Although there is more research that could prove valuable, there is substantial
scientific evidence and experiential results that support a premise for the material being
introduced in Healing America's Youth. Below are some examples:
Chemicals Used In Industrial Food Production
- Irrefutable evidence has shown the standard American diet, centered on processed foods,
junk foods, and high-fat meat and dairy products, is the driving force behind an epidemic
of diseases like heart attack, stroke, diabetes, osteoporosis, obesity, hypertension, and
several types of cancer. According to the U.S. Surgeon General, 68% of all American
diseases are diet related. Each year, these diseases cost billions of dollars in health
care and claim millions of lives. Most have their origins in early childhood. In fact,
children's immediate quality of life is affected by diet as well, as nutrition is now
being linked to mental disease, poor behavior, and learning disabilities.
- Diet exerts an enormous influence over the molecular environment and neurochemical
functioning of the brain. Studies have found for example, that children with higher
intakes of B vitamins and other brain-active micronutrients do better in school than
children whose diets are lower in these nutrients.
 Another concern is how
sugars affect mood, attention and hyperactivity in youth. Although more research is
needed, many parents and medical professionals feel there is a definite connection. The
following two studies (#’s 4 & 5 below) excerpted from Eating for A's, by
Alexander Schauss, Ph.D., Barbara Friedlander Meyer, New York City-wide Nutrition
Education Supervisor, and Arnold Meyer, page 47, succinctly sum up how foods like candy
bars, cakes, and sodas affect our children's ability to concentrate both in and out of
school.
- Yale University's School of medicine found hormonal evidence that supports the popular
belief that sugar can provoke abnormal behavior in some children. In the study, children
given refined sugar experienced levels of adrenaline in their blood ten times higher than
before they ate the sweet. This led to anxiety, difficulty in concentrating, and
crankiness…. Some children have been found to exhibit antisocial behavior when given
appreciable amounts of sugar. A series of scientific studies of institutionalized
delinquent youths conducted by California State University researchers showed that
antisocial behavior can be reduced by nearly half if sugar is restricted to very minimal
levels.
- Between 1979 and 1983, the New York City Board of Education banned several artificial
food colorings, flavorings, and preservatives, and limited the sucrose content of school
meals in 803 schools. With each annual change in menus, they discovered a corresponding,
dramatic improvement in the students' academic performance, which could only be explained
by the menu changes. In four years, the schools' mean national academic performance
percentile rating increased from 39.2% to 54.9% - the largest gain of its kind ever
measured in the country.
- Additives, preservatives, dyes, refined sugar, and other residues commonly found in the
American diet are being linked to diseases like Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). These diseases are diagnosed more
frequently than ever before, and it is estimated that from 8 to 22 million children may be
placed on activity-modifying drugs, such as Ritalin, by the year 2000. Of this group, 20
to 45 percent will not be helped, though in many cases, modifications in diet can relieve
symptoms.
- Marian Cleeves Diamond, Ph.D., of the University of California at Berkeley is among the
world's foremost researchers who have described the impact of environmental factors,
including nutrition, on the anatomy and function of the brain. Her work has shown
conclusively that environmental enrichment through sensory and nutritional stimulation
"results in an increased number and size of synapses, cortical thickening of the
brain, and increased potential to secrete the neurotransmitters that regulate neuronal
function."
- In 1973, the distinguished pediatrician, Dr. Ben Feingold at Kaiser Permanente Medical
Center in San Francisco, told a meeting of the AMA that food additives were responsible
for 40 to 50 percent of the hyperactivity he had seen in his practice. He had found that a
substantial number of hyperactive children improved dramatically when they stopped eating
foods that contained artificial colorings, flavors, and certain preservatives.
Additionally, he found that a variety of childhood learning disabilities and other
behavioral problems were reduced by the same diet changes.
- The Feingold program is based on the fact that although most human beings have the
ability to tolerate a certain amount of exposure to harmful substances, some of us are
more reactive biochemically than others. Some of us are not having an easy time coping
with a world where neither our water nor our air is pure, where we are exposed to
countless chemicals every day that have never been known in nature until the last few
decades. Our food has been subjected to processing and refining that removes essential
nutrients and adds a plethora of artificial chemicals. For children who happen to be
especially sensitive, the three most troublesome chemicals - synthetic food dyes,
artificial flavorings, and preservatives - can cause a host of physical, emotional, and
mental reactions, and can lead to children being diagnosed as hyperactive.
- A series of studies in the 1980's removed the chemical additives and reduced the sugar
in the diets of juvenile delinquents. Overall, 8,076 young people in twelve juvenile
correctional facilities were involved. The result? Deviant behavior fell 47 percent.
