Food Sleuth: The Best Medicine is Good Nutrition, Walk in the Woods

By Melinda Hemmelgarn

Columbia Daily Tribune

October 1, 2008

Available online at: http://www.columbiatribune.com/2008/Oct/20081001Food014.asp

If you’ve ever felt refreshed, calm and better able to focus on your work after taking a walk in the park, welcome Frances Kuo’s world.

Kuo directs the Landscape and Human Health Laboratory at the University of Illinois, where she and her colleagues study the "connection between greenery and human health." Her latest discovery with Andrea Faber Taylor will interest any parent, teacher or care provider of children with attention-deficit/ hyperactivity disorder.

Published in the Aug. 25 issue of the Journal of Attention Disorders, the researchers report that for children with ADHD, a simple 20-minute walk in a park setting resulted in improvements in their ability to concentrate. Better yet, the improvements in behavior were comparable to those seen with standard drug treatment.

Let me repeat: Time spent in nature resulted in benefits comparable to drug therapy.

The researchers concluded that "doses of nature" might serve as a safe, inexpensive, widely accessible new tool in the tool kit for managing ADHD symptoms." Plus, other than maybe a scraped knee or a few bug bites, nature therapy comes with few side effects.

ADHD is characterized by impulsive behavior, hyperactivity and the inability to pay attention to tasks. Estimates vary, but about 9 percent of U.S. children between 8 to 15 years of age might meet diagnostic criteria for ADHD, with incidence higher among boys and among children living in poverty.

The increased likelihood among poor children is attributed to higher rates of premature birth and greater exposure to toxic substances, such as lead, pesticides and tobacco smoke. However, children from lower socioeconomic sectors also tend to spend more time with television, have less access to safe green play spaces and often live in "food deserts," or neighborhoods that lack access to fresh, wholesome affordable foods.

Diet has long been the subject of ADHD therapy. Back in the early 1970s, physician Benjamin Feingold first reported that 30 to 50 percent of his hyperactive patients benefited from a diet free of artificial food colorings and additives.

As you might imagine, the processed food industry and even some health professionals expressed skepticism over the diet approach. But accumulating evidence supports the diet-behavior connection. Most recently, researchers in the United Kingdom found that artificial colorings and additives, and particularly the preservative sodium benzoate, increased hyperactive behavior.

We might not understand the mechanisms by which dietary interventions work, but at the very least, restricting highly processed, artificially flavored and colored foods can’t hurt. In fact, such foods offer little nutritional value to any child. Yet these foods are most heavily advertised and promoted to our children.

Treating a child with ADHD requires a team approach. Talk to your child’s doctor before making any changes in medication. Ask for a referral to a registered dietitian and discuss the assortment of dietary approaches used to improve ADHD symptoms. Nutrition research in this area is in its infancy, and each child is unique, but promising areas of research include probiotics, omega-3 fatty acids, nutrient deficiencies, food allergies and intolerances to foods.

In the meantime, the following strategies might help restore family health and harmony:

● Avoid fast food and highly processed foods and beverages. Become an avid ingredient label reader.

● Choose more pesticide-free, local and organic foods.

● Unplug and go outside and play. Explore creek beds and hiking trails. Make sure your children enjoy at least an hour of outdoor play each day, and limit total screen time to no more than two hours per day.

● Join the Center for Science in the Public Interest’s campaign to ban food dyes linked to ADHD: www.cspinet.org/fooddyes/ Learn more about the connection between nature and health:

● University of Illinois, Landscape and Human Health Laboratory: www.lhhl.uiuc.edu.

● Richard Louv’s "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder;" Algonquin Books (2006).