Poor behaviour in children may be partly caused by dietary deficiency. In this YT video Patrick Holford says that there is a connection between lack of Omega-3 and emotional dysregulation.
Wikipedia is happy to trash Holford by superficial reference to his views on HIV and autism (‘not in line with modern medical thought and have been criticised for putting people in danger and damaging public health’) without giving links to expert analysis. On the other hand there is research tending to support what he says about Omega-3, e.g. ‘Omega-3 Fatty Acids Are Related to Abnormal Emotion Processing in Adolescent Boys with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder’ and ‘Study reveals how Omega-3 can help the brain to regulate impulsive reactions to aggressive behaviour.’
I worked for years in an educational unit for excluded primary children where ADHD diagnosis was often treated with Ritalin, an amphetamine. Most of the children came from the lower social classes where less-skilled parents and a shortage of money were likely to have influenced the dietary choices in the family.
The video is much more wide-ranging - mostly focused on preventing dementia - and interesting on how our evolution from marine life has led to a continuing need for compounds found in fish and marine algae.
Btw Holford says our brains are some 20 per cent smaller than they were in prehistoric times and suggests this coincides with our progression from a marine diet to a more agricultural one. However the connection may not be a simple one of dietary intake: I note there is a rough correlation between body mass and brain size and prehistoric humans were more muscular - and perhaps more physically skillful - being hunters and gatherers.
Plenty of food for thought in this video.
1 comment:
Yet another quack, who is a strong supporter of the incompetent fraud Andrew Wakefield.
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