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I came across this article awhile back and forgot all about it until I came across it in some saved links. It’s pretty interesting to me, especially considering the number of kids now on psychostimulants like Ritalin and Adderall.
9 Food Additives That May Affect ADHD

I’ll go ahead and warn you that some of my commentary on this subject is likely to tick more than a few people off, but oh well.

Some ADHD Stats

• 9.5% of kids 5-17 have been diagnosed ADHD
• ADHD diagnosis increased an average of 3% per year from 1997 to 2006 and an average of 5.5% per year from 2003 to 2007
• The percentage of children with a parent-reported ADHD diagnosis increased by 22% between 2003 and 2007
• Boys (13.2%) were more likely than girls (5.6%) to have ever been diagnosed with ADHD

Source

So let’s see…what’s this tell us? One in ten kids has trouble paying attention; every year there are more of these kids; the parents think it’s getting worse; and apparently boys are worse than girls.

Interestingly, if you look at the map on the CDC’s page (Source link above), living west of Mimal The Chef (a mnemonic I learned in school: Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana…I must have paid attention) means you’re less likely to have ADHD and it’s worst in the Southeast.

What Causes ADHD?

Of course, the standard claim, as with nearly everything these days, is that it’s mostly genetic. Okay, maybe there’s a genetic component, but if that’s the cause, then the genes must be getting worse because the number of ADHD diagnoses is going up.

I’m inclined to believe that it’s a multi-factored issue, possibly starting with a “nature” component, i.e., genetic susceptibility (just like with diabetes and numerous other problems), but that is triggered by “nurture,” i.e., environmental factors such as toxins and food.

Seriously, is it really that hard to believe that what kids eat affects how they behave? I know that when I eat crap, I feel like crap. When I eat good food, I feel good. Does that somehow not affect kids? Or is it that we’re just afraid to point out that it’s our food system causing so many of the behavioral problems we’re seeing? Maybe it’s because when we point out the flaws in the Industrial food system and the resultant issues, we have to point fingers at the government, the Food Bill, the companies that make vast swaths of cash serving up this inferior junk, and ourselves for buying it. I suppose sticking with “genetics” is just easier. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck…

[Of course, one could easily argue that the structure of our school system is a major causative factor in ADHD by not stimulating the mind and specifically by not being designed in a way that young boys learn. I could go off on that tangent for a few pages, but that's not the point of this post.]

The easy solution, naturally, is to Eat Real Food. Believe it or not, but I never use any of these food additives because they don’t actually do anything to improve food. Really, they’re mostly food colorings, which are there to fool you and make your brain enhance a flavor based on color associations.

The 9 Additives

1. Blue No. 1
2. Blue No. 2
3. Green No. 3
4. Orange B
5. Red No. 3
6. Red No. 40
7. Sodium Benzoate
8. Yellow No. 5
9. Yellow No. 6

The best part though is the list of processed foods that these ingredients are in: Frito-Lay Sun Chips French Onion and other Frito-Lay products; some Yoplait products; some JELL-O dessert products; Fruity Cheerios; Trix; Froot-Loops; Apple Jacks; Quaker Cap’N Crunch’s Crunch Berries; some Pop-Tarts products; some Oscar Mayer Lunchables; Duncan Hines Whipped Frosting Chocolate; Edy’s ice cream products; Skittles candies; Jolly Ranchers Screaming Sours Soft; Chew Candy; Eclipse gum; Fanta Grape; Froot-Loops; Post Fruity Pebbles; Pop-Tarts products; Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Strawberry Supreme Premium Cake Mix; Betty Crocker Frosting Rich; Creamy Cherry; M&M’s Milk Chocolate Candies; M&M’s Milk Chocolate Peanut Candies; Wonka Nerds Grape/Strawberry; pet foods; Fruit juice, carbonated beverages, and pickles.

Note that is only the combined lists from three of the additives. It’s a veritable Who’s Who of junk food.

Are Drugs The First Resort Or The Last?

It seems that drugs like Ritalin and Adderall have become the easy way out. Why try changing the environment and the food when it’s easier to just get a prescription and dose the kid? Never mind that it stamps the creativity right out of the kids on it (maybe we’re getting back to that school system argument…).

Maybe we should quit taking the easy way out and start taking a hard look at the things we’re putting into the kids’ systems that are creating the outcome of so much misbehavior.

Sound Off!

What do you think? Is it the food the kids are eating? Or is it some other issue?

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