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

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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.