Refined sugar, of course, is not good, especially if you are having a candy bar and a soda instead of lunch. There's also been some suggestion that the dyes in many softdrinks and sportdrinks may trigger hyperactive behavior.
Instead of talking about good foods and bad foods, we should be looking at the context of the meal and the foods consumed over the course of a day. It's been said that there's no such thing as junk food, only junk diets. Even broccoli would be unhealthy if it was the only thing you ate. The general idea is to keep your blood sugar fairly steady over the course of a day.
To that end, you want your meals to be good balances of protein and carbohydrates. Not easy to do, once you start reading labels and realize how much carbos are in everything! Nutrional shakes? Fuggedabout it!
Carbohydrates get metabolized fairly quickly, and protein turns into energy more slowly. The energy coming from, say, a ham sandwich will be smoother still if the bread is whole grain instead of bleached and processed white bread. The whole grains take a little bit longer to digest, so you get less of an energy spike. Potatoes of any kind are about as bad as white bread for the energy spikes (and crashes). To compare foods for this property, you might use what nutritonists call the glycemic index.
Most vegetables are mostly water. If they're raw or even lightly cooked, I wouldn't even count them as carbos, myself. Fruit you need to watch more carefully, depending on how much sugar they have.
Many school lunches do a good job of balancing different kinds of nutrition, if the kid eats everything on his plate and the teacher eats her overcooked vegetables [whistles innocently].
School breakfasts in the US often come up short. As a teacher, I used to complain about having cereal or pancakes and syrup as the main dish of breakfast on a day in the schedule that lunch happened 45 minutes later. The energy from a high sugar, all-carbohydrate breakfast was long gone by the time lunch rolled around.
This kind of breakfast seems to be allowed about one day a week by US guidelines. Parents could counteract the effects of the all-carbo breakfast by sending a piece of string cheese, for example, on the bus with the kids on those days. It doesn't have to be too complicated.
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3 Responses
wat u talkin bout?
2008 Jan 09 1There was a study done in the UK about children with ADHD. All they did was stop giving the kids food with preservatives, additives, color, etc. After on month it was like they were different children, no more fighting, easier time learning and no more behavioral problems.
The kids ate whole foods like fruit, veggies, grains (breads)and meats but all without preservatives and artificial colors. If you have boxed foods in your pantry (like Cheetos, cupcakes, Twinkies, etc.) read the package. You'll be surprised how much junk there is in there that isn't real food.
Good luck with your child, I hope a better diet works!
References :
Glass Ceiling
2008 Jan 09 2I grew up with adhd.
Good foods such as veggies and dip instead of junk food had a positive effect on me growing up. Alot of protein and whole grains are good too. If the child takes medication for adhd, make sure it won't increase food intake. Alot of medications for adhd do that.
References :
Beckee
2008 Jan 09 3Refined sugar, of course, is not good, especially if you are having a candy bar and a soda instead of lunch. There's also been some suggestion that the dyes in many softdrinks and sportdrinks may trigger hyperactive behavior.
Instead of talking about good foods and bad foods, we should be looking at the context of the meal and the foods consumed over the course of a day. It's been said that there's no such thing as junk food, only junk diets. Even broccoli would be unhealthy if it was the only thing you ate. The general idea is to keep your blood sugar fairly steady over the course of a day.
To that end, you want your meals to be good balances of protein and carbohydrates. Not easy to do, once you start reading labels and realize how much carbos are in everything! Nutrional shakes? Fuggedabout it!
Carbohydrates get metabolized fairly quickly, and protein turns into energy more slowly. The energy coming from, say, a ham sandwich will be smoother still if the bread is whole grain instead of bleached and processed white bread. The whole grains take a little bit longer to digest, so you get less of an energy spike. Potatoes of any kind are about as bad as white bread for the energy spikes (and crashes). To compare foods for this property, you might use what nutritonists call the glycemic index.
Most vegetables are mostly water. If they're raw or even lightly cooked, I wouldn't even count them as carbos, myself. Fruit you need to watch more carefully, depending on how much sugar they have.
Many school lunches do a good job of balancing different kinds of nutrition, if the kid eats everything on his plate and the teacher eats her overcooked vegetables [whistles innocently].
School breakfasts in the US often come up short. As a teacher, I used to complain about having cereal or pancakes and syrup as the main dish of breakfast on a day in the schedule that lunch happened 45 minutes later. The energy from a high sugar, all-carbohydrate breakfast was long gone by the time lunch rolled around.
This kind of breakfast seems to be allowed about one day a week by US guidelines. Parents could counteract the effects of the all-carbo breakfast by sending a piece of string cheese, for example, on the bus with the kids on those days. It doesn't have to be too complicated.
References :
http://www.glycemicindex.com/
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