Brain Food: Food for Thought. Eat Your Way to Brain Health.
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The average ferritin iron level in the non-ADHD kids was normal, but the average level in the children with ADHD was about half that of the other children.
Fully 84 percent of the children with ADHD were iron deficient. And the lower the iron levels, the worse the ADHD symptoms — worse hyperactivity, worse oppositional behavior, and worse cognitive scores. The stunning part of this study was that none of the children had iron levels low enough to indicate anemia. The iron deficiency was subtle enough that all tested normal on the hemoglobin or hematocrit blood tests used in doctors' offices to screen for iron problems. I suspect that inadequate iron in the diet is also affecting the attention, focus, and activity of many children who don't meet the full definition of ADHD.
Kids need more than isolated, individual nutrients to boost their brains and school performance.
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There are big-picture benefits to eating a balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and fiber. Antioxidants include a large variety of compounds found in a large variety of whole foods. Antioxidants in foods have been linked to improved memory and brain function. Even in the same food, antioxidant levels can vary depending on how the food is grown.
Organic foods, on average, are about 30 percent higher in antioxidants than are their nonorganic counterparts. That means each organic serving may be packed with more valuable nutrients. Talk about extra credit! Organophosphates are the most commonly used insecticides in conventional, chemical agriculture. These chemicals act as nerve agents, and have been linked to neurodevelopmental problems.
Organically grown foods are produced without the use of toxic pesticides such as organophosphates.
Choosing organic foods for children can immediately and significantly decrease their exposure to organophosphate pesticides. That's good protection for the developing brain — it's elementary. Some are afraid that school children would have to eat unfamiliar or unappetizing foods in order to make a difference.
Brain Food for Thought
A February study conducted by Dr. Chensheng Lu and colleagues demonstrated an immediate and dramatic ability to reduce organophosphate pesticide exposure by making simple diet changes in elementary school children. The researchers conducted this study with typical suburban children. The elementary school kids began eating organic versions of whatever they were eating before.
For example, if they typically ate apples, now they got organic apples.
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Only if there was a simple organic substitution available for what the kids were already eating, did they make a switch. The kids didn't have to learn to like any new foods. Within 24 hours, pesticide breakdown products found in the urine plummeted! They continued this way for five days, with clean urine samples morning and night. Then the kids went back to their typical, nonorganic diets, and immediately the pesticides returned. Researchers at the University of Southampton studied over three-year-old children, some with and some without ADHD, some with and some without allergies.
After initial behavioral testing, all of the children got one week of a diet without any artificial food colorings and without any chemical preservatives. The children's behavior measurably improved during this week. But was this from the extra attention, from eating more fruits and vegetables, or from the absence of the preservatives and artificial colors?
To answer this question, the researchers continued the diet, but gave the children disguised drinks containing either a mixture of artificial colorings and the preservative benzoate, or similarly colored drinks from natural food sources.
Anyone who has ever needed to skip breakfast because they were late for class knows how hard it can be to concentrate on an empty stomach. Nutrition: Brain food for thought. The food we eat can affect the way we feel, act, and think. Find out which foods and nutrients are best for your brain.
The weeks that children got the hidden chemicals, their behavior was substantially worse. This held true whether or not they had been diagnosed with hyperactivity, and whether or not they had tested positive for allergies. The Journal of Pediatrics reported that there is a more pronounced response to a glucose load in children than in adults. In children, hypoglycemia-like symptoms including shakiness, sweating, and altered thinking and behavior may occur at a blood sugar level that would not be considered hypoglycemic.
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The authors reason that the problem is not sugar, per se, but highly refined sugars and carbohydrates, which enter the bloodstream quickly and produce more rapid fluctuations in blood glucose levels. But, we aren't messing it up voluntarily or, at the very least, on any conscious or malicious level.
She attributes our disregard for neuro-nutrition to a series of factors, which include the portion size of meals, how parents don't have the time to cook or teach children how to eat healthily, the big influence of cafeteria food, and our "always on the go" culture. According to her, this leads us to unconsciously choose meals which are poor quality and high in sugars, a deathly combination for our brains. In addition to this, privilege also plays an important role in this epidemic.
Curious about this trend, the owner approached someone with food stamps, to which she admitted she didn't buy them because she didn't know the price prior to weighing them and felt ashamed of asking. Pre- cutting and packaging fruits in order to make them more accessible to those with lower incomes. As a result of her years of research in this area, Dr.
Lisa proposes a variety of foods that lead to better cognitive functioning and those which, in contrast, minimize cognitive functioning. What's the connection with mental health? Thanks to the many years of research in the field, we know now that what we eat can have a strong impact on our mental health. Not only can it protect us from developing Alzheimer's , but it's an act of self-care on its own. Lisa, which is why her approach differs from food restrictions and focuses on minimizing intake of those foods that don't help us feel better.
In fact, this body-mind connection has become so relevant to our current era that communities like Mental Health America are devoting their efforts to create a challenge that raises awareness on how lifestyle plays an important role on our mental health.
While our generation is definitely more conscious of our bodies and the importance of a healthy lifestyle, it's a good reminder that the body is like a machine and we should listen to it, tune it up, and update the system every so often. Thanks for writing this article-so refreshing to learn and re-learn that the body is indeed a system that requires sound nutrition to optimize homeostasis.
Replies to my comment. A framework for integrated learning based on food and food production. After initial behavioral testing, all of the children got one week of a diet without any artificial food colorings and without any chemical preservatives. While our generation is definitely more conscious of our bodies and the importance of a healthy lifestyle, it's a good reminder that the body is like a machine and we should listen to it, tune it up, and update the system every so often. And to end on a sweet note, the last food we recommend for brain health is dark chocolate.
As a systems-oriented LMFT, I always welcome this paradigm, and also its application to neuro-nutrition: Mariana Plata is a psychologist, educator, and mental health writer based in Panama. New evidence helps explain the risk of over-isolating yourself. Being prone to feeling guilt might be an accompanying trait.
Evidence shows that straightforward bragging is seen as more sincere. Back Find a Therapist.
What Is the Best Way to Propose? What's the Solution for a Coddled American Mind? Follow me on Twitter. Friend me on Faceook. Connect with me on LinkedIn. Submitted by Kevin on May 4, - 1: