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How the Wrong Foods Can Affect Children’s Behaviour, Health and IQ

There’s no point trying to teach your children how to behave when the food and drink they are consuming are working against you both. It’s like wanting a good night’s sleep but drinking a gallon of Turkish coffee an hour before bedtime! It simply isn’t going to happen.

The Scary Facts

Most children eat far too many fast-food products, pre-prepared meals, processed foods, fizzy drinks, snacks, sweets, biscuits and cakes, and almost all of these products may contain some type of food colouring, preservative, salt and sugar. These additives are a kind of ‘food makeover’, disguising poor nutritional food with colour and artificial flavour to make it more attractive to children.

But the increased consumption of these foods and the decline in the foods which are good for children, such as fresh vegetables, fruit, fish, meat and cheese, has sadly begun to take its toll. Hyperactivity, moodiness, obesity, long-term health problems and poor intellectual performance can all be connected to a poor diet.

Behaviour and Food

For years, parents have voiced their concern about the possible link between food colourings, preservatives and behavioural changes in their children, but the food manufacturers and government have been constantly dismissive, claiming their theories lacked scientific evidence.

However, results from the first UK government-sponsored study have shown that children who were given colourings and preservatives were reported by their parents to be ‘fiddling with objects’, ‘disturbing others’, and having ‘difficulty settling down to sleep’, ‘difficulty concentrating’ and ‘temper tantrums’.

The researchers further claimed that if the problem additives and preservatives were removed from children’s diets, hyper-activity would be reduced from 1 in 6 children to 1 in 17.

Health and Food

In this health-conscious, diet-addicted era in which we now live, during the past ten years there has been a 70 per cent increase in obesity among three-and four-year-olds. Obesity in three-to four-year-olds? If this doesn’t ring alarm bells, what will? And if that isn’t scary enough, it is now recognized that obesity leads to increased risk of heart disease and diabetes.

The cause is quite simply a poor diet and lack of exercise.

Poor Diet

Although children enjoy eating crisps, sweets, snacks and processed foods, and however quick and convenient they may be for the parents, these foods are the worst culprits.

Too much salt

Too much salt will withdraw calcium from the body which children urgently need to develop strong bones, teeth and nails. It will also increase the risk of osteoporosis, asthma, stroke, heart attack, water retention and raised blood pressure in later life.

The maximum recommended intake of salt per day is:

An average 7–10-year-old’s daily diet may include:

That is over twice as much as the recommended allowance and does not include any salt added at the table.

Most food packaging says how much sodium is in the product. To calculate how much salt that is, multiply the amount of sodium by 2.5. Example: 1g sodium = 2.5g salt.

Too much sugar

For years we have known that sugar has disastrous effects on children’s teeth and contributes towards obesity. But it is also a stimulant which affects children’s blood-sugar levels, producing short bursts of energy or hyperactivity followed by an immediate low, which can manifest itself in moodiness or difficult behaviour and a craving for more sugar.

The brain chemicals which affect people’s moods, including depression, are called serotonin and beta endorphins. Doctors now believe that there is a direct link between glucose (what pure white sugar breaks down into in our bodies) and these chemicals.

An excess of white sugar can change the normal biochemical ‘pathways’ of both, resulting in moody, unmanageable and disruptive children who make everyone’s life a misery, including their own. Products made mainly from pure white flour will also convert into pure sugar in the body with the same effect.

A can of cola contains both sugar and caffeine, combining two stimulants. If children drink a can at lunchtime the caffeine will still be in their system by the evening and we know what that means – T-R-O-U-B-L-E. These poor children will not be able to sit still at school or around the dinner table and will find it difficult to fall asleep. Be on the safe side and avoid all sugary foods at suppertime, offering fruit as an alternative dessert or snack.

To reduce children’s intake of sugar take the sugar bowl off the table and be in charge of the amount they can have. Gradually reducing the sugar on their cereals and in their diet will go unnoticed but will make a significant difference to their overall consumption.

Schools that have removed vending machines selling sugar-laden snacks and drinks and replaced them with fresh fruit and water or fruit juice have reported that attention rates have improved and that problem children are much calmer as a result.

Give your children fresh or dried fruit, water and juices (check the sugar content) as snacks and leave the sweet snacks and drinks for the odd occasion or use them on a reward basis occasionally. As an alternative to canned fizzy drinks, dilute fruit concentrates with a fizzy mineral water. Your children’s tastes will adapt to their healthy diet and although they will still enjoy sweet products they will find many unnaturally sweet.

Fats

Much has been written about fats in the body. It is now widely recognized and accepted that the body does need fat and that there are both good and bad fats.

