Researchers have been making lots of investigations about attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and what are the main causes of your child being hyperactive. Most of them agreed that it is mainly genetics that affects this kind of behavior. Some tends to blame video games, long hours spent in front of computer or TV, etc.
A new link to ADHD that was found during investigations is dietary habits. Scientists have been investigating foods that contain additives, like preservatives and dyes. They still don’t have enough evidence to prove that eliminating foods with additives from children’s diet can help to improve behavior of hyperactive children. However, during the research a small group of children who are allergic to preservative of artificial food dyes have shown some improvement when the food with additives was limited.
European Union has already discussed about the amount of artificial colors that should be allowed in food. They have come to the conclusion that foods containing six artificial colors should be labeled with a special warning note. Here is a list of the colors: Yellow No. 5 (tartrazine), Yellow No. 10 (quinoline yellow), Yellow No. 6 (sunset yellow), Red No. 3 (carmoisine), Red No. 7 (ponceau 4R), and Red No. 40 (allura red).
While researchers are still discussing whether additives have any link to ADHD or not, we should probably still try to limit foods containing artificial colors or preservatives not only for our children but for ourselves as well. And it’s not because of hyperactivity or impulsivity. It is not that difficult to choose healthier foods without artificial additives which are much healthier and which really contain something good and nutritious.
Source: cnn.com