As the parent of two young kids I am always aware of the drugs being pushed on parents to treat ADD and the fact that in the past no kids were using Adderall or Ritalin or even Prozac.  Some people think that may of the problems assicated with ADD and ADHD are caused by food additives that have been added over the last 20 years in the foods that kids eat. Well there was just a new research paper released in Britain that is having people take notice.

“Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is an increasingly common problem, and theories abound to account for that,” said Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine. “Among them is the notion that food additives induce hyperactivity.”

Despite this apparent connection, Katz cautioned that the increasing number of children with ADHD cannot be blamed on food additives alone.

“No one factor is solely responsible for rising rates of ADHD,” Katz said. “Along with the hazards of a highly processed food supply, children are getting less and less physical activity as a means of dissipating their native rambunctiousness.”

In the study, Jim Stevenson, a professor of psychology at the University of Southampton, and his colleagues gave drinks containing additives to 297 children. The children were in two groups: 3-year-olds and 8- and 9-year-olds. The drinks contained artificial food coloring and additives such as sodium benzoate, a preservative.

These concoctions were similar to the drinks that are commercially available. The amount of additives were also similar to what is found in one or two servings of candy a day, according to the report. As a control, some children were given drinks without additives, according to the report in the Sept. 6 issue of The Lancet. Over the six weeks of the trial, Stevenson’s team found that children in both age groups who drank the drinks containing additives displayed significantly more hyperactive behavior. These children also had shorter attention spans. However, which specific additives caused specific behavioral problems is not known, the researchers said.

One of the additives, sodium benzoate, has been linked to cell damage in a previous study, and to an increased for cancer. Sodium benzoate is found in Coca-Cola, Pepsi Max and Diet Pepsi, and in many fruit drinks.

Other additives assessed in the study include a number of colorings — sunset yellow (E110), found in fruity drinks; carmoisine (E122), a red coloring often added to jams; ponceau 4R (E124), a red food coloring; tartrazine (E102), found in lollipops and carbonated drinks; quinoline yellow (E104), a food coloring; and allura red AC (E129), and orange-red food dye.

“Although the use of artificial coloring in food manufacture might seem to be superfluous, the same cannot be said for sodium benzoate, which has an important preservative function. The implications of these results for the regulation of food additive use could be substantial,” the researchers conclude.

Based on these findings, the British government’s Food Standards Agency cautioned parents to be on the lookout for hyperactive behavior linked to food additives.

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As a parent of two small children I always try to make sure that the kids get a lot of exercise to stay healthy but it is my wife that makes sure that they eat well as well. A new report from the British Medical Journal tells us that diet is very important too. Another thing of note is watching how much the kids exercise, it seems many are more inactive than we would think.

Physically active preschoolers are on to a good thing, but exercise alone won’t keep obesity at bay as they get older, British researchers report. Instead, a combination of exercise and other lifestyle changes — especially improved diets — may be the only solution to the childhood obesity epidemic, experts say.

“Promotion of physically active play per se may not be sufficient to have an impact on the weight status of young children,” said lead researcher Dr. John J. Reilly, a professor of pediatric energy metabolism at the University of Glasgow, Scotland.

His team published its finding in the Oct. 5 online issue of the British Medical Journal.

The researchers had already shown in earlier work that Scottish preschoolers have surprisingly inactive lifestyles. They typically get less than 30 minutes of moderate to vigorous physical activity each day, in contrast to the recommended 60 minutes a day. In their study, Reilly’s team looked at whether exercise could reduce the weight of 545 preschool children. Some of the children took part in an active play program, which consisted of three 30 minute sessions each week. In addition, parents received guidance on how to increase physical play at home.

The researchers measured the children’s weight at six months and then again at one year. They also assessed the youngsters’ movement skills, and tracked whether or not the increase in activity reduced sedentary behaviors.

They found that exercise had some health benefits, but weight loss was not among them.

Exercise had little effect on weight, or on the activity behaviors of the children, compared with the children who did not take part in the program. However, for children in the program, additional exercise did help improve their motor and movement skills.
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Tags: Britain, David L. Katz, director, food, John J. Reilly, junk food, lead researcher, obesity, pediatric energy metabolism, Prevention Research Center, Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, professor of pediatric energy metabolism, Scotland, the British Medical Journal, United States, University of Glasgow, Yale University School of Medicine