure can bring real health benefits, with no serious additional risks of skin cancer, which we have all heard plenty about. TB and Vitamin D During the Industrial Revolution, many people worked inside for long, long hours and were never out in the sunshine. TB (tuberculosis) was prevalent then, and sufferers were sent off to sanatoriums, where the medicine given was good food and sunshine. Many recovered. Incidentally, the better food alone didn’t cure TB; the daylight really made a difference. Vitamin E Vitamin E has powerful antioxidant properties. It particularly helps to protect important fats that your brain and body need. Vitamin E is actually a whole family of substances (different tocopherols and tocotrienols) which act as ‘antioxidants’—discussed later in this chapter. Vitamin E helps to protect fats and fat-like substances from going rancid. It’s needed by all our cells, but particularly those in the brain, nervous system and vital organs, because these are rich in essential omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, which are easily destroyed by ‘oxidation’. Deficiencies of vitamin E and these fatty acids usually go hand in hand—and can contribute to some movement and coordination disorders. (#litres_trial_promo) Vitamin E deficiency may also result in fragility of the red blood cells which carry oxygen around your body. More superficially, you may have seen vitamin E added to skin care products—aimed at helping keep your skin looking and feeling younger, or minimizing scar tissue. It’s probably more effective to provide it from the inside, via a healthy diet that provides many other skin-nourishing nutrients! And you need to know that unless you have enough vitamin C with it, vitamin E won’t work—and could even have the opposite effect. Basically, a whole range of different antioxidants work together—so you need them together, in the way they are usually provided by many natural foods. Vitamin E is found in wheatgerm, whole grains, seeds and nuts (including nut butters), unrefined vegetable oils and some fruits and vegetables. (Commercially produced bread without whole grains contains virtually no vitamin E, as milling destroys it. The same goes for refined oils—and Chapter 8 will give you more good reasons to avoid these.) Vitamin K Vitamin K is needed to help with blood-clotting. Vitamin K activates some of the proteins involved in bone growth, and helps your blot clot when you cut or bruise yourself. It’s found in soya, broccoli and spinach. If you have ‘good’ gut flora, some of these bacteria produce vitamin K for you. Water-soluble Vitamins Vitamin C and the B vitamins are water-soluble. Unlike A, D, E and K, they can’t be stored by your body, so regular supplies are needed each and every day. Vitamin C Vitamin C is an all-round antioxidant and also essential to help build healthy bones, cartilage and teeth, to heal wounds, and a whole lot more. A deficiency of vitamin C results in scurvy, a nasty disease that probably killed more than 2 million sailors on long voyages until it was discovered that a little lemon juice (or home-grown cress!) could prevent this completely. Vitamin C helps your immune system to protect you from viruses and bacteria. It’s also a natural laxative. If your child is deficient in vitamin C, you might notice she’s tired, may be prone to infections, any wounds are slow to heal, and her gums bleed easily. Vitamin C is found in fruit (especially citrus fruits) and vegetables (especially leafy green ones). Don’t be fooled by artificial vitamin C (ascorbic acid) added to soft drinks: many contain negligible amounts, and these drinks may also contain sodium benzoate—a common preservative that reacts with vitamin C to produce the toxic chemical benzene. (See Chapter 6 for more details on how this brain poison has been found in many soft drinks at up to 8 times the maximum that’s legally permitted in drinking water.) The message is: get vitamin C from fresh fruits and vegetables—as many different types as possible! Vitamin B Vitamin B is actually a whole range of vitamins. All are used as co-enzymes – that is, they help other enzymes to perform numerous tasks around your brain and body. They’re important for energy-production, maintaining a healthy heart, growth and reproduction of cells, and various mental functions including attention, thinking skills, coordination and memory. The B vitamins all work together, so they’re known as the ‘B Spectrum’. I can’t begin to do justice to them all here, although I’ve singled out a few for illustration. You can find plenty of details elsewhere if you want more information on individual members of the B family. (#litres_trial_promo) Vitamin B Complex is essential for: normal growth and development energy-production functioning