04-04-2002, 11:00 AM
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Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
I have a young nephew who is ADD. He is a active, talkactive fidgety little thing. His constant behavior problems and inability to sit stilland focus in school are possing a problem for him as well as his family.
They are reluctant to put him on riddlin because of the recent findings that it has side affects previously unknown and simply because it is unnatural. My sister is a vegetarian and raises heer children on a vegetarian diet so I am not sure what is stimulating him so much. If it is a natural body response that he was born with what can one do naturally to make life a little easier for him and those around him? He is a truely a bright, expressive and funny kid but is constantly in trouble. Any suggestions? I love the little guy dearly and do not liek the idea of him being put on meds.     
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04-04-2002, 07:26 PM
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Pete. Sounds like too much simple carbohydrate in the diet and perhaps too much raw fruit and concentrated sweetners, like honey, jelly,etc. Check to see how much cooked whole grains he is eating and get to us with that info. I look forward to your reply.
In peace, Roy
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04-12-2002, 05:52 PM
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I know they eat a lot of simple carbohydrates. My sister loves to make bread and cookies. She is not a macro just a vegetarian but she finds my new practice interesting.
They have found that he does better in school when they eat more protien rich foods like fish and tofu. They are not big fish eaters but do have it occassinally when my brother in law goes fishing. Does that mean that ADD could be a more yin condittion? I would have thought that it would be the opposite since these children have so mcu excessive energy and are calmed down by cafeen and riddlin but those are both invigerating things so I goes it would mean it could be a more yin thing. What do you think? Should I tell her to just stick with giving him complex carbohydrates and no simple ones? What else should they do ir is this enough? Do all these types of kids need meds? It seems like there is too much of this condittion now a days.
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04-12-2002, 10:14 PM
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Yes, excess yin energy -- mostly in brain, constantly thinking, imagining; can't focus. Making focus requires more yang energy.
Yang energy is more slow, sustained, even burning. Yin is fast, hyper. Yin plants grow fast. Yang plants take more time to grow. Drugs are needed if diet is bad only. If diet is changed no drugs are needed. You are on the right track. Ritalin speeds up brain more than it already is so this makes brain more tired faster. You said your sister is vegetarian, correct? I am therefore assuming that the child is eating vegetarian way as well. Since no animal food is used in the diet this means diet is always on the yin side; making more yin energy. Yin energy goes up to head and activtes brain more. Yang goes more to body (brain waves slow down). If your sister cooks more whole grains and use a little more fish and less simple carbohydrates, concentrated sugars, eliminates fruit juice, tomatoes, and other excess yin in diet the child will soon be OK. More exercise all around is also good. As body activates, thinking becomes more stable. I hope this helps. In peace, Roy
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07-24-2006, 06:27 AM
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Hello all,
I found these infromation when I searched diet for add. 1) NO DAIRY PRODUCTS, especially cow's milk. This is the single most important restriction. Instead try Almond milk, Rice milk, or Better Than Milk. Drink water instead of milk. In fact, drink lots of water. The brain is about 80% water, and increasing your water intake to 7 to 10 glasses per day might be helpful all by itself. Sodas, Gatorade, teas, icees, etc., do not count as water. Water counts as water. 2) NO YELLOW FOODS. Especially Corn or Squash. Bananas are white. Don't eat the peel. 3) NO JUNK FOODS. If it comes in a cellophane wrapper, don't eat it. 4) NO FRUIT JUICES. Too much sugar content. One small glass of apple juice has the sugar content of eight apples. Later on you can have juice, but dilute it with water 50/50. 5) CUT SUGAR INTAKE BY 90%. If you can, cut it down to zero. Sugar is in just about everything, but give it a try. Do your best without going crazy. 6) CUT CHOCOLATE BY 90%. No more than a single piece, once a week. 7) NO NUTRASWEET. None. Period. 8) NO PROCESSED MEATS and NO MSG. Only get meats with labels that say, “Turkey and Water,” etc. If the meat has chemicals listed that you can't pronounce, don't buy it. 9) CUT FRIED FOODS BY 90%. 10) AVOID FOOD COLORINGS WHENEVER POSSIBLE. See if your child is sensitive to any particular colors, such as Reds, Yellows, etc. For now, though, avoid all if possible. SUMMARY: Just eat foods that God made for a while. Eat like people did in the 1940's. Go to a used book store and get a Betty Crocker's Cook Book for recipe ideas. There really are about 10,000 meals that you CAN eat. Just not much in the way of “fast foods” or “convenience” foods. David
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08-01-2006, 07:53 AM
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Hi there,
I have my son following the Feingold program (Feingold.org) in addition to doing basic MB. The program eliminates all foods that contain artificial colors, flavors, preservatives (BHT etc.), sweeteners, and foods high in salicylates in stage 1 (apples, oranges, tomatos, grapes, stone fruits-plums/cherries/etc., berries). Perhaps they use many of the convenience vegetarian foods, many of which contain every one of the above items. The FG association has food lists from manufacturers that will give you okay foods to buy. Just because it isn't on the label, doesn't mean that its not in there because manufacturers don't have to list things that are 2nd or 3rd party ingredients or proprietory aka 'natural flavors'. My son is in stage 1 of the program and we have been doing it for 2 years. I was surprised how much an apple can effect his behavior. A half of an organic apple will have him out of control, unable to make eye contact and usually wet his pants. He's almost 5 and has been potty trained for 2 years. He is sensitive to the salicylates in foods. I have been doing this for awhile, so I know he can have 10 raisins in his oatmeal, but not a whole box, and never alone without another food to buffer it. If results aren't seen in a few weeks on stage 1 then the next thing to try is to eliminate dairy and gluten and see what happens. ADD is on the same spectrum as autism, just on different ends. Many parents of ADD and autisitc children have had great results doing this. I try to have several gluten free meals a week. Again, we follow basic MB principles too, so this keeps us eating pretty much how things grew out of the ground, seasonally correct and temperate climate...with the exception of some fruits that my son can eat... and in the middle of yin/yang foods. I hope this helps. Thanks, Eileen
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08-01-2006, 01:58 PM
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
I'm an ADHD adult who really battled with it while I was a child. I find since eating Macro (one year) the difference is amazing. I can sit still, I can concentrate, I can SLEEP which is so odd (I've spent my whole life as an insomniac). I'm still learning the effects each food has on me, and I've been vegetarian for years, but I will say giving up refined sugars and dairy has made an unbelievable difference.
