Feeding Your Child’s Precious Brain
by Michael R. Lyon, M.D.
It should come as no surprise that our
kids need excellent nutrition in order
to enjoy optimal brain function.
Unfortunately, most parents don’t
properly satisfy the special nutritional
needs of their children, not recognizing that
their developing brains are very sensitive and
highly demanding of a wide range of specific
nutrients. However, research is increasingly
recognizing that food allergies and intolerances,
toxic influences as well as marginal
nutritional deficiencies may all be playing a
critical role in the phenomenal increase in
childhood behavioral and learning disorders.
With the increasing “chemicalization,”
genetic modification and nutritional depletion
of the modern diet, it has become more
important than ever that parents find ways
to break away from this unhealthy consumerism
to ensure that their children have
the nutrition they need to build a foundation
for a successful future.
The Brain is Mostly Fat
Many nutritionally oriented health care
providers now universally recommend balanced
essential fatty acid supplementation to
all children with conditions like ADHD,
learning disabilities and atopic (allergic) disorders.
In research I conducted on 76 children
with ADHD, over 80 percent were
found to have deficiencies in the omega-3
fatty acid DHA (found in fish oils) and
about 1 in 5 had deficiencies in the omega-6
fatty acid, GLA (found in evening primrose
oil). Recent research from Oxford University
has expanded upon this finding by demonstrating
that kids with learning or behavioral
problems respond positively to supplementation
with a combination of tuna oil and
evening primrose oils. I am predicting that
fatty acid supplementation will soon be recognized
as one of the most critical components
in the treatment of childhood learning
and behavioral problems.
The Brain is Crying for Protein
It is an indisputable fact that kids’ brains
need high quality protein. It is also true that
many children skip breakfast or eat meals
that are high in carbohydrates and low in
protein. As well, many kids with learning or
behavioral problems experience food allergies
or other adverse reactions to common foods
like dairy products and therefore, finding a
source of low allergy potential protein can be
a challenge, especially for breakfast.
One of the easiest ways to ensure that kids
get a high protein breakfast is by making flavorsome
and nutritious smoothies. Making
blender smoothies using a low allergy potential
powder or smoothie mix made from rice
or golden pea protein and then adding fruit
and other nutritious ingredients such as nut
butters and “greens powders” can take just a
few seconds but can make for a satisfying and
brain boosting foundation upon which to
build a successful day.
Critical Nutrients for the Brain
Other “brain critical” nutritional factors
have been discovered to play an important
role in children’s cognitive health. Several
vitamins, especially folate, B12, B6 and thiamine
have all been shown to have a significant
impact upon cognitive performance. As
well, iron, magnesium, zinc, calcium and
several trace elements have been clearly
linked to brain function in kids. Because the
intake of these nutrients is often marginal in
today’s kids, supplementation with these
nutrients may be vital for good brain function.
In my research and clinical practice, I
have found that most kids with learning or
behavioral problems exhibit evidence of a
variety of nutrition insufficiencies or overt deficiencies and these must be corrected if
progress is to be expected.
Healing the Gut-Brain Connection
I have also found that kids with learning,
behavioral and developmental problems usually
have subtle but very real disturbances in
gastrointestinal and immune system function.
In my research I discovered that
increased gut permeability (leaky gut), poor
gut immune function and disordered gut
ecology (including parasites, lack of friendly
bacteria and overgrowth of yeast organisms)
are common accompaniments of disordered
brain function in kids. Getting children on a
high fiber diet and supplementing their diets
with probiotics (friendly bacteria) is something
I recommend in all such cases. As well,
gut-supportive nutrients such as L-glutamine,
FOS, antioxidants (such as grape seed extract
and decaffeinated green tea extract), pantothenic
acid, essential fatty acids and
lecithin, all can help to support and heal the
irritated gastrointestinal mucosa. This is especially
important in kids with autism, or atopic
conditions, as well as learning and behavioral
disorders, because increased intestinal permeability
is very common in these conditions.
I have also seen over and over again that
children with brain related problems often
have food allergies or other adverse reactions
to specific foods. In my practice I instruct
parents in how to maintain their kids on an
allergy elimination diet and then I have
them reintroduce suspect foods one at a
time, making careful observations as to the
effect. This is a time consuming process but
if done correctly, it often uncovers foods that
are significant contributors to immune
system and brain related problems.
Keep Kids Off the Blood Sugar Roller Coaster
Parents also need to avoid feeding their children
foods that cause rapid swings in blood
sugar levels. Most sugars (e.g. sucrose, glucose
[dextrose], maltose, most fruit juices) as
well as all refined starchy foods (especially
white flour products) are high glycemic index
foods. These are foods that allow for rapid
absorption of sugar and they result in a roller
coaster effect upon blood sugar. Whole grain
products and the natural sweetener fructose
are much lower in glycemic index and they
result in a gentle rise in blood sugar after
meals with the roller coaster effect.
Improving the Efficiency of Detoxification
Because today’s children are all exposed to a
wide array of neurotoxins from pesticides
and other pollutants, I am a strong believer
in the supplementary use of nutrients that
aid the liver and gut in processing and
expelling these unwanted chemicals. Factors
such as milk thistle extract, fiber, sulfate, Lglutamine
and N-acetyl cysteine are all key
helpers in the body’s continual detoxification
activities. The neuroprotective power of
these nutrients can be further increased with
the addition of natural fruit extracts and
herbs such as decaffeinated green tea extract
and grape seed extract. These provide vital
phytochemicals that kids often greatly lack.
Building a foundation for a successful
future must include a program of sound
nutrition. After all, the brain is composed
completely of nutrition. Epidemics of childhood
learning and behavioral problems as
well as skyrocketing rates of allergic diseases,
obesity and a variety of other maladies can
all be linked to the market driven changes in
the diets of our children. Parents who truly
care must take the time to learn, discover
and apply what it really takes to feed their
child’s precious brain properly. TH
Michael R. Lyon, M.D. is the medical and research director at the Canadian Centre for Nutritional Medicine. He is the author of Is Your Child’s Brain Starving? Food, Not Drugs for Life and Learning.
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