Anti-Stress Nutrition Programme to Improve Mood,
Health, Behaviour and Learning
By Brenda Sampson
FOODS ETC. TO AVOID
If you wish to improve health and/or behaviour by an elimination diet, begin by eliminating the foods that are most useless and harmful. These foods are those containing artificial colouring, flavouring and antioxidants (some preservatives) and caffeine (read labels).
All forms of sugar
All forms of confectionery: sweets, lollies, chocolate, icecream, iceblocks, chewing gum, cordials, powdered i.e soda stream and soft drinks. Shop bought cakes and biscuits. They have some sort of additive that can sometimes set off asthma attacks.
Processed meats and fish: sausages, salami, luncheon sausage, bacon, ham, saveloys, corned beef, smoked fish, fish fingers, commercial stuffing, commercial fried chicken, shop bought meat loaf.
Instant packet mixes: instant mix soups, drinks, cordials, cakes, puddings, packet jellies, custard powder, gravy mixes, meat cubes, instant mix sauces. Most rely heavily on artificial flavourings.
Margarine: also processed cheeses or any containing colour/flavouring.
There are a few other items to be avoided, usually because they contain artificial colour, flavouring or salicylates.
1. Drinks: Tea, coffee, diet drinks, beer, cider, wine, cider and wine vinegar
.2. Sauces: Soy, tomato, Worcester, chilli, etc.
3. Four vegetables are high in salicylate: tomatoes, cucumber, peppers (green and red); also mint. The first three are actually fruits.
4. Almonds are high in salicylate.
5. Medications: Aspirin (the active ingredient is acetyl-salicylic acid); cough drops, mixtures or pastilles; antacid tablets; alka seltzer; children's medications and vitamin or mineral syrups that contain colour or flavouring. Check for alcohol content.
6. Toothpaste, unless additive free.
7. Some people cannot tolerate dairy products, and good results may not be obtained till these are excluded from the diet.
Lastly, if you are trying an elimination diet low in chemicals, remember to protect your children and yourself from chemical smells. These go into the bloodstream more quickly than food chemicals. Harmful airborne chemicals include:
1. Chemical cleaners, particularly sprays; oven cleaners
2. Petrol fumes and petrol exhaust fumes
3. All forms of smoke, including cigarette smoke
4. All perfumes, including cosmetics, scented soap, scented shampoos
5. All sprays; hair spray, fly spray
6. Coal gas, natural gas, LPG gas; avoid gas heaters
7. Chemical based felt pens and whiteboard markers
8. Volatile solvents used in glues, paints, house paints and school handcraft materials
9. Detergent and scented washing up liquids (detergent is made from petroleum and is poisonous itself; better to use Sunlight soap for washing up)
10.Chlorine in swimming pools affects some ADD/ADHD children very badly. There are chlorine free products available. Baking soda antidote may help; otherwise swim in the sea or safe rivers if possible.
SUBSTITUTES
The following substitutes or alternatives may help people using the above low-additive, low-salicylate programme:
Sausages: Some butchers are willing to make additive-free sausages using only meat, wholemeal or alternative flour, salt and pepper. Ask your own butcher; (it may help to provide the salted flour). Remember that additive-free sausages have no preservative and must be kept in the fridge or freezer.
Source chemical and organic products ie meat, eggs and vegetables where possible. Growing organic vegetables is a good workout and so rewarding. It is better to have a few holes nibbled by vegetarians (ie snails and slugs) than to have poisonous sprays to try and wash off.
Sauces: Rhubarb relish is easily made, and delicious with meat or cheese. Soak half a cup of sago in a cup of water. Cook rhubarb in the usual way, and when it comes to the boil, add the sago and cook for a few minutes till the sago is clear. Sweeten with a little sugar if necessary. Sago reduces the sourness and rhubarb is moderate in salicylate. The recipe can also be made with acid fruits such as plums or gooseberries if these are tolerated, and used as a dessert. It will keep in the fridge for about ten days, or can be sealed in preserving jars.
Medications: Often a pharmacist will help a child who must avoid colour and flavouring, by giving a white powder from an adult capsule, instead of the same medication in a child's coloured and flavoured tablet.
Antacid: Use the sodium and potassium bicarbonate mixture mentioned below.
Toothpaste: There are some available that have no flavour, colour or fluoride. However salted water is a good alternative, recommended by school dental nurses in the depression years. I heard of two dentists who disapproved of toothpaste; one said that brushing is what cleans the teeth; the other thought that the abrasive in toothpaste can damage the enamel.
Cow's milk: Alternatives are water, home-made soy milk/tofu, goat or sheep's milk/cheese/yoghurt, Pritiken Whey milk from Alfa Foods, Box 331 044, Takapuna, Auckland (ask them for a contact person in your area). Milk can also be made by liquidising nuts, or sunflower or sesame seeds in water. Dilute to required consistency and strain.
Those allergic to only the sugar in milk (lactose) may be able to tolerate acidophilus yoghurt, where the lactose has become lactic acid.
