Understanding the Shifts in Human Nutrition – The Role of Chemicals (Part 1)
With last week’s article I began to touch on the subject of how our perceptions of food changed over the past few decades. I did this by pointing out how food was viewed in the past.
When asked to describe food as a category past generations would very likely have used the following words:
Scarce
Seasonal
Natural
Fresh
Hard work
It does not take a genius to work out that the words used above are a world away from how most of us would describe food today.
Our relationship with what we put in our mouths has been so radically altered that our forebears would probably have shaken their heads in amazement at our strange beliefs and habits.
The problem is that the changes in our perception had some pretty spectacular negative fallouts, the magnitude of which we are only now beginning to understand.
Yet understand them we must, because I firmly believe that many of our modern ailments, including many ADD/ADHD cases, can be traced back to poor food choices.
Over the next few weeks we will examine the impact of some of these choices by focussing on our modern ‘answers’ to perceptions about food listed above. This week we take a look at the wholesale abandoning of the belief that food should be natural.
It is very difficult to put something in your mouth these days without also taking in quite a few chemicals that were certainly not part of the original composition of your food source. There are several drivers behind this phenomenon. They include:
*‘Protection’ of food sources: Humankind has always tried to protect our food sources, this is evidenced in the fact that scarecrows date back millennia!
Modern man has taken this quest for protection much further by developing a vast array of powerful pesticides to protect food sources. Good crops resulted but at what price?
*The quest for ‘perfection’: Our forebears knew that the shape of a tomato makes no difference to its taste or nutritional value. Apparently we are not that smart! The quest towards ‘perfect’ products not only lead to massive wastage as tons of ‘less than perfect’ food are thrown away every year, it also lead to the application of many chemically based methods to produce uniform food products.
- The hunt for profit: One of the easiest ways that a farmer can increaseprofits is through increased yield i.e. the more grain that you can harvest
from a field, or the more meat you can cut from an animal, the more
money you make. It is only a short step from this basic principle of
economics to the use of tools like chemicals and/or growth hormones to
make increased yield possible.
The result of all of this is that most of the food that we eat could hardly be described as ‘natural’ by any stretch of the imagination. Most people are not too fazed by this fact since they realize that they are only taking in a tiny amount of a given chemical or pesticide.
The problem is, however, that they are not taking into account the cumulative effect of such products. Most of the chemicals in our diet are completely unnatural and our bodies are therefore very ill equipped to deal with them. This could result in a build up of those chemicals in our system. Bottom line: A few bites of food with minute amounts of harmful chemicals will probably not do too much harm. Thousands of bites over an extended period is another matter however!
The damage that the chemicals in our food wreak does not stop at the plate. We might be getting infinitesimal amounts but the environment isn’t. Many scientists believe that the true extent of the pollution to soil and water sources caused by pesticides will affect human health for generations to come.
It is a sad irony that our society’s blind rush to an endless supply of perfect looking foods have yielded such, if you will pardon the pun, bitter fruits!
Our obsessions with wholesome looking food may have created visually appealing shop aisles but at what price?
Our grandparents used to say: “You are what you eat!†If this is the case then most modern people need to take a long hard look at the chemical composition of what is on their plates. This is especially relevant in the case of people dealing with the effects of ADD/ADHD.
When you consider that many cases of ADD/ADHD can be traced back to defective neurotransmitter activity and that neurotransmitters are extraordinarily sensitive to the influence of ‘foreign’ chemicals it just makes sense to carefully monitor the possible sources of such chemicals. With next week article I will try to help you to step up that monitoring as we take a look at some specific examples of harmful chemicals that enter our systems through mass produced food.
I will also make some suggestions on taking back control over the chemical content of your meals.
One of the hardest things for a person with ADD to do is to “get†and “stay†productive.
