Marilyn Wedge's Argument On Food Can Have A Relation To Adhd

As alluded to in her book, A Disease Called Childhood, in chapter seven, entitled “Let Food be Thy Medicine”, Marilyn Wedge claims that though there are some legitimate diagnoses of ADHD that are in need of attention and possibly medication, a child’s diet may be a sizable factor of their behavior. Wedge cites John E. Huxsahl from Mayo Clinic, using his article on processed foods to help her claim that food consumption can have a relation to ADHD. I agree with Wedge’s argument on multiple occasions that I will refer to throughout this essay; including personal experiences, experiments, and how other countries tackle additives in food. When my brother, Konnor, was younger, he was diagnosed with multiple behavioral disorders due to his inability to listen to directions and follow set rules on most days. He would openly disobey my mother and other authoritative figures by screaming and talking back to them. In response to his behavior, my mother took him to a psychologist to see if there was anything wrong with him behaviorally or if there was anything that she could do to prevent his outbursts. The psychologist told her that my brother had Asperger's, a form of ADHD, OCD, and a sensory disorder in which he needed to be medicated for. However, my mother did not trust the diagnosis because she felt that it did not apply to the days where Konnor had no behavioral issues. …show more content…
However, my mother long suspected that Konnor had OCD and a sensory disorder. If the doctors were to medicate him for his ADHD, however, his OCD would get worse and vice versa because doctors could not medicate both disorders. As a result, my mother began to research different behavioral disorders that could cause aggressive and hyperactive behavior in children. She found out that different dyes - red and yellow food colorings - could cause different behavioral issues in children. My mother decided to take him off of red dye and see if it made any difference. Almost immediately, Konnor was almost back to his original, calmer self. This is only one example of the elimination of food colorings in a child’s diet working to help behavior, there are many more success stories and acknowledgments of the removal of additives helping with behavior …show more content…
At the end of each day, the researchers asked the children’s parents to complete a survey that reviews the behavior of their child. The parents were unaware of the drinks that their children were consuming on each day so they were unable to interfere with the results. At the end of the week, the researchers collected data from the children. Almost all of the children showed an increase of behavioral issues and hyperactivity when given a beverage with an increased amount of sugars, preservatives, and food dyes. Since these children all had a hyperactivity disorder, their parents were already aware with whether or not their child was having a rough day and they seemed to have more of a hyperactive day when they consumed the beverage with more food dyes. As previously communicated, these results were not the same for every child in the study as not all children with hyperactive disorders react the same to the same diet. However, the general trend of the study showed that for a majority of the children, food dyes, preservatives, and sugars have an effect on their hyperactivity