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An experience was conducted in the U.S. at Appleton High School where are welcomed students with more or less serious behavioural problems. The aim was not to introduce a special discipline, but to regulate their behaviour by a well-developed diet, free from preservatives and artificial colourings or chemical additions, consisting mainly of whole cereals, fresh fruit and vegetables, without fried dishes.
The dishes were made on site, without cans. There were no vending machines; the water was served at will. The director of the institution noted significant changes in the behaviour of students, which has greatly improved.
He especially observed a decrease in agitation and an improvement in the concentration in the classroom; the students had much better results for a budget similar to that of other schools!
Other similar experiments were performed in Sweden and Denmark with identical results in different high schools. According to those responsible for these institutions, the forms of aggressiveness among young people have declined considerably and the school results have generally improved significantly. All of this only thanks to the use of quality foods, mainly organic-vegetarian, unrefined and raw.
There is a growing concern about the behaviour of young people, the hyperactivity of some of them, their lack of concentration in class, their loss of motivation, their aggressiveness.
How to explain that the youth of previous generations, without being angels, seems less concerned about these so-called antisocial behaviours?
Has the new generation decided, from day to day, to adopt these excessive behaviours, for the only pleasure of being different, to provoke, or is it explained by other causes?
And in this case, what are the elements to explain these violent attitudes?
We can think, of course and quite rightly, of the permissive education of some parents, of the violence so often expressed in the media (TV, movies, newspapers, video games, etc.), the growing stress we all face more or less, etc.
But we should not underestimate another factor often ignored, which contributes largely to the genesis of the relational difficulties that many young people encounter today, and which can be summed up by a word: food.
Everyone knows that alcohol, even consumed by a mentally and physically balanced person, can, in a very short period of time, affect his/her psychic behavior and be at the origin of criminal acts and violence.
But when it comes to food, the idea seems much more difficult to accept. However, the consequences can be just as dangerous.
An unnatural diet, rich in refined products and various synthetic products, for example fast-food preparations, so appreciated by young people, can only contribute to the biochemical imbalance of the brain and facilitate excess violence.
Not to forget that health disorders and especially mental health disorders are related to:
- micro-nutritional deficiencies (of course, we will think of the deficiencies generated by the diet, but they can also concern all other health factors).
- food poisons, to which all toxic substances must be added (emotional, excessive stress of all kinds, but also the toxics of air, water, earth, etc.)
-food excesses but also concerns all areas already listed above.
How to improve your diet to promote a nervous and psychological balance?
it will be necessary to remove sources of refined food; aliments composed of refined sugar or high glycemic index, which cause a high concentration of blood sugar in a very little time:
White sugar incorporated or added to food, maltose, glucose, refined fructose, candies, chocolate bars, biscuits and pastries in general( unless they come from wholemeal or semi-wholemaeal flours), sodas, cola, hamburgers (made of refined soft bread), fries with very high glycemic index (which is equivalent to a sugar concentration, even if it is complex sugar), white bread, white rice, white pasta, breakfast cereal like cornflakes, potato starch, corn starch, malto-dextrine, chips, pop-corn, rice cakes, puffed rice, refined semolina, supermarket pastries.
Be careful with sodas, industrial fruit juices, biscuits or other preparations rich in added sugar such as refined fructose and glucose-fructose or dextrose syrup. These sugars get around the appetite control mechanisms (not much insulin and leptine secretions) and promote overconsumption of calories and, in some cases, weight gain.
The animals, which are given a diet rich in refined fructose, eat more and their weight, as well as their body fat, increase.
Fructose, refined in large quantities, leads to liver problems similar to alcoholic problems, in animals that consume a lot of them.
Alongside the consumption of refined foods, another major mistake, in diet, is to snack between meals. Some children and adolescents manage to eat between 15 and 20 times a day. It will be necessary to remove the constant snacks between meals. As the naturopath Robert Masson has often pointed out, constant snacking is a "food pollution".
Glutamates
Its regular and important intake, via diet, can cause many neurological problems (including brain damage).
In an issue of the French magazine Panorama Médical, we could read:
"the doses of glutamate ngested by children are sometimes so high that administering at the same orally dose to a young animal, they would lead to pure and simple destruction of
the central nervous system. A 10-year-old child, ingests in an instant soup bag, between 1000 and 1300 mg of glutamate, so a much higher quantity to the one which kills guinea pigs cerebral nuclei."
Glutamate may, in some cases, cause degeneration of the nervous system, neuropsychiatric disorders, headaches, etc.
Phosphates
Phosphates are chemical substances that tend to preserve colour and delay food deterioration. They can also make food products softer by increasing the amount of water they contain. Since the addition of water to foods is practically no cost to them, industrialists are tempted to use polyphosphates to increase their volume and weight.
The symptoms caused by phosphates can be: hyperactivity, attention deficit, abnormal agitation, low concentration capacity, poor sleep management, speech difficulties (dyslexia), psychomotor difficulties, aggressiveness, a situation of material and social failure despite a I.Q. often higher than the average.
OCD (obsessive compulsive disorders), mannerism, dyskinesia also fall under this
syndrome. In some cases, dyslexia can be removed by a phosphate-free diet.
Dietary phosphates are present in some tea drinks, some orange or lemon sodas (sweeter citric acid), colas (whose phosphoric acid has recently increased from 0.55 to 0.70 g/l, an increase of 27% imagined by
manufacturers only for the purpose of maintaining thirst), chocolate bars, chewing-gums, non-sticky rice (phosphate coating), chemical yeast for cakes (pyrophosphates: 40 g/kg of phosphates), some hazelnut and chocolate spreads, chocolate powders and other industrial chocolates, white wine from Alsace (which contains phosphates).
