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

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       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.¹⁰

      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 СКАЧАТЬ