of the brain and nervous system functioning of the liver, kidneys and other organs health of the heart and circulation maintenance of other body tissues digestion immune function protein, fat and carbohydrate metabolism manufacture of red blood cells endocrine and hormonal systems cell division and DNA repair numerous enzyme systems Better Nutrition Can Reduce Antisocial Behaviour Results of a study by my colleague Bernard Gesch, (#litres_trial_promo) funded by the charity ‘Natural Justice’, revealed the remarkable effects of micronutrients on behaviour. This was the most definitive study yet showing the impact of diet on antisocial behaviour, including violence: a rigorously controlled trial involving 231 young offenders at a high-security prison in the UK. Half the young men received daily multivitamin and fatty acid supplements (providing micronutrients only at doses close to recommended daily intakes). The others received identical-looking placebo capsules. Each prisoner was followed for up to nine months of dietary treatment, and his rate of offending during that time was compared with what had prevailed over the preceding nine months. Offences fell by more than 25 per cent in the group receiving active supplements. When analyses were restricted to those who actually took the supplements for at least two weeks, the reduction was 34 per cent; and for violent offences, it was 37 per cent. In each case, there was no significant change in offending rates for those on placebo. We Have a Choice The food provided by the prison in Gesch’s trial met official dietary requirements. The problem was that ‘poor food choices’ by prisoners compromised their nutritional status. (#litres_trial_promo)Exactly the same problem applies to children, mental health patients and a very large proportion of the general population. Previous research had already indicated that improving diet could improve the behaviour of young offenders. In one study more than 20 years ago involving 3,000 imprisoned juveniles, (#litres_trial_promo) snack foods were replaced with healthier options, reducing the inmates’ consumption of refined and sugary foods. There followed a 21 per cent reduction in antisocial behaviour over 12 months, a 100 per cent reduction in suicides, a 25 per cent reduction in assaults, and a 75 per cent reduction in the use of restraints. Although this study didn’t use the rigorous placebo-controlled design employed by the Natural Justice trial, why weren’t these findings followed up earlier? And why won’t the Government—even now—put funding into doing something about this? I hope you can see that the B vitamins (all of them) are vital to your child’s overall health and well-being—and yours. General tiredness or lack of energy, lack of concentration, loss of appetite or skin problems are among the first signs of B deficiencies. Some New Names for Pellagra? Pellagra is a nasty disease caused by lack of vitamin B (sometimes known as niacin or ‘nicotinic acid’). In its extreme form, pellagra is characterized by what doctors have nicknamed ‘the three Ds’—dermatitis (burning or itchy, scaly skin, sometimes with mouth inflammation), diarrhoea and dementia. Mental function can be seriously impaired. Children who in the past were diagnosed with mild or ‘sub-clinical’ pellagra showed signs of hyperactivity, inappropriate social behaviour, moodiness and problems with perception. Today children with these symptoms are often given labels like ADHD, ASD or dyspraxia/dyslexia, without anyone even thinking of assessing their nutritional status. The early signs of vitamin B deficiency are digestive problems, sometimes eating difficulties, muscular weakness and skin problems. Vitamin B is found in meat, poultry and fish, nuts and yeast extract. Your body can also make B from an amino acid called tryptophan (found in eggs and dairy products). Dermatitis (dry, itchy or scaly skin) and diarrhoea, along with attention or memory problems, can indicate a lack of vitamin B3. (#litres_trial_promo) Without B6 you can’t make serotonin (that feel-good neurotransmitter, a lack of which is usually the rationale for prescriptions of Prozac and other ‘SSRIs’), (#litres_trial_promo) Recognized B6 deficiency signs can include dermatitis (skin inflammation), depression, confusion and convulsions (and, as one drug company website puts it in a rare but laudable display of honesty, ‘an outbreak of convulsions in infants did follow the inadvertent destruction of vitamin B6 in infant formulas’). (#litres_trial_promo) Incidentally, if you drink a lot of alcohol, use contraceptive pills or take oestrogen supplements (such as HRT), any of these can increase your chances of B6 deficiency. As can a poor diet – although some people may need more B6 than others for