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After removing all causes of nervous system disorders, follow the recommended diet plan.
1) Morning meal or breakfast
Several variants are possible.
The drink can be consumed either just before going out of the bed, or when waking up (30 minutes before breakfast). The digestion of the latter will be easier: it will avoid digestive heavinesses.
The drink can also be taken during breakfast itself. A moderate amount of liquid will be required to avoid slowing down the digestion. You can choose an infusion, malt, chicory, tea, or almond, hazelnut or chestnut milk, or a non-fermented vegetable juice. The ideal would be to make it yourself from organic products thanks to a juice extractor.
Food to incorporate at breakfast (if you are intolerant to certain foods offered here, of course you will not have to take this into account and therefore consume them):
• either semi-wholemeal or wholemeal organic bread and various oleaginous fruit where nuts predominate (recommended for children and adolescents)
• or buttered bread in moderate quantity and from time to time and only of organic origin;
• or a variety of dried fruit (dates, figs or dried bananas);
• or a variety of starchy fruit (chestnuts or bananas);
• or bread and 1 or 2 soft-boiled eggs (breakfast especially nourishing and balanced);
• a variety of sprouted seeds (e.g., 2 to 3 tablespoons of sprouted sunflower, sprouted wheat, sprouted sesame, sprouted alfalfa, etc.).
Take care to chew all food properly.
Do not hesitate to regularly change breakfast to avoid monotony and promote food balance.
Important.
To not suffer from digestive disorders (like bloating, gas, heartburns, diarrhea), it is recommended not to combine bread, potatoes or cereals with acid food or too concentrated in rapid digestion sugars, which block digestion processes, such as:
• fresh or dried fruit and fruit juice: orange, lemon, grapefruit, apple, grape, strawberry, pear, cherry, peach, pineapple, banana, fig, dates, apricot, grapes, plum, etc. Only oily fruit (almond, nuts, hazelnuts) are compatible with carbs or cereals.
• Fermented juice, mueslis and Budwig cream, cow or soy milk yogurts, and any raw soy-based liquid.
2) Snack around 4 p.m. or 5 p.m. (optional)
A light snack, consumed 2 hours minimum before the evening meal and only if you are really hungry. Take:
• watery fruit (consumed alone and not associated with other foods): orange, lemon, grapefruit, etc. depending on the organic land
• an starchy fruit: chestnuts, banana, etc. according to the intensity of physical activity
• some dried fruit: dates, figs, prunes, dried bananas, etc. according to the intensity of physical activity;
• a cold or hot apple compote;
• an unsweetened tisane or source water if thirsty.
Being complex carbohydrates and of long digestion, carbs (such as bread, cakes, pastries) must be avoided before the evening meal during the snack.
This being said, one must consider the individual digestive capacity and the intensity of physical activity that in some cases enable and require the consumption of moderate amounts of carbs.
3) Lunch and evening meals
• Crudités as a starter: carrots, beetroots, celery, turnips, salads, etc. of organic origin preferably. To chew.
You can add sprouted seeds of cereals, legumes or Papilionaceae: kamut, wheat, rye, lentil, peas, azuki, alfalfa, fenugreek, etc.
You can also add young shoots of cereals, legumes or Papilionaceae and some organic algae: dulse, nori, or wakamé, etc. (be careful to mercury and arsenic, etc. contained in some algae and especially chlorella, ask for analysis).
The use of spices is recommended: onions, garlic, black olives, etc. It is recommended to people, who are a bit sensitive on the digestive plane, to consume at noon crudités rich in fibers - such as carrot, beetroot, celery and turnip - and in the evening, on the other hand, softer crudités - such as zucchini, cucumber, lettuce, chicory.
• Carbs and cereals: potatoes, pasta, rice, millet, buckwheat, quinoa, rye, barley, corn, with or without cooked vegetables. They are not essential if there are crudités, but you can absolutely eat a dish of eggplants in Provençal style for example. If you are not allergic to dairy products, you can add, from time to time, a bit of cheese of a good quality and of organic origin preferably, on pasta.
• Proteins: meat, fish, eggs (preferably soft-boiled), seafood, legumes dipped the day before in water or sprouted to facilitate digestion. The marine foods, fishes and seafoods will preferably be of wild origin, and the meat of organic origin.
• Lipids: 1 tablespoon of walnut or rapeseed oil (from time to time, olive oil and sunflower oil) but absolutely virgin of first cold pressing and organic. This oil will serve for the seasoning of the crudités, by adding, for example, a little organic full marine salt or organic salt flower.
4) Dessert
Eventually an apple pie or apple puree, as well as all cooked fruit pies (except those where the fruit remains acidic despite cooking, such as apricots or redcurrants).
A little raw chocolate of good quality is another possibility.
It is important to avoid taking for dessert foods that may disturb digestion (as the naturopath Robert Masson has explained it so well) such as:
• fresh fruit, dried fruit, fruit juices and foods containing fruit juices (like some desserts or compotes) ;
• syrups;
• sodas, colas;
• honey or foods containing it (ginger bread);
• mead (honey-based drink);
• Fermented juices;
• Müeslis and Budwig creams;
• Yogurts;
• Fromage blanc;
• Soy-based yogurts;
• Any liquid or food made of raw soybeans;
• ice cream and sorbets, because of the cold that can slow down the digestion and compromise it.
Information about the author.
Eric Darche / Hygienist-Naturopath
Founder of a new school of naturopathy and hygienicism 100% in E-learning Internet: ENHED
Author, lecturer. Remote consultations by telephone or Skype.
telephone: 09 50 24 05 34.
Facebook group open to all where you can find him: Naturopathie, hygiénisme et alimentation vivante.