Josie
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03-16-2007, 04:59 AM
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
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.
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03-26-2007, 01:37 AM
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
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 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:
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:
------------------------------- *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:
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03-26-2007, 11:38 AM
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
David, Eileen, and Josie,
From Food for Thought: A New Look at Food & Behavior by Saul and JoAnne Miller       "Chapter 17, Educational Problems in Children :Junk food is the food of the learning-problem generation. Psychologists, educators and parents are becoming increasingly aware of children with educational problems. According to some recent estimates, educational problems affect up to one-third of all school children in the United States. The child with an educational problem is one who is not performing up to a certain acceptable standard in the classroom. It may be that the child has a specific learning disorder and has trouble acquiring reading, speech or mathematical skills. It may be that the child has a disciplinary problem and is upsetting teacher, classmates or procedure. It may also be that the child has an emotional or physical problem which is decreasing its learning ability and/or making it difficult to behave in an acceptable manner. Any or all of these problems may constitute an educational problem. The best indication that a psychologist, teacher or parent has about a child's learning ability or emotional well-being is in that child's performance. The difficulty that a child may have performing in an intelligent and well-organized manner in the classroom is rarely specific to that situation. Basically, classroom behavior can be seen as involving five categories of complex and integrative behaviors. A performance or educational problem can manifest itself in any or all ofthe five. In the classroom:
None of these behaviors are restricted to the classroom. They are all demanded in the course of a child's everyday life. However, as the child must share the classroom with many children (and' they are all there to experience a specific process, namely education) certain standards of behavior are defined. Behavior often ignored or tolerated at home may be more apparent and disruptive in school. There is little data available for comparison, but experienced teachers have noted disturbed behavior is more common in the classroom today than it was twenty years ago. Several years ago, I participated in a classroom observational study at the University' of Maryland. With two other observers, I sat at the back of a classroom for one day, recording the quality of the teacher's response patterns. We rated each response the teacher made to a specific child (not to the class as a whole) as to whether it was instructive or disciplinary. On that day, we noted that over 80 percent of the teacher's interactions with individual children were of a disciplinary nature. There are many factors accounting for the increase in educational problems today. The list includes: more comprehensive screening techniques, social permissiveness, changing values, dissolution of the family, urban stress, drugs and, of course, diet.* Most people can understand that an extreme, unnatural diet can nurture emotional and disciplinary problems. We are less inclined to think that a child's diet can affect its learning ability. The sophistication with which learning disorders are now tested and treated is not matched by an awareness of what the child with a learning disorder is eating, and how that may affect his or her problem. For example, a child may be tested, diagnosed and classified as "dyslexic" (having a reading disorder). This is then seen as the problem and remedial reading is prescribed as the solution. One expert on children with learning and emotional problems has written: When children who exhibit learning and/or behavioral disorders are examined by a number of specialists, the diagnosis is more closely related to the orientation of the specialist than it is to the essential problems of the child. A child may be ill because of a defect in his psychosocial environment or because of the biosocial environment or both may be in error. My experience leads me to conclude that in the vast majority of cases the error resides in the physicaJ environment and usuaJly in the nutrition and chemical airborne environment. 1 ----------------------------------------- *Food is often ignored as a basic factor in determining behavior. When an article in a leading weekly periodical begins, "Eleven-year-old Christopher Hansen swirled his grape lollipop in a glass of Pepsi. . .~' and goes on to discuss discipline problems and unstable family relations without even considering the relationship of food and behavior. . . the perspective is limited. (Newsweek) May 15, 1978) Of course, remedial reading and speech therapy can be helpful, but what of the child's diet? Often (not always) a child continues on a diet of chocolate, candy, soft drinks, chips, hot dogs, milkshakes and processed, or "junk/' foods.* There is now evidence that the overall performance of highschool students' American college entrance examinations has been decreasing for the past fourteen years. Of course there are many factors to account for this decline including social factors, TV, curriculum changes and different student populations. One change that is usually ignored in discussing this problem is the unnatural, junk-food diet of today's young people. The habitual eating of junk foods and candy can lead to a condition where eating any sweets, even fruits and natural sweeteners, will be upsetting and reduce performance. I have observed with some children that just eating a few candies, a piece of chocolate, some honey or a banana is sufficient to markedly decrease their reading ability.