genetic reasons, as with any nutrient. Folate or folic folic acid (vitamin B9) is present in almost all natural foods, but processing destroys up to 90 per cent. It’s needed (with B12) for DNA synthesis—required whenever you make new body or brain cells. Lack of folic acid during pregnancy can cause spina bifida—a serious developmental defect. In the US, flour is now re-fortified with folic acid. In the UK in April 2006 the Food Standards Agency sanctioned a consultation exercise, alongside consumer research, to decide on a recommendation to Government ministers about adding folic acid to some flours used in bread production. B6, B12 and folic acid all work together to keep down levels of homocysteine. High levels of this substance are thought to be an important risk factor for heart disease and stroke. Deficiencies of B12 can lead to memory loss, disorientation, hallucinations and tingling in the arms and legs. Vegetarians, and particularly vegans, need to take B12 supplements because this nutrient is found only in animal products. Others—particularly the elderly—may have trouble absorbing B12 as they lack the ‘intrinsic factor’ needed to do this. Some people diagnosed with dementia or Alzheimer’s disease may be suffering from vitamin B12 deficiency—which is rather more easily reversed. (#litres_trial_promo) Research is only just starting to explore the potential of B vitamins in managing depression (and other mood-related disorders), dementia (and other disorders of memory and thinking) and other mental health conditions. At present, the most rigorously controlled trials show only marginal evidence of benefits in depression and dementia (#litres_trial_promo)—but following pharmaceutical tradition, most studies use only a single B vitamin in isolation (usually B6, B12 or folate). Foods usually provide the whole spectrum – and other nutrients, too. Because we can’t store B vitamins, anyone who’s under stress or leads a hectic lifestyle runs the risk of depleting their supplies unless these are topped up regularly. Some medications can also deplete B vitamins—as can eating processed foods. Children with ADHD are often deficient in B vitamins, and several studies—including controlled trials—show some benefits from giving vitamin B (with magnesium) to autistic children. (#litres_trial_promo) So does your child get enough B vitamins? National surveys show that many children in the UK don’t. (#litres_trial_promo) The diets of more than one in five girls between 11 and 18 years of age were seriously lacking in vitamin B (riboflavin). Fewer boys and younger children had such low intakes, but blood tests of the functional efficiency of B gave no cause for complacency. These showed B deficiency in 75 per cent of boys and 87 per cent of girls between the ages of 4 and 18, and the risk increased with age. In girls aged 15-18 years, almost all of them (95 per cent) were B deficient on this measure. Riboflavin is needed for normal cell function, growth and energy-production. Your teenage daughter may benefit rather more from knowing that a lack of B : will impair her coordination on the dance floor can also prevent conversion of vitamin B6 to its active form (see above for what that could do); and can cause both fatigue and some nasty skin lesions—including dry, cracked or sore skin around the mouth or elsewhere, including some embarrassing places. It’s another sad fact, but appeals to your child’s vanity are likely to work far better than concerns about her health. You could try adding (to both her and her brother) that early signs of B1 (thiamine) deficiency include fatigue, irritation, poor memory, sleep disturbances, anorexia, abdominal discomfort and constipation. (Sound familiar? And that’s all well before the full syndrome of beri-beri kicks in. Do look that one up before they start drinking too much alcohol). (#litres_trial_promo) Serious dietary deficiency of B1 affects one in eight of both boys and girls aged between 15 and 18 years—and 70 per cent of this age group consume less than the ‘reference nutrient intake’ (or RNI—the amount needed to keep most of the population healthy). And we wonder why our teenagers have problems with mood, behaviour and learning! These figures—and many others from these UK national surveys—are worrying enough, but it’s worth pointing out again that none of our official recommendations for ‘adequate’ nutrient intakes has ever considered the possible effects on our brains or behaviour. As my colleague Bernard Gesch is fond of pointing out, the current ‘nutrient intake’ recommendations are estimates of the minimum you need just to ‘stop bits dropping off you’! We really don’t know, without more research, whether higher intakes might lead to better functioning, but there’s certainly