Malnutrition and mental illness: Why a healthy diet is crucial for protecting your child's brain function

Sunday, March 06, 2016 by: L.J. Devon, Staff Writer
Tags: malnutrition, junk food diet, children

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(NaturalNews) Line up at the nearest Pizza Hut food buffet or McDonald's trough and look around. While we are eating more than ever, we are starving like never before. Our blood, tissues, organs and every cell in our body is starving for nutrition.

White bread, made from bleached white flour, is literally stripped of its nutrition, and it's a huge part of the Western diet. Pizza crust, donuts, bread rolls, biscuits and baked goods, are all edible foods, but they do not deliver nutrition to the body, leaving people bloated but starving. These refined carbohydrates are quickly converted to sugars in the blood, elevating blood sugar levels and then leaving people depleted of energy, fatigued.

Refined sugars are also a nutrient-void staple in the modern Western diet. Refined sugars have been stripped of their vitamins and minerals, leaving behind a substance that cannot be utilized or metabolized by the body. Refined sugars, found in sodas, sweet teas, juices, etc. are basically "empty" calories that act as poison, leaching nutrients from the bones.

How does the depletion of B-vitamins, magnesium, zinc, chromium and selenium from our soil, our foods and our bodies ultimately weaken our ability to think and make rational decisions?

How can the brain function at all if refined sugars and breads are the main ingredients being consumed day-to-day? How does the brain (which is 70 percent fat), function if healthy fats are not present in the diet? Avocados, almonds, pumpkin seeds and the omega-3 fatty acids from chia, flax, hemp, walnuts and wild fish are all important for people who want to think and communicate clearly.

Why aren't we reaching our hands back into the medicine cabinet of nature to bring back our clarity of thought, concentration and sharpness of memory? Have you ever considered extracting the properties of passionflower, brahmi, Siberian ginseng, ginkgo biloba, maca root, or ashwagandha to obtain their mind-enhancing virtues?

Starving for nutrition: Children with chronic physical and mental problems not getting the nutrition their bodies deserve

As children grow up in first world nations without these important nutrients, fatty acids and complete plant medicines, they become malnourished, constantly sick, sleepless, nervous and irritable. The Australian Child Wellbeing Project (ACWP) now finds that one-in-six Australian children between 8 and 14 years old goes to school and to bed hungry. This increasing subset of malnourished children is also having the greatest problems with headaches, irritability, stomachaches, low energy and sleeplessness. Malnourished Australian children are three times more likely to report two or more of these health issues every week.

It is not normal for kids to routinely experience chronic health issues such as these, but these symptoms are becoming the new norm in developed nations. As children become disconnected from the nutrition in their food, their entire organ systems become suppressed, not operating at their full potential. This suppression ultimately affects children's ability to learn, behave, think, cooperate and express healthy emotions.

In this survey, malnourished American children from low income families were more likely to suffer from emotional, behavioral and academic problems, when compared to children from low income families who were fed nutritious whole foods. Starved children had the highest levels of aggression and anxiety.

In this American study, childhood hunger was correlated with anxiety and depression. What's even sadder, is that when malnourished children are diagnosed with depression and anxiety, the root of the problem often goes unaddressed. Psychiatrists may intervene with psychiatric drugs which can elicit violent (sometimes suicidal), side effects.

Nutrient deficiencies can hurt a child's brain function. For example, iodine deficiency can quickly cause mental retardation. Supplementation with kelp could quickly remedy this deficiency. Depressed states of mind have been linked to low folate levels. Oftentimes parents and educators respond to a child's behavioral problems with discipline, but all along, the child may simply be trying to cope with nutrient deficiencies. A Bombay study found a correlation between undernourishment of children and lowered IQ, and a ghastly 60 percent rate of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Other studies have shown that vitamin and mineral supplementation programs reduce repeat violent behavior of juvenile offenders by 40 percent. In school-aged children, anti-social behaviors were reduced 47 percent when children were given more nutrient-dense foods to eat.

Sources include:

TheConversation.com

HealingFoodReference.com

HealingFoodReference.com

Science.NaturalNews.com