** After eating these foods, the children make more errors, their reading speed slows and their comprehension decreases. There is now a growing recognition that the hyperactive child, the child with a learning disability, the "problem child," and even the child next door may be suffering from a serious biochemical disorder. Yet despite the extreme, unnatural eating habits of the children today, most experts advise a treatment for hyperactivity based on chemotherapy (usually stimulants, such as ritalin and dexadrine are prescribed) without any change in diet. Others recommend the elimination of a few specific foods such as sugar, foods with coloring and flavoring agents. I would suggest a marked reduction of all extreme and unnatural foods. The same features of disintegration, alienation, insensitivity and extreme behavior that are a part of all contemporary problems can be found in the classroom. They can be reduced by living *Junk foods are those that appeal to the taste, the eye, or the mind, but are not wholesome or nutritious. **Bananas and dates are sweet palm fruits which can have an unbalancing effect on behavior, especially if people have a blood-sugar problem. sensibly and eating well. In some cases, remedial instruction may be appropriate, and in most cases a child's internal state directly affects its behavior. Children express a wide range of activity levels. I have lived and worked with some very active children whose behavior I considered healthy and normal. They may wel1 have been "hyperactive" had not considerable attention been paid to ensure them a centered, natural diet. In British Columbia, I was invited to address a group of teachers working with autistic and severely retarded children. After observing the children for several minutes, it was clear that each child was unique. Each had its own behavior pattern and many of the children were eating lots of refined carbohydrates and dairy food. There is no "magic diet" that can eliminate brain damage and severe retardation. Dietary change can, however, increase performance and help these children be more socialized. One could begin by eliminating all refined carbohydrates and chemical additives and decreasing dairy foods. Indeed, I have found that for almost al1 kinds of behavioral and emotional disturbances in children (and adults), a first step to establishing order and sanity is a change in diet. THE FORMATIVE YEARS Early life experiences, including early eating experiences, have a profound effect on al1living beings. In fact, the closer one gets to conception, the greater is the significance of each and every stimulus in our development. It is wel1 known that if a mother has an illness such as German measles during her early pregnancy, the child's development may be irreversibly affected. A similar effect may be the result of drugs (e.g., thalidomide) taken during pregnancy. In contrast, the same disease or drug will have a much less profound effect on a child or an adult. So it is with food. The evolutionary time period required for a single-celled organism to evolve into a complex human being is said to be approximately three billion years. Yet, this process occurs within a female during the nine months of pregnancy. Accordingly, each day of pregnancy represents approximately ten million years of development. Hence a few days of a mother's chaotic eating, drinking and drug-taking can alter her internal environment and profoundly affect the fetus. It may even alter subsequent adult development and behavior. Studies with animals and humans have shown that the quality of food in the earliest years has a greater impact than the same food eaten for an equal period later in life. It has been noted that if malnutrition extends through the most formative years of a child's mental development (from conception to age five), then retardation may be permanent. Severely malnourished children may experience an increase in I.Q. if their diets are enriched during this period. BRAIN FOOD Brain damage and minimal brain dysfunction have become common problems of this age. Estimates are as high as one American child in 18 being affected by the latter. The causes are many and varied. Most fundamental is the biochemical environment of the fetus and child. Nothing is more basic to that milieu, and more controllable, than diet, especially the mother's diet during pregnancy and when nursing, and the child's diet after weaning. Psychologists have noted the significance of early emotional experience on the development of the adult personality. The dispositions and attitudes of social behavior acquired in our first few years are those we'll most likely express throughout our lives. Similarly, the food a child eats in its formative years profoundly affects its later development and behavior. Of course, the idea that diet has its greatest impact in these early years does not mean its effect in later years is unimportant and can be ignored. The same principles of a centered, natural diet apply to young and old alike." Yes, it's a big jump from the expansion and contractiveness of foods to educational problems of children, and that is why I recommend reading the whole book to get the complete picture as presented by the authors. As you may see, there is more to the children and everyone's learning process topic than just scientific perspectives. Be well, be your best, and be blessed. Thank you, very much. Bruce Paine
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04-24-2007, 02:39 AM
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Re: Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD)
Hello Bruce,
Thank you for the input...its very detailed helpful information...well I have visited your blog on macrobiotic book reviews...its very interesting and informative... David.
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