evidence to suggest this for at least some nutrients. For example, more Vitamin B1 seemed to improve attention and reaction times in young women in controlled trials. (#litres_trial_promo) Even though they weren’t initially deficient on standard tests, they performed better with extra thiamine, and reported feeling more clear-headed, composed and energetic. (See also Chapter 9 for evidence that more omega-3 fatty acids—for which ‘reference nutrient intakes’ haven’t even been established yet—could benefit mental performance.) The B range of vitamins is found in eggs, meat, dairy products and a wide range of grains and vegetables. Some forms of yeast can be a very good source, but may not be suitable for everyone, as discussed in the next chapter. Food for Thought In a study of patients with biochemical evidence of thiamine (B1) deficiency related to junk food diets, the adolescents especially were found to be quick to anger, irritable, aggressive and impulsive. (#litres_trial_promo) Just one reason why refined sugars (for example, in soft drinks) are so bad for your child is that they help deplete his body of B vitamins and essential minerals such as magnesium and zinc. Lack of these can lead to mental and physical disorders—which may then get treated with drugs…which may deplete B vitamins further! Minerals Your child needs the full range of vitamins for her body and brain to function properly—and these can’t be absorbed without minerals to help them. Minerals also help build your body cells (bones, teeth, muscle, blood, soft tissue, nerves and so on) and are vital in other ways. Important in digestion and in the use of other nutrients, they’re also needed to catalyse (speed up) reactions such as hormone production, muscle response and nerve transmission. We can’t make minerals, so we must get them all from a healthy, balanced and varied diet. Junk food diets often don’t contain enough minerals to meet your child’s needs. A table of essential minerals and some of their roles is in the Appendix (page 375). It’s not important to learn these, just to be aware of why minerals are so important to your child’s health. Here I’ll describe a few that are known to affect brains and behaviour, but may well be lacking from your child’s diet. Advertising Junk Food to Children Massive advertising of foods and drinks that lead to childhood obesity and behavioural problems is part of our ‘free, civilized’ society. Who is looking at the costs to our children, our future economy (less able work force), and the cost to our health and education services? Help your children become aware of what advertising aimed at them is really doing. Lobby your MP—and meanwhile the Which? kids’ food campaign website is a great place to start. See www.which.net/campaigns Iron Iron deficiency leads to anaemia, because iron is needed (with copper) to make the red blood cells that carry oxygen around your body. Even a mild lack of iron can cause physical fatigue and lack of energy, and can also impair mental performance. Many children in the UK, especially teenage girls, don’t get enough iron. Around 10 per cent of children under 4 years of age and almost one in two girls aged between 11 and 18 years had seriously iron-deficient diets, and biochemical measures of iron status and metabolism painted a similar picture. (#litres_trial_promo) One study from France reported low ferritin (used by your body to store iron safely) in children with ADHD, (#litres_trial_promo) but controlled trials are still needed to find out if more dietary iron might help in this condition. As we saw in the last chapter, different children with this diagnostic label can vary greatly, and in another study from Taiwan, both dietary and blood measures indicated increased iron in children with ADHD. (#litres_trial_promo) The frequent occurrence of ‘restless legs syndrome’ and disturbed sleep patterns in children with ADHD may be because of a deficiency in iron. (#litres_trial_promo) Only about 10 per cent of dietary iron (mainly from meat) is in a readily absorbed form called ‘haem’ iron. The other 90 per cent comes as ‘non-haem’ iron (found in fruits, vegetables, dried beans, nuts and grains); how much of this you absorb varies with your iron status and other factors. Vitamin C helps considerably (giving yet another reason why your child should eat her fruits and vegetables!). The presence of any haem iron (or even the use of cooking pots made of cast iron) can also boost absorption. By contrast, substances called ‘phytates’—found in bran, soya, whole grains and legumes—can reduce absorption, as they bind to iron (and other metals like zinc and calcium). Tannin and other substances found in tea and coffee can also reduce iron absorption, so don’t let your pale, tired child try