Do food dyes affect kids’ behavior?

From latimes.com
Almost every parent has a story about their kid bouncing off the walls after downing a package of jelly beans or eating a neon blue-frosted cupcake at school. Most blame the sugar.
But some new research suggests that the rainbow of artificial colors may have a bigger effect on children’s behavior. And in other parts of the world, some organizations are starting to take action on these ingredients.
Earlier this year, the UK’s Food Standards Agency, the British regulatory counterpart to our Food and Drug Administration, asked food makers to voluntarily recall six artificial colors in food by 2009, a step many food companies have completed.
And in July, the European Parliament voted to add warning labels with the phrase “may have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children” to products with the same six synthetic red and yellow dyes, prompting many large food makers such as Nestle to reformulate their products rather than risk a drop-off in sales.
These actions were spurred by a study published in September 2007 in the medical journal the Lancet supporting what some parents and scientists had suspected for decades — that food dyes are linked to hyperactivity, even in kids who don’t normally exhibit this behavior.
“The position in relation to artificial food colors is analogous to the state of knowledge about lead and IQ that was being evaluated in the early 1980s,” says the study’s lead author, Jim Stevenson, psychology professor at the University of Southampton, in a March letter to the UK Food Standards Agency, urging action.
But many psychologists and food scientists aren’t convinced.
“I think the studies are intriguing,” says Roger Clemens, a food scientist and USC professor of pharmacology. “But the clinical data are still wanting.”
“I haven’t seen any science that tells me I really need to be warning parents against these,” says Scott Benson, a Pensacola, Fla.-based child psychologist who treats hyperactive children in his practice.
FDA’s policy
The FDA still considers the nine synthetic colors allowed in food — in grocery stores and restaurants– as safe as long as each production batch has been certified to meet composition standards.
On its website, the agency points to a consensus report by the National Institutes of Health in 1982 that, the FDA says, concluded there was no “scientific evidence to support the claim that food dyes cause hyperactivity.”
But watchdog groups and some scientists say that reference by the FDA is misleading. That same panel, says the Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest, also acknowledged that some children already diagnosed as hyperactive and on a restricted diet experienced an increase in hyperactivity when given moderate doses of artificial food dyes and did not experience similar increases after receiving a placebo.
Now the FDA is reviewing a petition submitted in June by the Center for Science in the Public Interest for a ban on eight artificial food colors certified for use in processed food; Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 3, Red 40, Orange B, Yellow 6 and Yellow 5 (tartrazine), a color the FDA concluded in 1986 is a known allergen to a small group of people, causing itching and hives. (A ninth color, Citrus Red 2, is used only on the skin of oranges to make them more appealing and is not included in the center’s petition.)
The center is also asking the FDA to require warning notices on the labels of foods that contain the dyes — which are already listed on ingredient labels until the ban is in place and to require neurotoxicity tests for new food dyes and additives.
“The safety testing on these [dyes] was done 30 to 50 years ago,” says the center’s executive director Michael Jacobson. “I suspect the tests are out of date and we have higher standards now that would show positive evidence of harm.”
Suspicion about the effect of food dyes on behavior swelled in the mid-1970s after San Francisco allergist Dr. Ben Feingold published his book “Why Your Child Is Hyperactive,” detailing his research on the behavioral benefits of eliminating food dyes and additives — guidelines that became known as the Feingold diet.
But a string of studies with poor methodology failed to prove a conclusive link in the years following, and the issue, researchers say, dropped off most people’s radar

Diagnostic Criteria for ADHD

1. Six or more of the following symptoms of inattention and/or hyperactivity-impulsivity persisting at least 6 months and inconsistent with the developmental level of the child:

Inattentive

· Often fails to give close attention to details, makes careless mistakes

· Often has trouble sustaining attention in tasks/activities

· Often does not seem to listen

· Often does not follow through on instructions

· Often has trouble organising tasks

· Often avoids/dislikes tasks requiring sustained mental effort

· Often loses important things

· Often easily distracted by extraneous stimuli

· Often forgetful in routine activities

Hyperactive-impulsive

· Often squirms and fidgets

· Often can’t stay seated

· Often runs/climbs excessively

· Often has difficulty remaining quiet during play or leisure activities

· Often blurts out answers before questions are finished

· Often “on the go,” acts as if “driven by a motor”

· Often talks excessively

· Often has difficulty awaiting turn in play/activity

· Often interrupts/intrudes on others

2. Onset of symptoms that cause impairment present before age 7.

3. Presence of symptoms in two or more settings (e.g. home, school, work).

4. Evidence for significant impairment in social, academic, or occupational functioning.

5. Symptoms that do not occur exclusively during a course of pervasive developmental disorder, schizophrenia, or other psychotic disorder and re not better accounted for by another mental disorder (e.g. mood, anxiety, dissociative, or personality disorder).

