1 THE POWER OF REAL FOOD JOAN, A MOTHER OF TWO, called one day to tell me that her son Hal, 10, was listless, losing weight, and doing poorly in school. He had been variously diagnosed with depression, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and was being medicated by three different specialists. Joan was worried that her son was being overmedicated by his doctors and wanted my opinion as a naturopathic physician. She arrived at my office looking distressed and accompanied by Hal, who was reserved and sullen. After they sat down, Joan said, "I'm recently divorced, and I also got laid off 6 months ago. I'm working two part-time jobs now, so Hal has to fend for himself most of the day." Hal avoided my eyes as his mother talked, as if he was embarrassed. Joan continued, "The other morning I looked down and realized that my 10- year-old son was on more medications than my mother was at 75, and I just freaked out. Plus, he doesn't seem to be getting any better, just worse." Hal was suffering from a list of diagnoses that many American kids currently face: ADD, depression, and IBS. He was being treated with a powerful drug cocktail that included methylphenidate (Ritalin) for his ADHD and paroxetine (Paxil), a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, or SSRI, for depression. Both are strong medications; in combination, they could have effects on not just his mood and behavior, but also on his appetite, energy level, and mental skills. I asked Joan about her son's lifestyle--what was his diet like? "I buy him healthy food, but I can't make him eat it," she responded. "I work all day and he's at school." When I asked Hal what a typical day's food intake looked like, he listed the following: . Breakfast: A toaster pastry and a sweetened orange drink . Lunch: One or two slices of pizza, two cookies, and a can of soda . Dinner: A microwaveable frozen meal followed by a bowl of ice cream and another soda Immediately I could see that the lack of nutrients in Hal's diet, along with the hefty doses of added sugars and fats, was certainly problematic. Hal didn't consume a single serving of fruit on most days. And the food he ate was loaded with synthetic additives and colorants that may be linked to ADD, among other disorders. But when it came to Hal's overall quality of life, the IBS was his most troubling illness. It often sidelined him from many social events and school functions, particularly sports. From Hal's somber mood, it was clear that he missed participating in such activities with his peers--and that being involved in physical activity would have a positive impact on his health. I decided we would first try a food elimination diet (see "Elimination Diet," opposite), which removes the foods suspected of triggering an illness (in this case, IBS) from the diet and then adds them back in, one at a time, to see which ones are triggers. To facilitate this process, patients keep a daily food and symptom journal, tracking what they eat and how they feel after eating. Once several weeks' worth of information has been recorded, the patients and I sit down together to analyze the journals, and it usually becomes apparent which foods are precipitating or contributing to their illnesses. In the weeks that followed, it became apparent that Hal's trigger was wheat gluten, which was present in virtually every meal he ate. I helped Joan create a gluten-free diet (see "Gluten or Another Wheat Protein," later in this chapter) that eliminated wheat breads and all other products made with grains that have gluten and substituted brown rice and spelt. Since Joan suspected that she had the same food allergy, she decided to follow the same eating plan. When you start your own elimination diet, it may take time for your symptoms to decrease or disappear. Because of this, you might not associate stopping a food with feeling better 2 weeks later. Consult your naturopathic physician, who will make the connections for you. ELIMINATION DIET An elimination diet removes foods from a child's diet that are suspected of being symptom triggers, then adds them back in one at a time to see whether the child feels well or ill. Common triggers are cow's milk and gluten. While it's easy to follow this procedure, ongoing compliance with the findings can be challenging for both parent and child. No one likes giving up favorite foods--even if it makes him or her feel better. Follow these instructions for the elimination diet. If children are old enough, they may be able to follow the procedure themselves, with your help. 1. Keep a 7-day food diary of the foods your child eats most commonly. 2. Keep a parallel record of gastrointestinal symptoms or mood changes and try to connect them to the foods listed in the food diary. 3. See if the foods that match your child's symptoms have similarities, such as dairy, gluten, egg, soy, legume, or corn ingredients. 