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FED UP : Understanding how food affects
your child and what you can do about it Based on new Australian
research, Fed Up is Sue Dengate's
comprehensive analysis of the effects of foods on children's behaviour,
learning ability and health. This book is a guide for pressured parents and a
revelation for puzzled teachers. Fed Up helps parents to manage their
children's behaviour and learning problems without medication using
remarkable new findings from Australian research into food intolerance. A
best-seller in |
In this long-awaited, fully updated and
revised edition (2008) of Fed Up, Sue Dengate provides up to the minute
information about the science of food intolerance and elimination diets, shares
inspiring stories of families overcoming their problems, and provides detailed
help and support for parents wanting to find out exactly which food chemicals
are affecting their children...
Check out the extensive support on the website and its regular
newsletters and on-line support groups.
Fed Up is Sue Dengate's
meticulously researched response to the wide-ranging problem of food intolerance
and how it affects people, from learning difficulties to behavioural problems
to minor chronic illness. This handbook is an essential tool for childrearing
and an indispensable guide for adults.
'Author Sue Dengate throws a lifeline to frazzled parents who suspect an
association between what their children eat and how they behave' - Auckland
Sunday Star Times
'A reminder to all parents to take a closer look at
what their children are eating' -
'Ever wondered about the numbers on food labels? This is a book that
reveals many of the answers' - New Idea.
ISBN 9781741667257 SUBJECT Food intolerance;
diet; allergy; food additives PAGES 344 PUBLISHER Random House
Australia PUBDATE 2008
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Ordering
information: Sue Dengate's
books are usually available from all good bookstores in The DVD Fed Up with Children’s Behaviour is
available through this website or from stores
listed below, or by ordering at any Angus & Robertsons
bookstore.
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INTRODUCTION
When two committed adults marry, they reasonably expect to have happy
and successful children. My husband and I were therefore surprised when our
children encountered difficulties right from the start. Both struggled to learn
skills we had found easy, and by the time our daughter was seven we were
especially perplexed by her behaviour, which was sometimes charming and
creative, at other times restless and defiant. We were assured by their
teachers that they would ‘grow out of it’, but they didn’t.
The mystery deepened when we considered my husband Howard’s older
children. By 15 his daughter was failing in half her school subjects, while his
son, at 13, could not read well enough to keep up with his class. Yet their
mother had a postgraduate degree, Howard was a research scientist with a
doctorate, and I was a former English teacher with a degree in psychology. We
had all done well at school, so I kept thinking ‘Why are our children worse?’
After years of searching, we discovered a remarkable reason for their
difficulties. Most of their troubles were caused by the foods they ate every
day. All six members of our family experienced unexpected improvements in mood
or health when we changed what we ate, based on new
research. Behaviour, mood swings, intelligence and health improved. In the most
dramatic case, our daughter’s defiant behaviour vanished and her school marks,
like her measured IQ, jumped from average to well above.
‘Kids have changed,’ says one primary-school principal with 34 years of
teaching experience. ‘You see them arriving at school angry or unhappy. They
stay like that all day. I used to think it was television, or a problem with
the parents. But you have to look at food. They come to school eating junk, and
when you ask, “Why are you eating that?” they answer, “It’s my breakfast”.’ In
a society where rages and depression are on the increase it is worth taking
seriously this observation about angry and unhappy children.
Foods can explain the irritable, restless or inattentive behaviours in
much greater numbers of children than those with attention deficit
hyperactivity disorders (ADHD). When an entire class of six-year-olds avoided
additives for two weeks, nearly 60 per cent of their parents reported
improvements in behaviour, cooperation and sleeping.
I am disappointed that most health and teaching professionals dismiss
the role of food in disruptive behaviours, especially since studies have been
unable to demonstrate long-term benefits of medication. By comparison, families
using dietary management in the long term report significant changes. Possibly
the most important improvement is selfcontrol, which
is thought to be the single biggest predictor of success in adult life.
Our magic answer
The diet that turned out to be such a miracle for us is the Elimination
Diet developed by doctors Swain, Soutter and Loblay at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital Allergy Unit in
This book is intended as a support for families on the RPAH diet, as
well as an introduction for families who don’t want to do an elimination diet
but would like to reduce their intake of food additives and troublesome natural
food chemicals.
