Does diet affect hyperactivity ?

Hyperactivity,or attention-deficit/hyperactivity di sorder (ADHD), is a learning

disability than occcurs in 3 to 5 percent of youbf,school-aged children.at least 1 in every
clasroom of 30 children.ADHD is characterizes by the cronic inability to pay attention,along
with overly behavior and poor impulse control(see the margin).it clean delay growth,lead to
academic failure, and cause major behavioral problems.althougt some children improve with
age ,many reach the college years or adulthood before they receive a diagonosis and with it
the possibility of treatment.
Food allergies have been blamed for ADHD,but research to date has shown no
conection.research has also all but dismissed the idea that sugar makes children
hyperactive.over a decade ago,one study did find an associations between doses of the food
coloront tartrazine and increased irritability,restlessnessn and, sleep disturbances in a small
percentage of hyperactive children.parents who wish to avoid tartrizine can find it listed with
the ingredients on food labels.
Parents hpe that a new diet or some other simple solution my improve childrens
behavior.unfounded dietary treatments my seem to help for a while due to the placebo
effect,but they fail to provide lasting cures.
Common sense says that all children get unruly nad hyper at times.a child who often
fills up on caffeine-containing colas and chocolate,misses lunch,becomes too cranky to
nap,misses out on outdoor play, and spends hours in front of a televisions suffers stresses
that can trigger choronic patterns of crankiness.this cycle of tensions and fatigue resolves it
selfwhrn the caretakers begin insisting on reguler hours sleep,reguler mealtimes, a nutritions
diet and reguler outdor exercise.
Living with choronic hunger is a cause of misbehavior in some children;simply lifting
the children from poverty often significantly improvers their behavior.an estimed 12 million
U.S. children are hungry at least some of the time.such children often lack iron and a link
between iron deficiency and ADHD may be emerging.hunger issues are many ;see chapter
15.once the obvious causes of misbehavior are elominated,a physician can recommend other
strategies such as special.educational programs or psycological counseling and,in many
cass,prescrpition medications.

Key Point : Hyperactivity,properly named attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder(ADHD),is

not caused by food allergies;temporary hyper behavior may rellect excess,caffeine
consumption or inconsisten care.a wise parent will limit childrens caffeine intakes and meet
their needs for structure.poverty may cause behavior problems.

Time Use,Televisions, and Childrens nutritions problems

The average child in the United States watches many hours of television each week.in
addition,vidio and computer games and other media add significantly to childrens pasive
viewing time,while,active free play time decreases substantially.television exerts four major
adverse impacts on childrens nuritions.
First,television viewing reguirs no nergy.its seems to reduce the metabolic rate below
the resting level,requiring even less energy than daydreaming.second,it consumes time that
could be spent in energetic play.an inactive child can become obese even while eat-ing less
food than an active child.third,more televisions watching correlates with more between-meal
snacking and with eating the high-calorie fatty and sugary foods most heavily advertised on
childrens program,increasing the risk off dental caries.fourth,children who watch more than
four hours of television a day,or watch during meals,are least likely to eat fruits and
vegetables and most likely to be obese.The averange U.S. child sees an estimated 30.000 TV
commercials a year,many for high-sugar,high-fat foods such as sugar-coated
cereals,candies,fried snack chips,fast foods,and sugar-sweetened soft drinks.childrens intakes
of suggary foods and soft drinks and fatty treats have soared in recent years while intakes of
other more nutritions foods have fallen off.To oppose the effects of marketing on childreen s
appetites,it often helps to walk children to help them to recognize the motivations and
marketing techniques of advertisement.
Some blame a sedentary lifestyle for the upswing in obesity in children and
adults.Fewer and fewer children actively participate in physical educations classes.At home
limiting television watching and other sedentary activities is probably a good idea do (up to
65 percent off 8-to 18-years olds) spend even more time watching television and are very
likely to be overweight.