- In Virginia, 276 juvenile delinquents at a detention facility housing particularly
hardened adolescents were put on a diet for two years that removed chemical additives and
reduced sugar. During that time, the incidence of theft dropped 77 percent,
insubordination dropped 55 percent, and hyperactivity dropped 65 percent.
- In Los Angeles County probation detention halls, 1,382 youths were put on a diet where
chemical additives were removed and sugar reduced. The results were excellent. There was a
44 percent reduction in problem behavior and suicide attempts.
ADD/ADHD/Violence/Drug Addiction & Psychotropic Drugs
- There are nearly 6 million children in the United States between the ages of 6 and 18
taking mind-altering drugs prescribed for alleged mental illnesses that increasing numbers
of mental-health professionals are questioning.
- Although the list of school-age children who have gone on violent rampages is growing at
a disturbing rate -- and the shooting at Columbine became a national wake-up call -- few
in the mental health community have been willing to talk about the possibility that the
heavily prescribed drugs and violence may be linked. The only consistency in the lives of
the young people who participated in the highly publicized shootings in the past two years
is that they were suffering from a mental illness and were being treated with psychotropic
drugs that for years have been known to cause serious adverse effects when given to
children.
- At the top of the list of so-called "mental illnesses" among children is
attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, which is diagnosed when a child meets
six of the 18 criteria described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental
Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association, or APA. By definition,
children with ADHD exhibit behaviors such as not paying attention in school, not listening
when spoken to directly, failing to follow directions, losing things, being easily
distracted and forgetful, fidgeting with hands or feet, talking excessively, blurting out
answers or having difficulty awaiting turn. The most common ADHD remedy among
pediatricians and representatives of the mental-health community is Ritalin.
- First approved by the FDA in 1955, Ritalin (methylphenidate) had become widely used for
behavioral control by the mid-1960s. It is produced by the Swiss pharmaceutical company
Novartis. According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, the United States buys
and uses 90 percent of the world's Ritalin. A U.N. agency known as the International
Narcotics Control Board, or INCB, reported in 1995 that "10 to 12 percent of all boys
between the ages of 6 and 14 in the U.S. have been diagnosed as having ADD & ADHD and
are being treated with methylphenidate."
- Some professionals are concerned about evidence they say confirms a close relationship
between use of prescribed psychotropic drugs and subsequent use of illegal drugs,
including cocaine and heroin. While the U.S. has spent more than $70 billion on the war on
drugs, says Bruce Wiseman, president of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, a
California-based organization that investigates violations of human rights by
mental-health practitioners, "if you think the Colombian drug cartel is the biggest
drug dealer in the world, think again. It's your neighborhood psychiatrist…putting
our kids on the highest level of addictive drugs."
- According to a report in the 1995 Archives of General Psychiatry, "Cocaine is one
of the most reinforcing and addicting of the abused drugs and has pharmacological actions
that are very similar to those of Ritalin." In the same year the DEA also made the
Ritalin/cocaine connection, saying, "It is clear that Ritalin substitutes for cocaine
and d-amphetamine in a number of behavioral paradigms," expressing concern that
"one in every 30 Americans between 5 and 19 years old has a prescription for the
drug."
- The International Narcotics Control Board (INCB) reported that "methylphenidate
(Ritalin) can lead to tolerance and severe psychological dependence. Psychotic episodes
(and) violent and bizarre behavior have been reported." These are, in fact, some of
the same symptoms exhibited by Eric Harris, one of the teens responsible for the Columbine
shootings.
- Mike Faenza, president and chief executive officer of the National Mental Health
Association, the country's oldest and largest mental health group, notes that "there
is little known about how the drugs affect brain function." Faenza adds that "we
do know that a hell of a lot of kids commit suicide because they aren't getting the help
they need. It's irresponsible not to give them the help just because we don't know what
causes the mental illness."
Chemicals  Used
in Agricultural Food Production
- A 1983 United Nations Report estimates that there are approximately 2 million pesticide
poisonings annually, nearly four per minute worldwide. Dozens of pesticides sprayed on our
food are known to cause cancer. In the early 1900s, one out of every 33 Americans died of
cancer. Today, one out of every three Americans dies of cancer. Many other pesticides and
fertilizers have not been fully tested to know their effects on humans. Exposure to modern
pesticides, which didn't exist in the early 1900s, is thought by many to be one of the
primary reasons for the high rise in cancer deaths.
- Children born today are exposed to these chemicals from birth, perhaps even before
birth. According to Richard Wiles, who directed the Environmental Working Group study
using the Environmental Protection Agency methodology, children accumulate between 25 and
35 percent of their lifetime cancer risk from several carcinogenic pesticides by the age
of five.
