As many of you know and some of you don't, back in February we put Josiah on the Feingold Diet. (I use "diet" for lack of a better term. Not diet as in weight loss, but diet as in a restriction of foods for a medical reason, like diabetes.)
But I am jumping ahead of myself. At the beginning of the year we were at our wits ends about what to do with Josiah. He was out of control and nothing we did seemed to help. In some instances, we felt like we were making it worse. We had come to the conclusion that he must be ADD though the symptoms didn't quite seem to fit, they fit better than anything else. I was in despair. I refused to have my son put on Ritalin and have him drugged. For about a week I was depressed and saw no hope. Then a good friend suggested I research whether there was any diet or supplements which would help. What I found has revolutionized our household (and led me to become aware of other issues of which I was ignorant, but that will be for a future post).
I found the Feingold website. Basically, we decided to try this diet to see if it would help at all. Within a month, there was a remarkable change. I had people who didn't know we had changed Josiah's diet comment on how much calmer he was. I had family who don't see Josiah on a regular basis say that they could see a dramatic change in Josiah from pre-diet to post-diet.
What we found was basically Josiah has food sensitivities. This is different from food allergies. It is not life threatening like allergies, but can be just as serious. Josiah is sensitive to preservatives, artificial additives, and some salicylates. Salicylates are natural preservatives found in just about every fruit and vegetable.
Our library didn't have any of the Feingold books so I found a similar one. I found The ADD Nutrition Solution by Marcia Zimmerman. I was amazed at how artificial preservatives and additives affect our bodies. Since Josiah doesn't have a specific food he has to avoid (it is hidden ingredients) I have a list on my refrigerator. I've got it memorized so I can look at an ingredient list and know right off if there is something he can't have. An example would be ketchup. He can have ketchup. He just can't have the kind with ingredients that include high fructose corn syrup (usually the 2nd ingredient!) and red #40. Both are common ingredients in ketchup.
Here is Josiah's list.
CANNOT HAVE ANY:
artificial colors (any of the # colors)
artificial flavors
ADA (azodicarbonamide)
BHA (butylated hydroxyanisole)
BHT (butylated hydroxytoluene)
Calcium propianate
calcium sulfite
caramel color
casein
citric acid
corn oil
corn syrup
cottonseed oil
dextrose
disodium inosinate
disodium guanylate
hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oil
hydrolyzed corn protein
mono and diglycerides
MSG (monosodium glutamate)
natural smoke flavoring
sodium acid pyrophosphate
sodium benzoate
sodium erythrobate
sodium nitrite/nitrate
sodium phosphate
STPP (sodium stearoyl lactylate)
sodium tripolyphosphate
sulfites
sulfur dioxide
TBHQ (tertiary butylhydroquinone)
high fructose corn syrup
refined sugar
chocolate/cocoa
any artificial sweetner
Splenda (sucralose)
NutraSweet/Equal (aspartame)
Sunett (acesulfame potassium) saccharin
Olean (olestra)
Salicylates-----------
NO oranges/OJ
limited raisins
limited tomatoes
limited grapes/GJ
ONLY Golden Delicious apples
Must have 100% juice (limited to one diluted cup/day) NO sugar added, NO juice cocktails (check ingredients to be sure)
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7 comments:
wow. it must be a lot to keep up with. i read a book called "the toxic sandbox" and it was talking about all the toxins in every day things. it seems really wrong that we have to worry about all this stuff....
I'M POSTING FOR JANE HERSEY OF THE FEINGOLD ASSOCIATION:
Congratulations on using a special diet to help your child, Melissa! It might be that Josiah needs to avoid many foods and additives, but quite a few of the numerous no-no's you list are not eliminated on the Feingold diet.
There are several groups of synthetic additives that are removed, and some (but not all) fruits are temporarily removed. These "natural salicylates" can be later reintroduced and tested, one at a time, to see if they cause reactions. Most vegetables are well tolerated. We don't believe that salicylates are preservatives exactly, but naturally occurring pesticides that plants create in order to protect the plant from disease and predatory insects.
There are many good things in Marcia Zimmerman's book The ADD Nutrition Solution, but it also has many inaccuracies. The Feingold diet does not now, and has never removed sugar or chocolate. In fact, we are in the midst of our annual goodie basket fund raiser. Families can purchase baskets filled with all natural jelly beans, gummy bears, candy canes, lollipops, chocolates, gum, cookies, brownies, etc.
We don't remove refined flour and don't restrict juice. Some families choose to do this, but it is not a part of the Feingold diet. You can obtain more information by reading part one of the book "Why Can't My Child Behave?" which can be found on our web site www.feingold.org.
Also, a brief introduction to the Feingold program can be found in the introductory slides at www.School-Lunch.org.
Jane Hersey
National Director
Feingold Association of the United States
This is in answer to Marcia's post above. She has corrected some of my inaccuracies about salicylates. Also, I should clarify that Josiah's list of no-no's uses the Feingold Diet as a basis with which to start. Marcia is right in that there are some things on Josiah's list which are not on the Feingold Diet. We have tailored Josiah's diet to his behavioral needs. We have not eliminated sugar, only refined sugar. We use natural raw sugar in our baking. We have also eliminated cocoa because Josiah doesn't need the stimulation from the caffeine. We have not eliminated refined flour. The only juices I restrict are the ones from foods with salicylates which I know to which Josiah reacts, ex. orange juice.
Thank you, Marcia, for helping me clarify how Josiah's diet is different from the Feingold Diet.
Dr. Feingold would tell you anything can cause a reaction depending on the person's genetic profile but in 30 years of volunteering for the Feingold Association, I've never seen sensitivities like you describe.
Often the problems are innocent mistakes in food eaten, fragrances etc when the blame should be on something else. Are you a member of the Feingold Association? I'm wondering that your son might be getting something that has a preservative, dye, etc. that is not on the ingredient label. There are many problems not knowing all about a product. Who would guess there are preservatives in nonfat or 2% milk? Dairy products are just one type of food not required to list all ingredients. There are others. That's why the Association provides its members the Foodlist & Shopping Guide where it has signed papers from the food manufacturer that the product is, indeed, okay for our kids to eat.
In response to Marcia, as long as Josiah stays away from the things on his list his behavior is fine. In every instance when he has had a behavior change I have been able to trace it back to a specific food (or medicine) with specific ingredients.
As far as our dairy products go, we buy them only from Whole Foods. Since, preservatives and dyes and almost everything else on Josiah's list is also on the Whole Foods List of Unacceptable Ingredients, I feel safe in assuming that they have checked out their products as they say they have. I give the kids only whole milk that is only lightly pasturized (not homogenized) from a local organic dairy/creamery.
Melissa,
I always forget to tell you how much I really admire the hard work you have put into helping Josiah. It amazing me how many things you have changed for his sake. I'm not sure I would have the discipline you do, and I really admire you for it.
Food sensitivities are much more common than most people think, and can cause many serious chronic conditions. Thanks for writing about this topic.
They key is to accurately identify the offending foods and you need a lab with advanced testing methods to do that effectively
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