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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 drividren'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.
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this article.
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