4. If possible, avoid the foods that match the symptoms for a minimum of 1 week, preferably for 1 month. 5. After the elimination period, reintroduce a suspect food for 2 days. 6. If this food is causing the problem, then the symptoms may return, sometimes even worse than before. 7. If the symptoms do return, eliminate this food from your child's diet altogether. 8. If the symptoms do not return within 3 days of reintroduction, then you can assume that the food is not causing the problem. 9. Continue eliminating and reintroducing a food every 5 to 7 days until you discover the offending items. 10. After avoiding an offending food for 6 to 12 months, your child's immune system may have further developed, allowing him or her to tolerate a food that used to cause a problem. Try reintroducing it. It doesn't always work, though; some foods will always have to be avoided. While food allergies are usually present for life, food sensitivities can change for no apparent reason. The immune system is in constant flux, especially in children. I have seen sensitivities to a food disappear as a child's immune system begins to tolerate it. This change in their diet turned out to have a number of benefits for both Hal and his mother. Joan changed her work schedule so they could sit down and eat dinner together for the first time in years. They ate healthy, wholesome foods, and they saved money by eating at home. This junk-free diet also rid Hal's body of the additives and food colorings that may be linked to ADHD. Surprisingly, Hal enjoyed his new diet and even agreed to take the healthy lunches his mother packed to school. Why? I saw the answer for myself when Hal arrived for his 2-month follow-up appointment. After spending 8 weeks on a healthy diet, he was almost unrecognizable. His pallor was gone, his face and body had filled out, and he had also stopped taking Ritalin. "Why's that?" I asked him. "I don't feel like I need it anymore. I can pay attention pretty well now. I told my other doctor--he was surprised, but he didn't argue about it." Joan, on the other hand, looked as if a sublayer of fat had melted off her body. She also seemed more vital and alive. "Hal is playing soccer!" she shared. "And it was his idea." As I listened to her talk, I thought, This is the power of food. It is not simply our body's fuel, without which we could not survive. Food also possesses great power to affect our physical and mental well-being. As the French gastronomist Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said, "Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you what you are." Dietary change is the core lifestyle modification in naturopathic medical practice. The easiest, least expensive, and most effective intervention you as a parent can make to improve your children's health is to feed them "real" foods, which are often the miracle cures for numerous childhood disorders. This is an area of everyday life that you can act on right now-- without a prescription or special expertise, but with just a little guidance. What Are Your Children Really Eating? At the end of each day, if your child's food intake were displayed on the dining room table, you might be surprised--or even shocked--by the quality and the quantity of what he consumed. Did he really empty that bag of corn chips and half a jar of processed cheese dip? Did his lunch actually consist of two slices of pepperoni pizza, a can of soda, and a pile of vending machine candy? You might be surprised to see that your child's only "fruit" serving for the day came in the form of a "roll-up" or that the only green item in his diet was artificially colored. My rule for children is simple: Feed them a whole food diet. If it grows from the earth, swims in the ocean, or grazes in a pasture, they can have it. There are no cookie bushes, bagel trees, or potato chip canyons anywhere that I know of. As parents, you are a child's first role model in the world of food. Whether you're a health nut or a couch potato, your child is likely to mimic your behavior. And the habits that children form during their first 7 years will likely last a lifetime. Once your child develops a taste for unhealthy, processed foods, it can be very difficult for him or her to overcome cravings for foods that are full of sugar, fat, and salt. Your best strategy is to keep those foods to a minimum in your child's diet in the first place. Parents should also be careful not to use food--especially sweets and junk foods--as incentives for good behavior, rewards for accomplishments, or positive reinforcement. These associations can become long lasting and contribute to disordered eating habits. One way for parents to get a clear idea of just what their children are eating is to ask them to keep a 7-day food journal in which they record the amount of each item in every meal, snack, and dessert