Good fats

The brain is composed of 60 per cent fat and needs an abundance of fatty acids from our diet to function effectively. Essential fatty acids are the good fats. They are found in oily fish such as mackerel, tuna, herring, sardines and salmon, and nuts, seeds and cold-pressed oils. These fatty acids are essential for the normal development of the brain, eyes and nervous system. New research from Oxford University has indicated that many children suffering from dyslexia, dyspraxia and ADHD (attention deficit hyperactive disorder) which affect children’s ability to listen, think, speak, sit still and write are suffering from a dietary deficiency of fatty acids.

Bad fats

However, most processed foods, fried foods and convenience foods contain trans fats. Trans fats are formed by hydrogenating oils in order to improve their shelf-life and flavour. Trans fats alter the brain chemistry and block the production of the essential fatty acids.

Always Read the Label

Until the food industry starts to reduce the amount of salt, sugar, preservatives and additives in their products, always read the label.

Even some foods that proudly claim on their labels ‘NO artificial sweeteners’ and ‘NO preservatives’ may still have added colourings.

Steer well clear of the following colourings: Tartrazine E102, Sunset Yellow E110, Carmoisine E122, Ponceau 4R E124. Also avoid preservatives such as Sodium Benzoate E211, saturated fats and anything ‘Hydrogenated’.

‘But My Children Love Fizzy Drinks and Snacks’

There is nothing wrong with the occasional packet of crisps or a fizzy drink, but they should not be part of the daily diet. If we keep sugar-laden drinks, high-fat snacks and sweets in the house, the temptation for our children to ask/moan/beg for them is quite natural. So to avoid having any confrontation, only buy them when you want them, perhaps for a weekend. Quite simply, if these products are not in the house, there is no issue, and everyone is much healthier and happier all round.

Getting Off to a Good Start – Breakfast

The British Nutrition Foundation urges all parents to ensure that their children eat breakfast to improve their performance at school. Researchers have reported that foods with a low glycemic index (GI) are far better for your children than foods with a high glycemic index. But, as we all have busy lives to lead, I’ll cut to the chase. Wholegrain breads, porridge, muesli and high-fibre cereals are good (low GI). Cereals such as cornflakes or chocolate-flavoured cereals and white bread are not good (high GI).

Children who eat a low-GI breakfast will be less hungry at lunchtime and less likely to want to snack between meals.

Children who eat a high-GI breakfast will have an initial energy boost then feel sluggish. They will be hungrier by lunchtime and are far more likely to snack.

Research on children aged 9–16 given sugar-laden snacks for breakfast (simple carbohydrates) showed levels of performance equivalent to 70-year-olds!

Healthy breakfasts may include a combination of the following: smoothies (yogurt and fruit shakes), fresh milkshakes with fruit, wholegrain toast with peanut butter or a banana, a boiled egg, fresh fruit, high-fibre cereal and fruit juice, milk or water to drink.

Exercise

Try and get your children to exercise as often as possible. By restricting your children’s TV and computer time it should be easier to get them outside, whether it’s for a game of frisbee in the park or walking to the shops. If they enjoy sport, encourage them to join a local club.

Invest in a battery-operated dance mat or one which plugs into the PC or Playstation; children will dance away for hours following the ‘right steps’.

The School Run

So many children are chauffeured everywhere these days that the opportunity to walk has been severely curtailed. Sadly, as a result of today’s society, parents are also concerned about the risk their children may be exposed to by walking in public. One solution is to drive part of the way to school and to walk the remainder with your child.

Teenagers’ Eating Habits

If children grow up aware that their mothers have been perpetually trying new diets, weighing themselves and commenting on their weight, they may well grow up with the same anxieties which can lead to eating disorders.

Growing teenagers are permanently hungry and are happy to continually graze on snacks throughout the day (the expression ‘eating me out of house and home’ springs to mind), so rather than fill the cupboards with sugar-laden, high-fat snacks, make sure that there are plenty of healthy snacks in the house, like fresh fruit, dried fruit, nuts, seeds, plain biscuits, brown wholegrain bread and fillings for sandwiches and toasties. If you buy crisps, choose the low-fat variety.

Home-cooking and eating as a family around the table is the easiest way to make sure the family has a good nutritional evening meal, and a way of seeing exactly what your teenager is eating.

Comfort Foods

We’ve all been there, feeling low and depressed. The first thing we do is hit the biscuit tin then feel more depressed that we ate most of the contents. As we would much prefer our children to never turn to food for comfort, try to avoid giving them treat foods as a consolation when they are growing up. Try and start a new regime of going for a walk or some other type of exercise if you are feeling low. The fresh air and exercise will immediately start to make you feel better.

Respecting Other Children’s Dietary Needs

Always respect the dietary needs of children visiting your home. Their parents will tell you what they must avoid and, to make life easier on everyone, simply do not have that product available to your own children on that particular day. I only mention this because I know of a situation where a mother gave a biscuit as a treat to a young playmate of her children. Unfortunately, the child was hypersensitive to sugar but was too young to realize any different, and was as high as a kite for about four days.