these for ‘energy’. As meat is the best source of absorbable iron, vegetarians need to take care to get enough, particularly as some staple vegetarian foods are rich in phytates. Some foods (like breakfast cereals) are fortified with iron—but do weigh this against the rest of their content! If they’re high in sugar, for example, don’t bother. Find some healthy sources instead. (#litres_trial_promo) If your child does seem pale, listless and lacking in energy (and/or unduly inattentive or hyperactive), try asking your doctor to test for iron deficiency. Iron supplements aren’t necessarily the best solution, though. This is because if there’s an imbalance of gut bacteria (see the next chapter) some of the ‘bad’ bacteria love iron, and may gobble this up so it doesn’t even reach your child. Discuss this with your doctor, and take further advice if needed. (#litres_trial_promo) Calcium You’ve probably heard that you need calcium for strong bones and teeth, but this mineral does a good deal more for you as well. Calcium helps contract your muscles, regulates your blood flow, produces hormones and enzymes and helps the body send and receive messages throughout your brain and nervous system. In fact, calcium is so important for these jobs that your body will take it from your bones if it has to, in order to keep your blood calcium levels up to speed. Again, many children (and adults) in the UK don’t get enough calcium from their diets. Milk, cheese and other dairy products are rich sources of easily absorbed calcium, but other sources include tofu, green vegetables (particularly broccoli, kale and spinach), canned salmon and sardines, shellfish, almonds, Brazil nuts, sesame seeds and dried beans as well as grains and dried fruits. Remember, too, that your child also needs both magnesium and vitamin D to get calcium into her bones. Magnesium Magnesium carries out hundreds of biological functions for you, and is absolutely essential for good health. It helps keep your bones and teeth strong, and your heart rhythms steady. It also helps you to make proteins, is important in energy metabolism (including blood-sugar control) and helps regulate muscle and nerve function, immune reactions and control of blood pressure. If your ADHD or ADD child suffers from light or restless sleep and daytime sleepiness, try adding calcium and magnesium-rich foods to his diet. These include: milk products, cocoa, sardines, green leafy vegetables, tofu, brown rice, whole grains and beans. See also: 10 Effective Ways to Help Your ADD/ADHD Child by Laura Stevens, and her excellent website with dietary tips at http://www.nlci.com/nutrition/. Magnesium powerfully affects ‘nervous excitability’, and deficiency states are characterized by tension, agitation and stress. Lack of magnesium is linked with many psychiatric conditions, including anxiety and panic disorders, Tourette’s syndrome (involving involuntary movements or speech utterances known as ‘tics’), autism and ADHD. (#litres_trial_promo) There’s preliminary evidence of benefits from magnesium supplementation in ADHD children, although this still needs confirming in rigorous randomized controlled trials. (#litres_trial_promo) Early signs of magnesium deficiency include loss of appetite, fatigue, weakness, nausea or vomiting, muscle contractions and cramps, numbness and tingling. Severe deficiencies can lead to seizures, personality changes and heart rhythm abnormalities. Unfortunately, magnesium deficiency in the diets of UK children is even more common than lack of calcium. As the national surveys show, average daily intakes of magnesium fall short of ‘reference nutrient intake’ levels in all except those under 6 years of age. In boys aged between 11 and 18 years, one in every four or five has a frankly deficient intake of magnesium; for girls of the same age, it is more than half of them. (#litres_trial_promo) All green vegetables provide magnesium (it’s in the chlorophyll that gives plants their green colour), as do most nuts, seeds and grains. A wide range of different foods containing magnesium is needed, though, as no one food is a particularly rich source. Along with a lack of fruit and vegetables, this is where many children (and adults) go wrong, of course—but I hope you can see once again why it’s so important that you encourage your child to eat a wide variety of whole, fresh, unprocessed foods. Copper Copper, along with iron, helps form your red blood cells—so a lack of this mineral can actually be another possible cause of ‘iron-deficiency anaemia’. It’s also very important in keeping your bones, blood vessels, nerves and immune system healthy, as well as your skin. Copper deficiency has been implicated in thyroid abnormalities, cardiovascular disease, thrombosis, poor glucose