as well as every beverage they consume every day for a week. (This can be the same food and symptom journal they used for the elimination diet.) Older kids should be able to fill it out on their own, and you should encourage them to record their entries throughout the day so they don't forget about any candy bars or toaster pastries they might have eaten. Ask them to be specific about portions, too; instead of simply writing "ice cream," they should specify "ice cream cone" or "1 pint of ice cream." With younger kids, sit down together at the end of the day and help them try to remember the foods they ate. You should also have them note any symptoms that arose around the time they ate. Did they have a headache shortly after their snack? A tummy ache after dinner? Linking physical symptoms with food is also a way for children to understand how their diet makes them feel and why. For example, as a child works through an elimination diet, you can explain how cow's milk and gluten products may have adverse effects on the immune system and draw connections between symptom relief and food removal. Eventually, children will learn which foods create unpleasant symptoms, and you can help them choose whether to eliminate them from their diet entirely or simply cut down on the amounts they eat. If they have some say in that choice, they are more likely to follow through on the ultimate decision. My 12-year-old patient Heather had lived for most of her life with undiagnosed celiac disease. She often felt ill and bloated after eating wheat or other starches. After she was diagnosed, she was happy to stick to a gluten-free diet because she realized how much better she felt. "I don't even have to worry about compliance," her father told me. "When she's confronted with something she's not supposed to eat, she says, 'No, thanks, that will make me feel sick.'" Whole versus Processed Foods A peach plucked from a tree and a sugar snap pea snipped off a vine--these are real, whole foods that many of our children rarely eat. Delivered straight from nature, they contain nutrients and vitamins that are impossible to duplicate in any pill or supplement. Processed foods, on the other hand, are ubiquitous and often make up the majority of our children's diets, from their first bite of high-sugar cereal in the morning to their evening snack of salty, fried potato chips. There is no good reason to feed your children manufactured meals. It may seem like packaged meals--breakfast sandwiches, pizza bagels, frozen dinners--are more convenient than preparing whole foods, but consider this: An apple and a handful of almonds is one of the most nutritious ways you can start your child's day. No micro-waving or toasting involved! In addition, junk foods such as sugary snacks and sodas may be linked to hyper-activity in children. And it has been shown that children who eat a diet rich in nutritious, wholesome foods (high in fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fish) have half the risk of being diagnosed with ADHD as do children who eat a "Western" diet (emphasizing processed, sugary, fried, and refined foods). In fact, in a Dutch study, 25 children with ADHD whose parents fed them an oligoantigenic diet--one comprising only a few hypoallergenic foods, such as rice, turkey, pears, and lettuce--were judged by the parents to have at least a 50 percent improvement in their behavior. While this diet may seem strict, it's a wonderful example of how food can affect our cognitive function and mood. Shop at farmer's markets and on the perimeters of grocery stores, where fresh foods are located, as opposed to at the center, where preservative- laden foods are displayed. Eating this way will help your health! Artificial Colors and Preservatives Did you know that farm-raised salmon--which are gray and have lower healthy essential fatty acid content than wild salmon--are dyed deep pink to mimic the color of wild salmon? Artificial food colors and preservatives, so common in packaged products, may be graced with lyrical names--from Sunset Yellow to Allura Red--but their effects are far from poetic. They are simply additional unnecessary toxic burdens for our children to bear. A 12-year-old girl who was in serious trouble came in to see me recently. Her skin was covered with hives and she was experiencing difficulty breathing. When I asked the mother if her daughter had any allergies, she answered, "Not that I know of." The girl was pale and wheezing. There was no time to waste. As I began to administer steroids and an antihistamine, I noticed that she had something in her mouth. "What's that?" I asked. Excerpted from 100 Natural Remedies for Your Child: The Complete Guide to Safe, Effective Treatments for Childhood's Most Common Ailments, from Allergies to Weight Loss by Jared M. Skowron All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.