Nutrition Information

Nourishing Your Child's Brain

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By Philippa Norman, M.D., M.P.H.

Dr. Norman is a holistic physician who participates in Green Earth Institute activities. She is author of Feed Your Brain: How to Boost Your Brainpower With Food, and works with families and schools to promote nutrition and holistic heath. She can be contacted at (312) 958-4545 or pjnorman4@yahoo.com or visit www.GrowingTreePress.com.

I derive a certain perverse pleasure in sneaking flax oil into ketchup (Tee hee, I just made it healthier!) Do my children thank me for helping them maintain healthy brain cell membranes? Not yet, not until they are 40 and sprinkling flax seed on their own kids' cereal, I suppose. Though I give them flax at home, I wonder if they will be able to make the best choices for themselves as they live in this culture that pushes junk food and disregards the needs of a growing child's brain.

Though food processing began as a way to increase availability of foods, it has become a renegade public enemy, with fluorescent green condiments, bits of candy served for breakfast, and snack cakes that won't spoil for years. What has been the impact of poor nutrition on our children's brains? How has it influenced their emotional well-being? In some cities, nearly half of school children (and their parents) are on medication for ADD. Many children are depressed, anxious and tired. Others have behavior problems and seem to lack impulse control. Even if they do not have these problems, they live in a world replete with potential threats to their brain health: pesticides with hormone-like activity, toxins that damage membranes and DNA, and stress levels that throw their brains into a state of unrest, short-circuiting their ability to learn and diverting energy reserves that could be used for creativity and higher level processing. Eating the typical, unconscious American diet certainly takes its toll.

What are the foods needed by the brain? What does food have to do with learning? As your child learns, his brain responds by growing and changing physically. When she learns something new, the neuron processes this information and it is retained in the cell. When she connects what she learns to previous knowledge, she sprouts a dendrite, a tiny cellular arm, connecting that cell to the one that retains the previously learned information. This process of brain growth is dynamic and lifelong, and involves an interplay between the learning environment, the individual child's learning style and the availability of nutrients necessary to form neurotransmitters and cell membranes, and to maintain growth and cell repair. Zinc, a trace mineral found in seeds, nuts and meats, is a key mineral in processing memory and regulating mood. It is also an essential growth regulator for brain cells, balancing the process of growth and pruning of brain cells that occurs as we learn. Essential fatty acids, contained in fish, seeds and nuts are needed to form pliable, healthy brain cell membranes. Cell membranes are needed to form storage packets for molecules of chemical messengers, transport nutrients and water along membranous highways within the cell, and maintain high-speed electrical conduction. Vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients , abundant in whole foods, drive chemical reactions in the brain and protect it from damage. Nourishing your child's brain is truly a powerful way to help him function at his best, maintain a more even mood, think more clearly, and handle stress better.

Here are some basic guidelines for choosing the best foods to nourish your child's brain (and your own):

1. Eat whole foods. Children can learn to eat food "the way it grows" when they understand what their brain needs to work well. They can be taught that nature makes the best food for them. They can learn that their brain is like a factory that uses ingredients from whole foods to make brain chemicals that help them to feel emotions, think, learn, play sports, dance, remember songs, and all of the other things they like to do. A child who eats too many sweets and feels groggy, or who has skipped a meal and feels cranky, has just offered you a wonderful teaching moment.

2. Eat all color groups every week. Powerful phytonutrients impart the bright colors of red bell peppers, purple grapes, and dark leafy greens. Each group of phytonutrients has specific properties that promote brain health and protect from oxidative stress, a process of cell damage often caused by environmental toxins, that ravages cell membranes like a molecular wildfire that can only be quenched by antioxidants. Living in this world makes an antioxidant-rich diet a necessity, not an option. It is hard to play "catch-up" with oxidative stress. By the time you notice its effects, the process has been extensive. It is far better to have a daily diet rich in phytonutrients.

3. Balance Intuitively. There are many diets on the market. They may help you and they may not. The only thing for sure is that each of us is unique. From a palette of whole foods, find the mix of grains, protein foods, fruits and vegetables that helps you feel the best. For an alert brain, have a breakfast that includes protein and slow-burning complex carbohydrates. I often tell students to have split pea soup or chicken and rice for breakfast to generate the most brainpower in the morning.

4. Check for allergies/intolerance. Common allergic foods include milk , eggs, corn, and wheat. Signs of food allergy or intolerance range from bloating and skin problems to behavior problems, foggy thinking, and depression. To check for food allergies and intolerance, you can eliminate the food for a few weeks and then reintroduce it, checking for changes in how your child feels. You can also work with practitioners who specialize in allergy testing and treatment. Be aware that overuse of antibiotics, some pain medicines, and high sugar diets create an unhealthy "leaky" intestinal tract that may lead to food allergies.

5. Drink water. Water hydrates brain cells so they can function optimally. Brain cells contain storage packets for water reserves. Your brain really notices when you are dehydrated and you will likely feel groggy or feel you aren't thinking at your best.

In addition to nourishing the brain with food, practice balanced living for a balanced brain. Sleep promotes cell repair and growth. Play creates endorphins and promotes creativity. Sunshine stimulates vitamin D production, and helps regulate circadian rhythms that influence our ability to remain alert.

Beyond all the science of food is the matter of being whole and connected with the source of our food. Food is energy. Earth is our home. Our health and well-being depends on making a shift to sustainable, whole living that honors our earth home and trusts what it yields for us, and which we in turn care for. How can children learn this if they think fruit is canned peaches, or peas come in a can? Seeing the universe in action, sprouting seeds that they plant, and then munching on the tasty results of their efforts, helps children to understand and appreciate food and develop a sense of caring for the Earth.

It can be a lot of work to feed your children's brains, and to teach them to make the best choices. Nourishing your child's brain is a lot like growing a garden. It takes daily attention, vision, and loving choices. You will reap what you sow: underlying laws that govern the universe are at the core of all functions in our bodies and minds, as well.

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