tolerance, some immune system abnormalities and the formation of collagen (an elastic substance important in tissue health and healing). We’re told that copper deficiency in the UK is rare (mainly because our water is usually delivered in copper pipes), but some researchers in the field would strongly disagree. No official ‘dietary deficiency’ levels have even been established, but at least one-third, and in some age groups four-fifths, of UK children get less than the ‘reference nutrient intake’ of copper from their diets. (#litres_trial_promo) Copper is found in green leafy vegetables, dried fruits (like prunes), beans, nuts and potatoes, but the amount in our vegetables has been declining owing to mineral depletion of our soils. (#litres_trial_promo) Other sources include kidney and liver, shellfish, yeast and cocoa (so there’s even a little in chocolate—but please don’t let that be your child’s main dietary source, will you?). Copper and zinc in the body must be very carefully balanced, because they compete for absorption, and in many other ways. (For this reason, zinc can play a key part in the treatment of Wilson’s disease—a rare genetic syndrome in which copper can’t be excreted, and the build-up can lead to progressive poisoning and death.) Many children with hyperactivity, attentional problems and poor impulse control seem to show an elevated copper-to-zinc ratio on biochemical testing. However, some children with similar symptoms have exactly the opposite pattern—raised zinc and low copper. If your child is fatigued, pale, has skin sores, oedema (fluid retention and swelling), slowed growth, hair loss, anorexia, diarrhoea or dermatitis, these could all be symptoms of insufficient copper (although all of them could have other causes). Infants fed almost exclusively on cows’ milk products without a source of copper can be at particular risk. Is the Government Listening? Are You? In January 2006, the Mental Health Foundation (MHF) issued a new report linking mental ill-health to changing diets. It said that poor-quality food can have an immediate effect upon someone’s behaviour and mental health—and that there can be lasting effects if the diet isn’t changed to a healthy one. One finding is that the rate of depression in the UK has not only increased, but the age of onset has decreased. The MHF went on to say that complementary health services which focus on diet and nutrition are showing promising results, but that they need more funding to conduct full-scale trials. They spoke of a clear link between the rate of depression and the sort of diet followed: those eating ‘convenience’ foods rather than freshly prepared ones. In other words—people eating junk food are more likely to suffer from depression. The lack of fish oils and micronutrients was highlighted. Changing Diets, Changing Minds, published by Sustain, an organization that campaigns for better food, warns that the British National Health Service’s bill for mental illness will keep rising unless the Government focuses on diet and the brain in its policies on education, farming and food. For the full report and others, visit www.mentalhealth.org.uk. Zinc Zinc is needed for more than 200 different biochemical reactions in the body and brain. Your child needs it for normal growth, sexual development, a working immune system and brain and healthy skin, nails and hair. With insufficient zinc, he’ll be open to infections and more prone to allergies, night blindness and skin problems. He may have a poor sense of smell and taste (which will keep him wanting the highly flavoured, salty, sugary junk foods), mental lethargy, thinning hair, shortage of breath when exercising, stunted growth and slow sexual maturity. Phew! Zinc deficiency is also associated with fertility problems in adolescents and adults (and it’s worth knowing that sperm are very rich in zinc, so adolescent boys—and men—can sometimes lose significant quantities of zinc through this route!). White spots on your child’s fingernails (or yours) are good clues to zinc deficiency, as is proneness to infections. So are stretch marks on the skin (which may appear during growth spurts, or during pregnancy), although a lack of vitamin E and essential fatty acids will exacerbate these; as usual, these nutrients all work together. In terms of behavioural problems, zinc is also crucial. It’s needed to make complex omega-3 and omega-6 essential fatty acids in the body (see Chapters 8 and 9), so if your child doesn’t have enough zinc, his brain – 20 per cent of which is made from these fats—is unlikely to function properly. Both zinc and copper are also found in your brain’s hippocampus region. This is best known for its role in memory and learning, but has many other functions—like helping to