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Bright Snacks May Trigger Hyperactivity
pine Webmaster of Pineapple
2008/09/28 23:06
508 topics published
Update Date: 2008/09/28 15:30 by Wei Liwen
Colorful snacks may be the culprit behind children's lack of focus! Nutritionists point out that many studies have shown that the colorants in food additives could be the cause of attention deficit. Therefore, it is recommended that parents encourage their children to eat more natural foods. Homemade fruit jellies, puddings, red bean soup, and green bean ice are all better options than snacks loaded with too many food additives.
The UK Food Standards Agency once published a study indicating that certain food colorings and preservatives might be linked to Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in children. If a child already shows symptoms of hyperactivity, parents should avoid letting them continue to consume such foods.
The study focused on 153 three-year-old toddlers and 144 eight-year-old children as experimental subjects, using candies and ice creams containing food colorings Yellow No. 4 and 5, Red No. 40, and the preservative sodium benzoate.
It was found that children who consumed mixtures of these substances daily exhibited noticeable hyperactivity, making it difficult for three-year-olds to focus on playing with a single toy and eight-year-olds to concentrate on playing on the computer for 15 minutes.
Lin Mingjie, a senior nutritionist at Taipei Veterans General Hospital, suggests that parents can make more natural snacks to replace those full of food additives. For example, cooking red bean soup or green bean soup and freezing the sweet soup to make delicious popsicles. Or using eggs, milk, and fresh fruits to make fruit puddings, or cooking apples in sugar water to make apple jelly.
Lin Mingjie also emphasizes the importance of paying extra attention to children's breakfasts. Breakfasts with too much starchy bread and rice can cause blood sugar to spike too quickly, leading to drowsiness. It's advisable to supplement with eggs and milk between meals to increase neurotransmitters and ensure a balanced intake of various nutrients.
Source:
http://tw. news. yahoo. com/ article/ url/ d/ a/ 080928/ 2/ 16pnr. html