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The Link Between ADD/ADHD And Nutrition

Ever since a few decades ago, researches have suspected that nutrition has a lot to do with ADD/ADHD. Now that this fact has been accepted, medical professionals, nutritionist as well as individuals diagnosed with ADD are still misinterpreting this connection.
The Studies
There have been more than a thousand studies carried to find the link between nutrition and most have been carried out by prestigious learning institutions and medical facilities. Findings of these studies have been published. Here are a few of them:
Study conducted by Jennifer Dani, Courtney Burrill, and Barbara Demmig-Adams, titled “The remarkable role of nutrition in learning and behavior” has found that:
“The result of this analysis is that nutrition has potent effects on brain function. It is concluded that protein, iron, iodine, and the consumption of breakfast all impact on a child’s learning capability and behaviour. Moreover, recent research has identified additional, potent roles of micronutrients, such as essential fatty acids, minerals, and vitamins, in the prevention of learning and behavioural disorders. Among the latter, this review focuses particularly on attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.”
Chris D. Meletis and Jason Barker had authored a study called Mental Health: Not All in the Mind—Really a Matter of Cellular Biochemistry.
A study done by D.W. Schab. Schab and his colleagues have concluded that children’s behavior improved when AFC’s was no longer in their diet. This study entitled ‘Artificial Food Coloring Promotes Hyperactivity’ was published in The Journal of Developmental & Behavioral Pediatrics.
A child’s diet can lead to behavioral disorders. This is a finding from a study conducted by C M Carter, M Urbanowicz, R Hemsley, L Mantilla, S Strobel, P J Graham, and E Taylor titled ‘Effects of a few food diet in attention deficit disorder’. Conditions of 76% of children implementing elimination diet later improved.
“A beneficial effect of eliminating reactive foods and artificial colors in children with ADHD.Dietary factors is suspected to have significant role in etiology of a large number of children with ADHD.” Therefore, this study by M. Boris and F.S. Mandel found that suggested that foods and additives are the culprits of the attention deficit hyperactive disorder in children.
The Results
These are just some of the studies from many that may have not been published or made known. Nonetheless, all have found that food additives, fatty acids, vitamin and mineral deficiencies or rather nutritional factors are very much related to ADD/ADHD. Subjects of these studies have either participate in elimination diets, nutritional supplementation, behavioral observations and self-reporting. Due to the nature of most of these researches funding, these studies are more likely conducted on young children and adolescents. There have been keen interests in young children as they are much more likely diagnosed with ADD/ADHD. There are also studies conducted on adults.
These studies took place at a variety of reputable institutions such as Harvard University, Cornell University, Cornell Medical Center, Oxford University, etc., and are therefore backed by the reputations of these facilities.
Each study found significant improvement in the behavior of the participants once the nutritional deficiency or removal of the food or food additive causing the sensitivity, allergy, or toxic reaction had taken place. In addition to improved behavior and a reduction in what had been previously witnessed as poor attention ability and concentration, many participants were found to have increased in reading ability, motor coordination, and IQ. These improvements were probably due to the ability of the individuals to focus and stay on task.
What does all these point to?
Findings of these studies point to the fact that the symptoms of ADD/ADHD can improved or even disappeared once dietary deficiencies were corrected. They also prove that non-medicinal interventions be used to treat ADD/ADHD even if the medical community required a whole lot more of prove in order to accept this and individuals who suffer from this disorder can be more alert and opt for life without medication.

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