You know what they say about shopping for good food. Stay on the outer aisles of the store. All the junk is in the middle aisles... Unfortunately, the middle aisles constitute 98% of the store!...
A year ago I read Kevin Trudeau's best-selling book Natural Cures "They' Don't Want You to Know About and it changed my life. I stopped eating most junk food and grocery items and started buying organic and health food without all the man-made chemical additives. I feel 10 years younger and have gained a great boost in my energy level. The effect was not small! Kevin's research on ADD suggests that a great deal of the ADD symptoms arise from the negative effects of food additives. The main culprits are high fructose corn syrup, sodium nitrites in meats, monosodium glutamate, aspartame and splenda artificial sweeteners and growth hormones in dairy and meat products. Commercial food companies put these ingredients in their products to make more profit and don't give a rat's ass about the collateral health effects. They just want to increase productivity and profits for their share holders. If you want a real shock , get hold of the DVD titled Supersize Me. Much of today's illness is caused by chemical additives in food as well as far-over-prescribed drugs. Get a copy of Kevin's book and it will make you hopping mad! Just for fun google the phrase aspartame dangers. Do the same for the other additives. Although I did not vote for him, I give Bill Clinton high praise for his efforts to get high fructose laden sodas out of our kid's schools. It should help the exploding ADD problem. These changes to my diet had a very positive effect on my trading concentration and performance.
i think you may have a point with the artificial stuff... if you look at historical clothes from the 1700-1800 in America in museums, they're tiny compared to what we wear today. If you look at 1/1 ratio replica statues the average height of men was ~ 5 feet tall back then.
What has helped me in the past was to go on a raw food diet for a few weeks. Basically I only ate fruits, salads, nuts and stopped eating sugar and most important - salt (I would have a glass of celery juice each day to get the sodium intake up). I remember that in those first few days how tough it was and I felt withdrawal symtoms much like giving up say tobbacco and alcohol. It was sometimes hard to think or function properly but nevertheless I started to feel a deep inner calm after a few days. After a couple of weeks I stopped, but that period was a powerful catalyst to bring me to the next level.
In 5 years of practicing medicine I have never prescribed ritalin although I have had many requests. I haven't been sued yet, but I live in a fairly non-litigious area. Every parent that brings a child to my office with these complaints upsets me. I would like to take them out back and beat the sh**t out of them. "That right there is the #1 flaw in our so-called "school" system....i.e. conditioning-centers. This stupid 'system' FIGHTS against every natural tendency of children. Any parent who TRULY cares about their child would ALREADY have switched to home-schooling." Home schooling is essential. God (if anyone in this society still believes in him) made parents to teach children. Not some miserable underpaid poor wretch you cannot stand the system he has to teach in and just wants the hell out of there each day. It is like a breath of fresh air whenever I meet someone who has been homeschooled right through the all the grades. Wow, an actual real person, not a conditioned brainless machine!!!!! As for feeding one's child junk, this is CHILD ABUSE! Allowing them to self-select food (eg lunch money) is also CHILD ABUSE. I ask every parent who comes in my office regarding ADHD exactly what their child eats. Then I give them the lecture of their life! I make them bring me grocery store receipts and recipes. Usually, I make a deal with parents that if they eliminate pop, chips, fast food, and anything processed (this would include store-bought bread, frozen dinners, ANY canned food, lunch meats, and a million other poisons) then I might consider an ADHD diagnosis after waiting 6 months for the poisons to clear the body. The ones that do...imagine this-their child is cured in a few days usually! My advice is: wives, stay AT HOME, and home-school you children at least while children are under 12. Cook everything from scratch, nothing processed. Please remember even sugar is processed so you cannot use it in anything. I would recommend organic food if within your budget. I would say 99% of people could get it in their budget if it was really really important to them. Raw food is generally preferable, if you like, but this is not too too important. I wouldn't push it to extremes, but about %50-70 % raw is good, 100% if you like. Try to get raw milk from an organic farmer, it is legal in many jurisdictions and can be found in ALL jurisdictions if you put the effort into it. I am not sure if I would give it to a really young child though. I should add, I just left my practice a week ago because the entire medical system is a flawed conspiracy and a huge miserable mess and now I make enough trading.
I've never actually done it yet! Actually, its hard to be angry at the parents because they probably got the same thing from their parents. Its more the situation that upsets me. Its like the bible says "they don't know their right hand from their left" or something like that when God is looking at the pitifull state his chosen people were in at some point in the old testament.