David, Eileen, and Josie,
What to do about ADD/ADHD?
Here is what a person who spent many years in the macrobiotic movement teaching cooking and healing and writing several excellent books, including
The New Whole Foods Encyclopedia: A Comprehensive Resource for Healthy Eating ,
Rebecca Wood, has to say.
My guess is that it depends on what you believe.
My belief is that many to most disease names were invented by people who did not have a natural understanding of life.
The way I see it, macrobiotics is a natural understanding of life that has been conceptualized to make it easier for one person to communicate that understanding to another.
Instead of just giving problems scientific names and then trying to deal with those problems with science, exclusively, let's also identify the problems basically, and try to understand it from a more simple point of view, like yin and yang, or expansion and contraction of the foods that are consumed and how they affect how we eat and feel.
A really excellent book, though out of print, but still available online is
Food for Thought: A New Look at Food & Behavior by Saul and JoAnne Miller (both psychologists) in which they share with the reader how the foods we eat affect how we feel and think.
For instance from the
Second Chapter: Food a Total View, they say:
"
Steak and eggs are contractive; fruits, candy and beer are expansive; and bread is in the middle.
The basis of
Food for Thought is understanding food and its effects and what to eat to be sane and satisfied. To appreciate food in a total and practical way we present it on a single dimension. The poles of this dimension we call expansion and contraction. All food can be divided into three groups, each with its own place on this scale.
- Animal foods (meat, fish, eggs and dairy) are on the contractive end of the dimension.
- Plant foods (grains, vegetables and fruits) are in the center.
- Plant derivatives (sugar, spices, alcohol and drugs) are on the expansive end.
Animal Food. Animal foods are contractive simply because most of the animals we eat are concentrated vegetable energy, That is, animals eat and grow on a diet of grasses and grains-which becomes their flesh, It has been estimated that between five and ten pounds of vegetable protein produce one pound of animal protein* In this sense animals are more concentrated or contractive than plants.
While all animal foods are contractive, some are more contractive than others. Red meat is the most contractive, more than fowl (and eggs), fish and dairy food. Of the latter, cheese and butter are more concentrated or contractive than milk. There may be ten pounds of milk in one pound of butter or cheese,
*If a family of four were to eat just grain and vegetables for a year, they would require less than an acre of land to grow all their food. If that same family were to eat just beef more than ten times the acreage would be required to support the cattle, and thus their appetite.
Plant Foods. Plant foods occupy the center of the dimension and form the main part of the human diet. They range from seeds (such as grains, nuts and beans) on the contractive side to grapes, melons, and tropical fruits on the expansive end. Vegetables are in between. Within the plant foods. the smaller. harder. more compact ones, and those growing more slowly or below ground, are more contractive. The larger, leafier, juicier plants growing quickly or above ground are more expansive. Fruits are more expansive than vegetables. When we eat fruits, we eat or drink the sweeter, juicier, more expansive parts of the plant. Smaller, denser fruits, such as berries, cherries and apples, are more contractive than a bunch of grapes or a melon.
Most natural foods fall into these two groups. However, there is a third group which I will call plant derivatives. This group belongs at the expansive end of the dimension.
Plant Derivatives. Plant derivatives are extracts, concentrates and distillates of various parts of the plant. Included in this group are sugar, syrups, tea, coffee, wine, beer, spirits, marijuana and other drugs. I refer to them as expansive for two reasons:
- They are usually made from the most expansive part of the plant-its fruit, juices, blossoms or leaves.
- These substances have a marked effect on the nervous system and an expansive effect on behavior.
These derivatives are not whole foods. For example:
Fruit juices are the most expansive (liquid, sweet) part of the plant. Most commercial fruit juices are pressed, boiled and filtered.
Syrups are made by extracting and boiling down the juice from fruits (and vegetables). By further processing syrups, one gets
sugar. White sugar is further refined.
Alcoholic drinks (wine, beer, spirits) are produced by the fermentation, brewing, and distillation of more centered foods (fruits, vegetables, and grains).
Coffee and tea are derived by processing and leaching beans and leaves.
The table that follows will help you to classify foods according to their expansive or contractive properties:
If all this seems a bit confusing or just too much, then remember:
Steak and eggs are contractive; fruits, candy and beer are expansive; and bread is in the middle.
Nutritionists usually classify food in terms of its acidityalkalinity, its vitamin, mineral, protein, calorie or carbohydrate content. These are all determined by chemical analysis of the food in the laboratory. In these terms, acidity-alkalinity and protein: carbohydrate ratio are consistent with our classification of the food in groups 1 and 2 (whole foods) as expansive and contractive..
The advantage of using terms like expansive and contractive rather than the nutritionist's terms mentioned above is that expansion and contraction are universal concepts. That is:
- They classify foods on the basis of many factors (not simply vitamin, or mineral, or protein content).
- They can be easily understood.
- They can be applied meaningfully not just to food, but to all natural phenomena, including behavior. As you shall see, expansive food -----> expansive behavior. contractive food ----->contractive behavior.
-------------------------------
*
Protein:carbohydrate ratio is simply the amount of protein relative to the amount of carbohydrate in any food. This index can be calculated (rom the data provided in most food composition tables. Generally, contractive foods have a high protein:carbohydrate ratio, while expansive foods have a low protein:carbohydrate ratio. Generally. acid-forming foods are contractive while alkaline-forming foods are expansive.
So, as you might be able to see, understanding foods from an expansive contractive point of view may not be that difficult (something even a child might understand!).
How that applies to children and learning difficulties, including focusing (as often expressed by emotions and behavioral problems) I will address in the following post.
Be well, your best, and be blessed.
Thank you, very much.
Bruce Paine
Quote:
Originally Posted by David26
Hello Eileen and Josie, thank you for your input.....and this is going to be a very late reply......but I want to add some info here so...
Daily Living
1. Often the most obvious is overlooked. If you or someone you know suspects ADD / ADHD, seek help. Ignorance is NOT always bliss!
2. Seek treatment solutions that work best for YOU. And support those others choose for themselves.
3. Continue your education about ADD / ADHD. Research continues daily. Keep up with the latest research, books, and treatments; check out new workshops in your area, delve into new online resources, etc. Information can mean healing power.
4. Think: long-term and don’t be afraid of change. Since there is no cure for ADD, always be open and willing to try to modifying behaviors and managing other symptoms with revised aids. For example, get on a mailing list for Franklin Covey planning products. If your budget, circumstances and time allow, experiment with computerized organizational and planning tools, sync them with print versions. Remember Aesop’s, “Slow and steady wins the race.”
Josie.....some info about Insomnia
David. |