ADDITIONAL NOTES
1. For good results, the Feingold programme needs to be followed strictly; using it "so-so" does not work. When toxins are eliminated for a week or more, the body becomes sensitive to them, and they produce a marked reaction, which may last for three days or so. So breaking the diet only twice a week, may keep a child continuously upset. But if used carefully, the programme improves a child's health. In time his coping resources strengthen and sensitivity moderates.
2. Antidote: A teaspoon of baking soda in a cup of warm water can shorten a reaction, by restoring the body's alkaline balance. Better still, ask a chemist to make this mixture for you: 2 parts of baking soda (soda bicarbonate) to 1 part of potassium bicarbonate. Dosage using a 5 ml teaspoon:- Adults 5 mls, children half a spoonful, under-fives a quarter-spoonful. Dissolve the antidote mixture in a cup of warm water; or else mix it to a paste with a little water, and follow it with a cup of warm water. A 12 year old who didn't like the taste of the above antidote, takes this modification without a murmur: 2 parts of baking soda to 1 part each of calcium carbonate and potassium bicarbonate. Mix 1/2 teaspoon in a little hot water and fill cup with water, (from "Different Kids" by Sue Dengate). The antidote helps many conditions resulting from allergy, if taken early. For example, difficulty in getting to sleep, acute swelling, the first stages of migraine, even tobacco craving (see Overcoming alcohol/tobacco addiction and craving), etc.
3. Withdrawal symptoms: When people stop using a food or another substance that is harmful to them, there may be withdrawal symptoms that make them feel worse for a few days. This also applies to food-sensitive children who stop eating the foods that are upsetting them; their symptoms will probably worsen for three to four days. Before starting the withdrawal programme, get some of the baking soda mixture mentioned above, to help with these few days. Usually by the fifth day the withdrawal symptoms diminish and improvement begins.
4. The Feingold programme is more likely to succeed if the mother can persuade the other family members to help by having the same food. It is easier for her if she only has to produce one menu, and it is easier for the Feingold child if he does not see the others eating what he cannot. It is better not to have any forbidden foods in the house. Our advice is to catch the husband and the other children in a good mood, and talk to each separately and in private. Say things like, "You will benefit because if the Feingold diet succeeds, the difficult child will be much more pleasant to live with." Luckily a sugar free Feingold programme is an extremely beneficial diet, that improves both health and mood, as well as learning ability and behaviour. Where the whole family uses it, other members improve in health and in other ways. Here are some remarks: "The person in our family who improved most, was not my hyperactive son, but my three year old daughter, who was always clinging, whingy and crying." "There has been a wonderful change in my husband, noticeable to everyone including himself!" Another young mother expressed amazement at how much happier all her children were, since she excluded sugar and colourings. Another mother living in Petone, where the water was not fluoridated, said that her hyperactive son had a mouthful of cavities in his first teeth. She used the Feingold programme from the time he was five, and none of the children have cavities in their second teeth. Tooth decay is the first warning sign of poor nutrition and some of the additional problems are cola drinks and any sweets held in the mouth for some time.
A WORD FOR GRANDPARENTS AND CAREGIVERS
It is a great help if a mother can gain the co-operation of other people who may be feeding her child. There are some wonderful grandparents, concerned about the problems of a beloved child; often they are the first to approach us for help, and then there are those who say, "A little bit of this or that won't hurt". But in acutely sensitive hyperactive children, especially if they have other serious allergic problems, such as epilepsy or asthma, a little bit of an offending substance may do a great deal of harm. They should ask their grandchildren's parents what their grandchildren are allowed to have and not deviate. I have heard a granny saying to a child, "your mother would kill me if she knew I was giving you this". Give your child a note of what they should not eat to hand to hosts of birthday parties and caregivers (which include relations) and ask them to respect the request as the child could become ill.
When a toxic food is eaten daily, there will be more adrenalin in the blood to cope with it. If one stops eating it, after five days all traces of it will leave the body. The struggling adrenal glands then take a rest to recuperate. The next time the food is eaten, there is no adrenalin waiting in the blood, and one will see how harmful the thing really is, because there will be an acute reaction; a return of previous symptoms in enhanced form. In due time, as the child improves in health and becomes more robust, this acute sensitivity moderates.
FOOD TESTING FOR ASTHMATICS AND OTHERS
Eliminating a toxin such as salicylate for a week or more, and then giving it as a test, can produce a bad reaction if the person is sensitive to it. For a person with asthma, the reaction might be an asthmatic attack. For this reason asthmatics should only do food testing with the supervision of a doctor. This also applies to a person whose allergic reaction may be acute swelling. Similarly people suffering from acute depression should only test for allergic foods if there is a loving and supportive person in the house with them. A reaction could make the patient feel suicidal. People with epilepsy should not do challenge testing. However, in many cases seizures can be reduced if allergic foods/substances are identified and removed. There are three other easier and safe ways to identify allergies; the pendulum, the pulse test, and the muscle test. Most health stores have booklets on these methods.