SUBTYPES OF THE DISORDER
Most children exhibit one or more of the subtypes:

• Combined Type: multiple symptoms of inattention, impulsivity, and hyperactivity
• Predominantly Inattentive Type: multiple symptoms of inattention with few, if any, of hyperactivity-impulsivity
• Predominantly Hyperactive-Impulsive Type: multiple symptoms of hyperactivity-impulsivity with few, if any, of inattention

RISK FACTORS

• Heredity - at least one first-degree relative who also has ADHD and one-third of all fathers who had ADHD in their youth have children with ADHD
• Gender - ADHD is more common in boys than in girls (3:1)
• Prenatal and early postnatal health - maternal drug, alcohol, and cigarette use; exposure of the foetus to toxins, including lead and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs); nutritional deficiencies and imbalances, prenatal trauma
• Learning disabilities, communication disorders, and tic disorders such as Tourette's syndrome
• Possible Nutritional factors allergies or intolerances to food, food colouring, or additives, diets high in sugar and refined carbohydrates.

Tammy Flint RD (SA) from Anne Till & Associates, Registered Dieticians

Tel: 011 563 4663, Website: www.annetill.co.za

Niknaks, Ice cream and moods.

Thank you to Wendy Knowler for a very good article in the The Cape Times (Aug 11), on “Loads of problematic agents on South African supermarket shelves”).

Excerpt from the Cape Times:

Tartrazine free – on you label is not protecting you from the bad in a few others, still plentiful in South African snacks!

A couple of colorants, besides Tartrazine, may really upset your child. Your own moods may be a result of your diet! Adults are not exempt from the side effects of colorants, preservatives and flavourants. Check here!

A formal study was launched in South Hampton, England, on children aged three to nine years old. They proved that the following culprits, besides Tartrazine (E102), should not be taken, especially where there is a history of rashes, asthma, hyperactivity, concentration, behavior problems and attention span problems!

Quinoline yellow (E104) (Fizzers, Kellogg’s Coco pops, Baker’s iced Zoo biscuits, Oros, yellow cool drinks, sweets, Nestle Fresh Neapolitan flavored ice cream, Beacon’s liquorices All sorts)

Sunset yellow (E110) (Kellogg’s coco pops, some yellow cool drinks, Fanta, Oros, Tang orange, Jelly tots, sweets, Niknaks, Nestle Fresh Neapolitan flavored ice cream, Beacon’s liquorices All sorts )

Carmoisine (E122) (Pronutro strawberry, Kellogg’s straw berry pops, Baker’s iced zoo biscuits, Beacon sparkles, Fantail, Nestle Fresh Neapolitan flavored ice cream, Beacon’s liquorices All sorts)

Ponceau 4R (E124) (Nestle Fresh Neapolitan flavored ice cream, Beacon’s liquorices All sorts, Jelly tots)

Allura red (E129) (jelly tots)

(Consumer watch – published twice weekly email consumer@knowler.co.za)

Even sodium benzoates-a preservative in colddrinks - in a few people in the study gave negative results.

EPA and DHA

After trawling the internet for hours and hours, gathering as much objective information as possible regarding Omega 3, Omega 6, DHA vs EPA, I have come to some conclusions.

There is one fact that is very clear and I hear it from all dieticians that I visit – stop supplementing with Omega 6 – you have it in excess amounts in your body and it is causing a greater Omega 3 deficiency in your body.

So then the focus is only on Omega 3 – that leaves EPA and DHA – the two parts to the Omega 3 chain. Each has very important functions within our body and there are endless debates about what you should use for what. The following is my opinion on them and my opinion is based on hours spent trawling the internet and speaking to those in the know….

EPA is found throughout our bodies and assists in the general well being of our bodies; it also has the ability to convert itself into DHA

All the research agrees that at least 60% of the brain is made up of this fat, DHA. Research has also shown that children with behaviour and learning difficulties have a deficiency in this fat, DHA.

Does it not follow then logically that if you have a deficiency, you should supplement with that which you are short of. This means that if you have a deficiency in DHA (ADD/ADHD, depression, alzheimers, etc), supplement with DHA and if you are deficient in EPA (excema, high cholesterol, cardio vascular, etc) then you should supplement with EPA.

Research has shown that one does not work without the other, so always make sure your supplement has both in it, but choose a supplement that has higher of the one for the reason that you need it. Since this blog is all about kids and their behaviour and learning difficulties, I am suggesting that you take Omega 3 with high DHA.

ADDvance Omega 3 chewy fruit bursts are a fantastic Omega 3 supplement on the South African market. They have a high DHA and no Omega 6, don’t taste like fish and are really quite cost effective.