“America now uses 90% of the world’s Ritalin – more than five times the rest of the world combined.” – Peter Breggin, M.D, Talking Back to Ritalin • Current statistics indicate that as many as 10% of the nation’s children have been diagnosed as having ADD/ADHD. • More than five million children are taking Ritalin or another stimulant medication for the treatment of ADD/ADHD. • Hundreds of children every year receive, or take, doses of stimulant medications that are too high, resulting in overdose. • Children aged six through nine are at the greatest risk for overdose. As school officials, medical professionals, and other caretakers pressure parents to put their children on medication for the management of ADD/ADHD, few take the time to inform parents what the use of stimulant medications as a daily maintenance medication entails. Stimulant medications such as Ritalin, when given to children, are far more dangerous than parents are being led to believe. Stimulant medications produce far more than mere side effects, they endanger the lives of children by producing a host of dangerous health problems and risks by damaging the functioning of the cardiovascular system, central nervous system, gastrointestinal system, and more. These dangers include: Cardiovascular System Rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, abnormal heartbeat, and heart attack. Central Nervous System Altered mental status, hallucinations, convulsions, seizures, convulsions, depression, excitement, agitation, irritation, anxiety, nervousness, hostility, nervousness, compulsive behavior, tics, jerky movements, tourette’s, drowsiness, confusion, lack of sleep, unhappiness, depression, over-sensitivity, decreased social interest, zombie-like mannerisms, impaired mental abilities. Gastrointestinal Eating disorders, weight loss, nausea, vomiting, stomach ache, and cramps, dry mouth, constipation, growth problems, and endocrine and metabolic disorders. Other Blurred vision, headaches, dizziness, excessive sweating, incontinence, fever, joint pain, blood disorders, rash, conjunctivitis, hives, skin inflammation, and hair loss. Withdrawal and Rebound Worsening of symptoms, anxiety, depression, sleep problems, irritability, over-activity, and stimulant “crashâ€. Ritalin may be more potent than cocaine! Although in pill form, Ritalin does not produce the immediate stimulant effects as cocaine, addicts that crush and inject Ritalin have found the “rush†to be just as pleasant. One European study found that, even though encapsulated Ritalin (pill form) didn’t produce an immediate rush, once metabolized, the drug occupies more dopamine receptors than cocaine does. In essence, Ritalin has more of an effect on brain receptors than cocaine. An article published in the New York Times asks the questions “Is it appropriate, ethicists and pediatricians ask, to medicate children without a clear diagnosis in the hope that they will do better in school? Should the drug be given to adults who may complain that they are failing in their careers or are procrastinators? Are the ends worthy of the means?†And an article published in the January 2005 issue of Pediatrics stated, “There remain large discrepancies between pediatricians’ practice patterns and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines for the assessment and treatment of children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).†If the medical community can’t come to a consensus regarding how to diagnose ADD/ADHD, then why are they making across-the-board decisions as to how to treat individuals who have been diagnosed with the disorder?  In light of the growing controversy surrounding the diagnosis, and increasing misdiagnosis, of ADD/ADHD and the questionable administration of stimulant medications as a form of treatment, it is wise to proceed with caution whenever symptoms might lead to such a diagnosis. Some good rules to follow whenever ADD/ADHD might be suspected are: • Never assume that ADD/ADHD is the correct diagnosis. Never insist that a medical professional issue a diagnosis of ADD/ADHD on observations alone. • Never accept a diagnosis of ADD/ADHD on face value alone. A diagnosis that has been delivered without eliminating the possibility of another disorder, nutritional imbalance, or food allergies and sensitivities is not a real diagnosis. A real diagnosis never involves a lets-try-this-medication-and-see-if-it-helps approach. • If ADD/ADHD does indeed appear to be the appropriate diagnosis, never automatically administer maintenance medications such as stimulants without exploring other possibilities first. The side effects and dangers involved in administering ADD/ADHD medications, especially to a child, are just far too great to take the risk. • Never fall for the quick fix. Any fad diagnosis that causes society to turn immediately and without question to the latest popular solution that offers a quick fix – in this case, stimulant medications – should be suspect. An educated individual is one who is best able to make intelligent decisions regarding his or her own medical treatment, or regarding the treatment of children.