Child Diet and Learning Disabilities

Reprinted from Organic Connections

Learning disabilities are a common problem today and seem to be on the rise. A new article in the October 2009 issue of Behavioral and Brain Functions journal examines how diet-related factors, like synthetic food dyes, mercury contamination and mineral deficiencies, are being linked to such problems.

David Wallinga, MD, director of the Food and Health Program at the Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy and a co-author of the article, recently sat down with Organic Connections to explain some of these factors and their potential influences.

“The article reviews, I would say, three different kinds of interrelated problems,” Dr. Wallinga said. “The first is synthetic food dyes, which are largely petroleum based. Individually, there’s already evidence that these contribute to problems in children related to learning, such as lack of attention. There’s a call in the UK, for example, for food manufacturers to phase out these synthetic food dyes completely.

Rebuttal to Recent Attacks Against Dietary Supplements

Have you recently been seeing a lot of anti-supplement sentiment in the media lately? Just so you’ll have both sides of the debate, check out the Life Extension Foundation’s rebuttal.

Rebuttal to Recent Attacks Against Dietary Supplements