Kids' Health: Food Additives and Hyperactivity

Continuing with the theme of kids' health, here's an article reporting on a Lancet study that found a link between certain food additives and hyperactivity. The study had a relatively small sample set, but the results were compelling and warrant a larger study.

In the study, fruit drinks had food colorings and preservatives added to them and those children that had the additives exhibited increased hyperactivity. But here's the kicker:

"These findings show that adverse effects are not just seen in children with extreme hyperactivity (such as ADHD) but can also be seen in the general population and across the range of severities of hyperactivity," the researchers wrote in their study, published in the Lancet medical journal.

So, according to the study, hyperactivity was even seen in children who wouldn't normally exhibit it. What exactly were these additives? According to the article:

They included sunset yellow coloring, also known as E110; carmoisine, or E122; tartrazine, or E102; ponceau 4R, or E124; the preservative sodium benzoate, or E211; and other colors.

One of the two mixtures contained ingredients commonly drunk by young British children in popular drinks, they said. They did not specify what foods might include the additives.

Both mixtures significantly affected the older children. The 3-year-olds were most affected by the mixture that closely resembled the average intake for children that age, Stevenson's team reported.

While there are those that debate the findings, it seems that once again the precautionary principal comes into play: if it might be harmful, best avoid or limit it. Common sense would dictate that natural foods - fruits, vegetables and whole grains - are going to be better for health than process ones loaded with artificial colors, flavors and sweeteners.

Bottom Line: When buying food and drinks for your children, avoid any artificial colors or flavors. Look for 100% juice and all natural snacks (fruit and nuts are great options!) The other stuff is not only poor quality, it's potentially very harmful.

Source: Food additives may cause hyperactivity: study

Kids Health: TV and Attention Problems

One thing that has caught my eye lately are various reports regarding children's health issues. I'm going to try and post these reports when I can. My over-ambitious idea is to start a new blog and cross post, but I've decided to start small. I can always migrate when I think I've got enough to go on.

Here's a couple of studies that came out of New Zealand in September. It seems rather obvious that television viewing affects attention to some degree or another. This study preliminarily links TV to attention problems:

Watching television more than two hours a day early in life can lead to attention problems later in adolescence, according to a study released on [September 4, 2007]

Reuters: Study links attention problems to early TV viewing

It goes on to quote the study

"Those who watched more than two hours, and particularly those who watched more than three hours, of television per day during childhood had above-average symptoms of attention problems in adolescence," Carl Landhuis of the University of Otago in Dunedin wrote in his report, published in the journal Pediatrics.

Although the study didn't prove a causal connection between the two, it did seem to indicate that those with less TV experienced fewer attention problems. A second article on the report speculates about reasons for the trend:

He [Carl Erik Landhuis of the Dunedin School of Medicine at the University of Otago, the study's first author] and his colleagues suggest that kids who get used to watching lots of attention-grabbing TV may find ordinary life situations -- like the classroom -- boring. It's also possible, they add, that TV may simply crowd out time spent doing other activities that can build attention and concentration skills, such as reading and playing games.

Reuter's: Too much TV ups kids' risk of attention problems

Bottom Line: Keep television viewing under 2 hours a day for those over two years old and no television for those under two. My personal preference is no television, period, although my almost-four-year-old son watches two days a week for about forty-five minutes or so, which I can live with.

Related Articles:
More TV time means worse school performance - May 8, 2007
'Genius' videos may hinder baby development: study - August 9, 2007
Kids shovel down more calories watching TV - February 22, 2007

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One More Reason to Kill Your TV

Let's Try This Again

So I haven't posted since April. It's been a really busy year. Q3 was eaten up by work, work work - it was seriously manic. Anyway, I'm going to try a go at this writing business again.

It's not like I haven't been doing other stuff. Along with work, I've been playing lots of fiddle (well, maybe not lots, but I try to get an hour a night in, if at all possible.) Theo had his first birthday, Avi started pre-school (OK, that was just this week) and life in general has just been hectic.

I have a ton of ideas for postings and writings I need to complete (Isaiah,ahem), but I'll try to be somewhat more modest and get at least a post a week in - hopefully, more, but we'll see.