According to research, children's diets can affect their behaviour, mood and learning, writes Sylvia Thompson
They Are What You Feed Them (Harper Thorsons) is the provocative title of Dr Alex Richardson's newly published book.
A researcher at Oxford University and a former teacher, Richardson has been looking at how food can influence children's behaviour, mood and learning for almost 20 years. She is in Dublin today to speak to members of the Irish Nutrition and Dietetic Institute.
Speaking to The Irish Times from Oxford in advance of her visit, she says, "We keep being told that 'a well-balanced diet can provide all the nutrients you need'.
"That may be true, but the truth is that many children's diets are a very long way from being well balanced . . . and the effects of this malnutrition on their behaviour and learning can be devastating.
"What I see going on in almost every sphere is a mixture of ignorance and a quite extraordinary denial of how food and diet can influence our brains and our behaviour."
Richardson asks why, if we acknowledge the dangers of a junk food diet on children's physical health (leading to obesity, risk of type II diabetes, etc), we don't acknowledge its potential effect on children's behaviour, learning and mood.
"For a long time both the food industry and successive governments have effectively kept quiet about many things they've known [or should have known] about the appalling nutritional quality of much of our food and children's food in particular," she says.
She cites Jamie Oliver's TV series on school dinners as a turning point as many people spoke about the dramatic changes in some children's behaviour after 'dumping the junk' and feeding them real, freshly cooked food.
Some Irish secondary schools have also chosen to remove food and drink dispensers from school corridors and instigate healthier hot lunch menus following public debate on the poor nutritional value of children's food.
Richardson also asks why information and advice about food and diet is rarely a feature of either assessing or treating children's behavioural and learning difficulties.
"If the diagnosis is attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ ADHD], the child will usually be offered treatment with drugs. If the diagnosis is dyslexia, then some special teaching help may be available," she says.
"If the diagnosis is dyspraxia or developmental co-ordination disorder [ DCD], then behavioural therapies or physiotherapies might be offered. Clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, education professionals and those working in social services or related fields receive little or no formal training in how food and diet can affect behaviour and mental health."
Through her work at Oxford University and more charitable organisation, Food and specifically through the Behaviour Research, Richardson has spearheaded many groundbreaking studies into the role of nutrition in brain function.
One of the most recent studies found that children given omega-3 supplements showed faster reading and spelling progress, better attention and memory and less disruptive behaviour than a matched comparison group over a three-month period.
Omega 3 fats - a group of polyunsaturated fatty acids found to be crucial to brain development and function - are her pet subject. The Food and Behaviour Research website (www.fabresearch.org) cites several studies which have found improvements in children's behaviour and learning following increased levels of omega 3 in their diets.
However, Richardson cautions people about choosing food supplements and recommends they seek independent advice - as opposed to advice from the supplement manufacturer, distributor or retailer - before choosing a supplement.
She also recommends that people make serious efforts to get all their nutrients from the food they eat first.
"Never use supplements as a substitute for a good diet - they are supplements with many potential limitations and drawbacks," she writes.
They Are What You Feed Them, Richardson's first book, is aimed at parents and anyone interested in learning the basic facts about nutrition and understanding a little about food politics.
In it, she explains the importance of macronutrients - proteins, fats and carbohydrates - and micronutrients - vitamins and minerals - and outlines physical and mental symptoms of nutritional deficiencies.
She also explains the process of digestion and examines definitions and diagnoses of various learning difficulties.
"What too few people seem to recognise and acknowledge is that our diets - and particularly children's diets - have changed out of all recognition during the past few decades," she says.
"In the last 60 years, there's been a 34 per cent decrease in UK vegetable consumption and a 59 per cent drop in consumption of oily fish.
"We're eating far more processed foods [ and thus more saturated and hydrogenated fats, salt and sugar, more artificial additives and fewer micronutrients] and this especially applies to those on low incomes."
Richardson advocates a return to home-cooked meals, suggesting that soups and casseroles can be frozen and used during the week for time-pressed families.
She also points out that they are usually much cheaper than their processed equivalents.
She says families should sit down and eat together. "In Britain and Ireland, people have taken to the American fast food diet much more than other European countries where the food culture was stronger," she says.
There is hope in sight, however, as she notes that consumers are moving away from certain soft drinks and confectionary.
"Sales of bagged snacks, sugar confectionary, fizzy soft drinks, frozen meals and pizzas have apparently declined over the last year while sales of fruit juices, cheeses, bread and drinking yogurt have increased," she writes. "And McDonalds has had to close at least 25 of its UK branches."