2024-02-10 05:45:10
In a recent publication by PubMedAmerican scientists led by Dr. DuPaul at the Institute for Food and Health Research, reported the results of a clinical trial in which parents who received nutritional epigenetics education significantly reduced their consumption of highly processed foods while increasing their consumption of whole and/or organic foods. The education intervention used by the curriculum Focused on the constructions of the nutritional epigenetics model that explains how autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may develop as a result of excess consumption of highly processed foods.
Consumption of ultra-processed foods leads to heavy metal exposures and nutritional deficits that create mineral imbalances such as zinc and calcium. Inadequate zinc stores may disrupt the function of the metal transporter metallothionein (MT) gene and prevent the elimination of heavy metals found in highly processed foods. Bioaccumulation of mercury and/or lead is common in children with autism and ADHD who often suffer from zinc deficiency. Mercury, lead and other heavy metals are known to suppress the paraoxonase gene (PON1). Paraoxonase is required by the body to clean up the residues of neurotoxic organophosphate pesticides that are routinely found in the food supply by the United States Department of Agriculture. Children with autism and ADHD are more sensitive to the harmful effects of exposure to organophosphate pesticides.
Parents who received dietary epigenetics education learned how to reduce their children’s dietary exposure to heavy metal and organophosphorus pesticide residues. The parents learned how to read food ingredient labels and changed their diet because they avoided buying food with heavy metal residues and permitted pesticides. By learning how specific food ingredients contribute to heavy metal exposure, affect nutrient status and/or gene behavior, parents have gained the knowledge they need to feed themselves and their children a healthier diet. At the end of the educational intervention, the parents changed their minds about their ability to control their child’s behavior through nutrition.
Children behave better when they feel better. Because the severity of symptoms in autism and ADHD correlates directly with blood levels of heavy metals, children with less heavy metal exposure show improvements in behavior and cognition. In addition, since heavy metals, in single or multi-metallic combinations, create conditions for gut dysbiosis, improvements in nutrition can reduce inflammation and improve gut health. Reducing consumption of highly processed foods can alleviate symptoms associated with gut dysbiosis, which is often a co-occurring condition found in children with autism and ADHD.
Autism and ADHD are preventable, but the prevalence of these neurodevelopmental disorders will continue to rise in the United States until changes are made to reduce the heavy metal residues allowed in the highly processed food supply. The US Congress published two reports in 2021 on the problem of heavy metals in baby food. The first report published on February 4, 2021 revealed that baby food is contaminated with dangerous levels of arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury. The second report, published on September 29, 2021, confirmed that new disclosures by manufacturers show dangerous levels of heavy metals in food Even more so for babies.
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