Believe in your child

The more I speak to mom’s the more I realize that when they are told their child has “concentration/behaviour/learning problems” (insert your applicable word) the first thing they do is lose all faith and belief in their children and start believing every word a relative stranger (teacher/doctor/child minder) says.

If you are told your child has any of the above by any of the above, thank them for their opinion and then take a step back and…just breathe. Focus on your child, you know your child better than anyone. You have not been given a life sentence, you have simply been given a challenge and it is truly up to you and your child how big a challenge you make of it.

I recently met two mom’s who had just been told their children have concentration problems. This was told by their teacher, they are in the same class and both complain that the teacher is “always shouting at them”. One of the parents has not done anything about it; the other has already seen the speech therapist, the occupational therapist and the neurologist – none of which have found a single problem with him. Instinctively, the mom knew this would be the outcome because she knows her child, but the shock of the news scared away that instinct.

I say it again, FOCUS ON YOUR CHILD, be honest with yourself, don’t be naïve or in denial but remember that you know your child better than anyone else. There are many factors that can contribute towards ADD symptoms, people’s personalities and how they interact with your child need to be taken into account and put in perspective.

No matter what, believe in your child. If they do have ADD or not, they are still your special child who deserves nothing more than unconditional love.

Advance your childs IQ

Dr David Perlmutter, neurologist and author of “Raise a Smarter Child from Kindergarten” and “The Better Brain Book”, strongly supports DHA as a means to enhance brain function.

The brain is made up of 60% fat. DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), a component of omega 3, is the most abundant fatty acid in the brain and plays a pivotal role in all brain functions.

Exciting new research shows that the role of DHA in the brain is even more profound. DHA in the developing brain, actually has the ability to turn on specific genes that make a very powerful chemical called Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF). BDNF is like a “growth hormone” for the brain. It is important for the formation of neurons, the health of neurons, the ability of neurons to protect themselves against injury, synapse formation and the way neurons talk to each other.

Simply stated, you can improve your child’s brain functioning by supplementing with DHA on a daily basis. Sufficient DHA stimulates BDNF and this enhances cognitive performance, memory function, learning, concentration and even visual function and has a profound effect on IQ and performance at school.

Importance of Omega 3 in your diet

There are 2 Essential Fatty Acids (EFA’s) namely Omega 3 and Omega 6.

They are called essential because our bodies cannot make them, we depend on our diet for them.

Omega 6 is an essential fatty acid found in all your vegetable oils (Safflower, sunflower, corn, sesame, hemp, pumpkin, soybean, walnut, wheatgerm and evening primrose oil). Nuts and seeds (pumpkin seeds, linseeds, sesame seeds, etc) are also rich in Omega 6. Refined vegetable oils, such as soy oil, are used in most of the snack foods, cookies, crackers, and sweets in the modern diet as well as in fast food we eat.

Omega 6 in our body increases inflammation (an important component of the immune response), blood clotting and cell proliferation.

Omega 3 is an essential fatty acid found mainly in oily fish. Coldwater fish contain the most Omega 3, the colder the fish, the higher the Omega 3 concentrations. Examples are salmon, tuna, herring, mackerel, flounder, swordfish, etc.

Omega 3 in our body can lower triglyceride levels, increase HDL cholesterol, help reduce inflammation and blood clotting (blood thinning), lower blood pressure, prevent irregular heart beats and keep blood vessels healthy.

There are two critical omega-3 fatty acids, (eicosapentaenoic acid, called EPA and docosahexaenoic or DHA), that the body needs.

EPA supports heart health and the general well being of your body.

DHA makes up membranes of nerve cells in the brain and is thought to play an important role in normal brain development and function. DHA, an important dietary fat, provides the backbone for cell membranes and in the brain, these cell membranes (neuronal membranes) play a pivotal role in how brain cells function. Enhanced levels of DHA quite simply enhances the way brain cells function, leading to a more efficiently functioning brain as well as a faster brain.

It is essential to have these two EFA’s (Omega 3 and 6) in a balance in our body as an excess of either can lead to a wide range of disease symptoms. If the diet is deficient in either omega-6 or omega-3 long-term degenerative illnesses result.

Western diets are deficient in omega-3, and have too much omega-6 compared with the diet on which human beings evolved. Excessive amounts of omega-6 and a very high omega-6/omega-3 ratio, as is found in today’s Western diets, promote many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, whereas increased levels of omega-3 exert suppressive effects.

The ideal balance between Omega 6 and Omega 3 should be 4-6 : 1. Our current modern diet is showing the balance to be closer to 20-30 : 1. For this reason, it is essential that we supplement with Omega 3.

Omega 3 supplementation, especially with a high DHA content has shown to help with the following; Brain development of foetus during pregnancy, brain development in infants, ADD/ADHD (specifically for concentration, memory and hyperactivity), bi-polar disorder, manic depression, epilepsy and delaying the onset of Alzheimer’s.