- Chemical use on America's farmlands is increasing. For example, in 1960, U.S. farms used
46 pounds of chemical fertilizer per acre, while in 1995, the average amount used was 129
pounds per acre. Grain farmers increased herbicide use ten times between 1964 and 1982.
Pesticide use has almost doubled since 1964, and feed crops such as corn and soybeans
account for most of this jump. Corn receives more total herbicides, insecticides and
chemical fertilizers than any other crop grown in America, and 80% of this corn is
routinely fed to livestock.
- The major source of pesticide residue in an American's diet is from meat, poultry, and
dairy products. The reason is that animals eat grains with pesticides and these pesticides
are bio-accumulating chemicals--chemicals that are stored in body tissues. When we eat
animals, we receive a concentrated dose of the chemicals they have ingested in their lives
and, in turn, our bodies become storehouses for these chemicals.
- Confidential industry reports to the FDA, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act,
reveal high residues of natural and synthetic sex hormones in meat products even under
ideal test conditions. This is contrary to repeated and explicit assurances by the FDA and
USDA. Following legal implantation in the ear of steers of Synovex-S, a combination of
estradiol and progesterone, estradiol levels in meat products ranged up to 20-fold in
excess of the normal. Based on conservative estimates, the amount of estradiol in two
hamburgers eaten by an 8 year old boy could increase his hormone levels by 10%.
Eric Chivia et al., eds., Critical Condition: Human
Health and the Environment (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1994).
Stephen J. Schoenthaler, Ph.D., Walter E. Doraz, Ph.D., James A. Wakefield,
Jr., Ph.D.,"The Testing of Various Hypotheses as Explanations for the Gains in
National Standardized Academic Test Scores in the 1978-1983 New York City Nutrition Policy
Modification Project," International Journal of Biosocial Research, Vol.8(2),
p. 196-203,1986.
An increase from the 39th to the 55th national percentile rank in
New York City public schools occurred on the heels of the three years in which dietary
changes were made. No other school district could be located which had reported such a
large gain above the rest of the nation so quickly in a large population.
The A.D.D. and A.D.H.D. Diet, Rachel Belland Dr. Howard
Peiper, Safe
Goods, East Canaan, CT, 1997, p.ii.
Feingold, Ben - Why Your Child Is Hyperactive; Random House, New York, 1975.
John Robbins - Reclaiming Our Health, 1996, H J Kramer Inc.
Schoenthaler, Stephen - "Institutional nutritional Policies and Criminal Behavior,"
Nutrition Today, 20(3), 1985, p. 25-39.
Schoenthaler, Stephen -- "Diet and Crime: An Empirical Examination of the Value of
Nutrition in the Control and Treatment of Incarcerated juvenile Offenders,"
International Journal of Biosocial Research, 4(1), 11983, p. 25-39
Schoenthaler, Stephen -- "Types of Offenses Which can be Reduced in an Institutional
Setting Using Nutritional Intervention: A Preliminary Empirical Evaluation,"
International Journal of Biosocial Research, 4(2), 1983, p. 74-84.
Schoenthaler, Stephen -- "The Los Angeles Probation Department Diet Behavior Program:
An Empirical Evaluation of Six Institutions," International Journal of Biosocial
Research, 5(2), 1983, 88-Schoenthaler, Stephen - "The Northern California
Diet-Behavior Program: An Empirical Examination of 3,000 Incarcerated Juveniles in
Stanislaus County Juvenile Hall," International Journal of Biosocial Research, 5(2),
1983, p. 99-106.
John Elkington, Julia Hailes, and Joel Makower, The Green Consumer,
(New York: Penguin Books, 1990), 83.Ibid
Chellis Glendinning, When Technology Wounds, (New York: Morrow,
1990), 56.
Bette Hileman, "Food Supply Safety: U.S. Seeks to Cut Pesticide Use,"
News of the Week (C&EN) (5 July 1993): 3-4.
Alan Durning and Holly Brough (see note 125).
"Corn Supply and Disappearance, U.S., 1974-1988," Agricultural
Statistics 1989; USDA, p.31, table 40.
Lewis Regenstein, How to Survive in America the Poisoned (Herndon,
VA; Acropolis Books, 1982): 173.
Susan Campbell and Todd Winant, "Healthy School Lunch Action Guide",
1997, EarthSave International.
Samuel S. Epstein, M.D., Professor of Environmental Medicine, University of
Illinois School of Public Health, Chicago, Feb 2, 1988 /PRNewswire: The World Trade
Organization (WTO) ruled in favor of the 1989 European ban on the use of sex hormones for
growth promotion of cattle in feedlots prior to slaughter.
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