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THIS ARTICLE RELATES TO HET STEPPING STONE 4
ADHD diet has to be the most widely researched aspect of challenging behaviour and usually there is some dietary nutritional influence on any behavioural condition. The effects of certain additives and preservatives in children’s diet have been extremely well researched and one method of checking this out is through the Feingold Diet which looks at eliminating certain things from your child’s diet that have a reputation for causing problems and then reintroducing them, to see the impact and prove the point.
Firstly, diet does play a major part in the whole ADHD story but is not the only aspect of lifestyle that should be explored when dealing with this condition in a natural and drug free way. However, when we consider diet we need to look at the issue from 2 different points of view; Firstly the child / family diet. In the western world we suffer from something that is generally referred to as ‘affluent malnutrition’. What this means is that our diet is mainly comprised of food which is heavily processed and much of the nutritional goodness has been extracted during it’s manufacture.
Additives, preservatives pesticides and artificial sweeteners are certainly among the key offenders for having a behavioural impact on young people. In addition to all of this though, the typical western diet is so deplete in nutritional value, that it leaves a hunger from nutrition shortage and so the trend is to eat more to compensate, which in turn leaves a desire for more nutrition etc and so the cycle continues. Hence a trend towards the high obesity statistics
Children now are very sensitive to the impact of these additives and toxins and whilst there are certain key characters that are known to have a toxic effect on behaviour like aspartame the artificial sweetener. Obviously everyone is different and I have produced a short video on how to test if you and your child have an allergy, intolerance or sensitivity to these kind of additives in your diet without going to the expense of a full blown allergy test. It will at least give you an idea of what you could start to eliminate from the diet in order to monitor behavioural responses. Children find this a really fun way to become more responsible over their dietary intake as well!!!
Modern farming methods are not geared up to making the best nutritional quality available in their produce either. Often food is grown hydroponically, or if it is grown in the soil, the chances are from recent research by DEFRA that the soil itself does not have the trace elements and minerals necessary to provide a full nutritional source for the produce grown. In addition, fruit for example may not even be ripened in the sun and would need this natural process in order to provide a rich source of Vitamin C and bioflavonoids essential for healthy immune system, circulation and other healthy functions. The fruit may be cold stored for long periods for storage and transport and very often will not have the necessary nutritional value because of that.
The obvious solution to this problem is to source food which is locally grown. The fresher it is, the more full of life energy which gives us vitality from our diet. If we eat dead food energetically then it sends out the wrong signals to the body. Very often these wrong signal encourage the growth of bacteria like Candida Albicans which are triggered after death in order for the body to break down naturally.
This is the message that our food intake is giving our body! And of course this process of nutritional deficit affects the whole food chain.
I am inluding an interview here from the chief pharmacist for the world leading nutritona; company Natures Sunshine Products recorded for our radio show earlier this year, in Somerset during my year's research whilst establishing a family retreat there.
Kevin Lever's interview
Of course the additives, insecticides, preservatives and pesticides which are sprayed in order to maximise commercial yield production take their toll. They are absorbed into the body and cannot be eliminated and are stored as toxins which can be released into the body. This is like a gang of vandals going around your inner terrain and spraying everywhere with spray paint. It is unhealthy and accumulative.
One way to overcome this of course is to link the natural diet approach to the natural learning approach and this is something that as an educational advisor with many years experience in working with children with behavioural problems like ADHD have had a lot of personal success with.
Encouraging good dietary changes by getting children and families started on growing their own food from scratch from something as simple as tomato plants on the window sill right through to community allotment growing. This is healthy not only in terms of establishing good dietary habits but also in terms of green exercise. Getting out in the open natural environment and exercising is a good form of mental and physical health. ADHD children learn far better in the open and on the land than they do in crowded noisy classrooms that over stimulate the nervous system to the extent that they cannot information process or coordinate which is the reason why they cannot reach their potential in this kind of enclosed environment.
I have established projects like the ‘Growing Rainbows’ programme to encourage social dietary networking between young people with regards to dietary change and it has proven to be very successful in this respect.
Dietary habits take a lifetime literally, to take effect but monitoring and supporting change away from the typical westernised junk food habit is an essential part of the improving your child’s health. However, that is not the complete picture. Very often there is a lifetime of dietary deficiency to address and this can go right into the structure of our cells and spans at least 3 generations who are the product of a deficient food production industry.
I was fortunate to have had some earlier research into this area sponsored by a nutritional company known as Natures sunshine products. From the generous provision of their first class products I was able to define a basic nutritional programme that everyone could benefit from and improve their behaviours over a period of a minimum of three months. Although as a herbalist and nutritionist I would argue that everyone is unique and requires an individualised programme – the basic nutritional programme I researched over 10 years ago, has withstood the test of time.
The programme comprises of protein which is vegetable sourced and organic. Many children with ADHD show an improved concentration span when on protein supplements. Also a complete vitamin and mineral package for healthy brain and body function. The quality of vitamins varies across the high street and many people are either bemused or unaware that the manufacture of the vitamins often renders them ether useless or damaging unless strict methods of preparation are followed.
For example, vitamins should be food derived and not synthetically produced. The food source should be organic and of high quality and they should not be heated beyond certain temperatures during the extraction process. Each batch of the product should also contain a minimum quantity of the active ingredients which labelling laws do not require. Very often it is this quality assurance that is reflected in the price of the product and will often direct consumer choice to a cheaper and inferior product which will do little to address the problem.
I am including here an interview from the senior management of NSP, the world’s largest and leading company in the production of nutritional supplements.
Darren Perrins - senior marketing director for NSP
I also include flax seed oil in the programme. There is a lot of publicity and documented research on the effect of taking fish oils which are rich in something called essential fatty acids in the diet. In actual fact the fish oil is often sourced in heavily polluted seas and the reside of toxins such as heavy metals is stored in the livers of fish from which this is sourced. It is for this reason I recommend flax seed oil as a better source of the essential health giving omega 3, 6 and 9 which helps support behavioural problems
Finally, I recommend a programme of antioxidants. Remember the toxins that act like vandals with cans of spray paint inside us that i mentioned earlier that accumulate from all the toxins that are regularly sprayed onto our food daily intakes that I mentioned earlier??? Well these are called free radicals and the anti oxidants act a little bit like the round up police that clear up and take the toxins out of the environment.
Whilst I was researching in a pupil referral unit, I discovered that a lot of young people went into a picky food mode and then would binge out on dairy products just prior to ‘kicking off’ big time!
It is always helpful to keep a food diet of what and when your child is eating in relation to the pattern within their behavioural outbursts.
For any help and advice on this – please don’t hesitate to ask!!!
I will leave the final word on diet to a young lady who visited our family retreat in Somerset, she wa part of our GREEN TEENs day and was involved in growing (and eating) rainbows (healthy food from each colour of the rainbow) !
A green teen perspective;