The RPAH diet is free of additives and low in three natural chemicals
called salicylates, amines and glutamates (naturally occurring flavour
enhancers). Most parents are happy to avoid additives but reluctant to cut down
on salicylates, which are natural pesticides in many fruits and vegetables such
as tomatoes, oranges, strawberries and broccoli. However, when they see such
massive improvements they are convinced. As one mother wrote:
I cut back my five-year-old daughter’s intake of fruit to about 1⁄4
of what she normally had. Within days we saw dramatic changes. Her behaviour
evened out . . . she was more sensible and obliging, less aggressive and
defiant – altogether much more pleasant to live with.
Over the years I have talked to many thousands of families whose
children have food-related behaviour, health or learning problems. They start
off in one of three groups:
• know that foods are a problem but not sure which ones
• haven’t seen a food connection
• haven’t realised there is a behaviour problem.
As a mother from
People have to be desperate before they will change their lifestyle, and
difficult children make parents desperate.
This book is full of their stories.
Many spoke of seeking help from health professionals, only to be
discouraged by comments such as ‘food has nothing to do with children’s
behaviour’, ‘foods only affect a few, so it’s not worth trying’, ‘it’s too
difficult, I wouldn’t bother’. Some were given the wrong information, such as
an out-ofdate diet, or the wrong advice, such as
‘don’t worry about sticking to it too strictly’. Most needed more information
and support. Fortunately this is changing as doctors see what diet can do, and
an increasing number of experienced and supportive dietitians
are available to supervise the RPAH diet – you can write to request our list at
confoodnet@ozemail.com.au.
Overwhelmingly, people were amazed to find that fruits which were
perceived as healthy could be the worst offenders. The mother of a
nine-year-old reported: ‘I had my son on a diet free of junk food and high in
fruits and vegetables for four years and it turned out I was doing all the
wrong things for him. Some natural foods are just as bad for him as the lollies
and soft drinks.’
Parents were also surprised to find it’s not the sugar in the lollies
and soft drinks that cause the problems, but the additives.
Most health professionals tell us that only a small subgroup of children
is affected by foods, but I do not agree. In theory, anyone can react to food
chemicals if the dose is high enough, and because of the over-consumption of
processed foods, these doses are increasing every year.
People assume that they will know if they react to foods because they will
see an immediate reaction. This is wrong. Most food reactions are delayed. They
are not a quick allergic response, but are actually the side effects of food
chemicals. Everyone knows that drugs can have side effects, but few people are
aware that both artificial and natural chemicals in foods can cause the same
sort of reactions. And, like the side effects of drugs, the side effects of
food chemicals are often misinterpreted.
Thirty years of change
Food scientists estimate that it takes 30 years to notice the effects of
a national change in diet. There have been enormous changes in
Children and adults are affected in varying degrees by the changes in
our diet, but these effects are mostly unrecognised or ignored. Hyperactive
children are just the tip of the iceberg. Irritability has increased in our
society as a whole. Considering irritability and restlessness have been found
to be the main behavioural effects of foods, it seems likely that far more
people are affected by these major changes in diet than is recognised.
Since the 1960s, humans have been exposed to unprecedented quantities of
industrial and agricultural chemicals that can provoke sensitivity to food
chemicals. It is even possible that behavioural changes and learning
disabilities due to chemical exposure can be passed on to the next generation.
Changes in behaviour and learning ability are the early signs of chemical
toxicity (see Notes), yet food chemicals are not tested for their effects on
children’s behaviour or learning before approval. In fact, although it is hard
to believe, such chemicals are not systematically tested for their effects on
children at all before approval.
To protect our children and ourselves, and to prevent a national decline
in behaviour and learning standards, it makes sense to avoid the chemicals that
are affecting us. Irritable, restless or inattentive behaviour, sleep
disturbance, anxiety, depression, eczema, other itchy skin rashes, migraines,
recurrent headaches, stomach discomfort, bloating, diarrhoea, reflux, colic,
urinary urgency and asthma are some of the symptoms that can be caused or
aggravated by common foods. If you have any of the above problems or if you
have ever seen, even once, a reaction to foods such as cordial, cola, alcoholic
drinks, chocolate, savoury snack foods or takeaways, then it is worth taking
food chemicals seriously. Many people who are affected have never noticed a
food reaction.
Since the first edition of Fed Up was published in 1998, every day I
have heard from grateful parents whose lives have been transformed like ours.
One of the first ever Fed Up readers, whose ‘badly behaved, sullen, hyperactive
and hottempered’ daughter improved on failsafe, wrote
with an update: ‘nearly a decade on I am happy to say that the young lady who
interviewed you by phone for her radio program is the very same child who used
to sit under a table snarling and spitting after eating a packet of
chips.’
To find out how foods affect people, why food reactions are so difficult
to identify, which foods are likely to cause problems, and how to manage the
side effects of foods, please read on .
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