regulate your emotions, stress responses and sensitivity to pain. Once again, the UK national survey data don’t give good news. Serious dietary deficiencies of zinc were found in 5-37 per cent of our children, depending on their sex and age; 70-90 per cent of children consumed less than the ‘reference nutrient intake’. (#litres_trial_promo) Perhaps we could teach our children something about nutrition before they have their own children, as apart from the ‘unexpected’ fertility problems they might have, there’s also evidence to suggest that maternal zinc deficiency may lead to immune system impairments that persist for three generations. (#litres_trial_promo) Just what sort of legacy have we been creating with our junk food diets? Several studies indicate low levels of zinc (and high copper) in children with ADHD, as already mentioned. Many nutritional therapists, therefore, automatically recommend zinc supplements for hyperactivity, as well as for dementia and other behavioural disorders. Some of them recommend zinc to pretty much everyone—and, given the vague but comprehensive list of potential deficiency signs above, it’s easy to see why. However: I would warn against supplementing with zinc alone until we have further evidence that the benefits outweigh the risks. Two small controlled trials did show short-term benefits from zinc supplementation in ADHD, but both involved Middle Eastern children, and these findings may not apply to children elsewhere. What’s more, there’s some disturbing evidence to suggest that zinc supplementation alone can cause cognitive decline in dementia patients, and the same has been reported in animal studies. (#litres_trial_promo) Some researchers think these effects could be due to an undetected copper deficiency (which standard blood tests may not pick up). Because zinc and copper compete in so many ways, a high intake of one can deplete the other. As ever, my advice would be to try to get both of these micronutrients in ample quantities from good food, as most foods that provide one will also provide the other. Micronutrients delivered in their natural food packaging are extremely unlikely to give rise to unexpected and possibly toxic reactions or nutrient imbalances (well, OK—there is polar bear liver!). With individual micronutrients, we really do need more research in most areas before anyone can say with confidence what their effects may be. (Please get in touch with FAB Research if you’d like to help us do the studies: www.fabresearch.org.) Fat-soluble vitamins are needed to make minerals work—they can’t perform in isolation. For example, iron can’t be used unless there’s adequate vitamin A present as well, and calcium and potassium need vitamins A and D before they can start their work. Parts of nerves (and all cell membranes) are made from omega-3 fatty acids, which will go ‘rancid’ (because of oxidation by free radicals) if they’re not protected by antioxidants, including vitamins E and C. The nervous system also needs B vitamins, magnesium, zinc and vitamin C to help make the neurotransmitters that are used to cross the gaps (called synapses) between the nerves. Some Other Minerals—in Brief Iodine is added to table salt because deficiency causes such serious mental and physical problems. Chromium, manganese and probably vanadium (as well as zinc) are needed for blood-sugar regulation, and lack of them is often linked with mood swings, inattention and carbohydrate cravings. Cobalt is involved in nervous function because it’s needed for vitamin B12. Selenium is important for immune function and antioxidant defences, but soil levels in Europe are low, reducing the content of locally grown produce. A fascinating study in Texas showed that areas where lithium concentrations in the drinking water were highest had the lowest incidence of suicide, rape and murder. Higher doses of lithium have long been used to treat bipolar depression, but the Texas study suggests that even very low doses can affect human behaviour. (#litres_trial_promo) Did You Know? Historically, copper, iron, manganese and zinc deficiency have each been associated with mental impairment such as confusion, violence, feeling ‘dull’…and sometimes even death. On the other hand, too much lead can lead to brain damage, and too much copper or zinc can cause behavioural problems. Vitamin B deficiencies and magnesium deficiencies have frequently been associated with anxiety, depression and other neuropsychiatric disorders. What Else Children Need from Their Diet In addition to the nutrients we’ve considered, your child also needs some other substances for good health—and once again, fruits and vegetables are the best sources. Phytochemicals ‘Phytochemicals’ are plant compounds that help protect you from many