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

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СКАЧАТЬ 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).²² 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.²³ 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.²⁴

      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.²⁵ One study from France reported low ferritin (used by your body to store iron safely) in children with ADHD,²⁶ 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.²⁷

      The frequent occurrence of ‘restless legs syndrome’ and disturbed sleep patterns in children with ADHD may be because of a deficiency in iron.²⁸

      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.²⁹

      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.³⁰

      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 СКАЧАТЬ