diseases, including cancer and many disorders of the heart, circulation and immune system. They include ‘flavonoids’ (found in fruits, vegetables and red wine), isoflavones (in soya and some other vegetables) and lycopene (in tomatoes). I only have space to deal very briefly with flavonoids here, but most phytochemicals have antioxidant activity, so we’ll have a quick look at antioxidants again before we finish this overview. Flavonoids Flavonoids are a group of phytochemicals found in plants, and are vital components of a healthy diet. They help protect your child against bacteria, viruses and fungi, and many have anti-inflammatory, anti-allergic and immune-boosting properties. They’re found in the leaves, skin and pips of vegetables and fruit—so washed and pulped whole (preferably organic) these will provide your child with very healthy ‘shakes’ or ‘smoothies’. You’ll find them especially in dark fruits such as blueberries, dark cherries and prunes, as well as in cooked tomatoes, some forms of soy and green tea. Antioxidants Chemical reactions go on all the time in our bodies and brains. Some of the by-products are ‘free radicals’, dangerous substances that can attack any parts of our cells and tissues, and play a direct or indirect role in most major diseases and disorders, as well as the deterioration we’ve come to associate with ‘normal’ ageing. Environmental pollution also exposes us to free radicals. (Smoking gives you millions of free radicals in every puff. Give up if you can—and don’t expose your child to smoky atmospheres.) Antioxidants are our defence against free radicals, so a diet low in antioxidants means your child is more vulnerable to cellular attack. Different antioxidants act in different and complementary ways, and we need them all. For example, vitamin E is needed to stop important fatty acids from ‘oxidizing’, but it won’t work without vitamin C. The only way to give your child the full mix of antioxidants is with a diet rich in a variety of nuts, seeds, whole grains, fruits and vegetables. Antioxidants that come straight from the diet include vitamins A, B, C and E—and also flavonoids and co-enzyme Q10. You can make some of your own antioxidants in the form of enzymes and other compounds. However, to do this you need certain minerals (for example, copper, zinc and selenium), as well as compounds such as glutathione (a peptide), oestrogen (a hormone) and melatonin (produced when you sleep). The Antioxidant Vitamin C—for the Final ‘Mopping Up’ You really must have a mixture of antioxidants present in your body at once, as they all help each other. When an antioxidant ‘mops up’ a harmful free radical, it can in turn become a free radical itself, and then needs to be ‘neutralized’ by another antioxidant…and so on! Fortunately the end of the chain often lies with vitamin C (if you have enough of it!), which turns into a water-soluble free radical and is lost from your body when you urinate. Vitamin C is therefore a real ‘master antioxidant’. Make sure your child gets enough. Why Don’t Dogs Eat Oranges? Dogs and most other animals can make their own vitamin C, and it’s very handy for them. There are a few animals that can’t, and we’re one of those species. Guinea pigs can’t, either. Your dog doesn’t need to eat fresh oranges and other sources of vitamin C, but it’s essential your child does. Incidentally, you’ll get more natural vitamin C out of fresh fruit than you will out of a carton of juice. Practical Steps You Can Take to Prevent Malnutrition Tackle the Dietary Issues First and foremost—start feeding your child better! This will take time and effort, but the next few chapters will give you more information on what to do (and what not to do), and there are some tips and a plan for you to follow in Chapters 10 and 11. Also, always ask your doctor about possible effects of any medications on your child’s nutritional status. (#litres_trial_promo) Likewise, tell your doctor about any complementary or alternative approaches you may be using, including dietary supplements or any other dietary strategies. This is very important. There could be interactions—positive or negative—between any different ‘treatments’ your child may receive. Be alert for these, because anything you notice may be relevant not just to your child’s health and well-being, but also to many other children—and unless you report any suspicions you may have, potential interactions may never even come to light. Конец ознакомительного фрагмента. Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес». Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию (https://www.litres.ru/dr-richardson-alex/they-are-what-you-feed-them-how-food-can-improve-your-c/?lfrom=688855901) на ЛитРес. 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