Disease Proof : Disease Proof : Health & Nutrition News & Commentary : Dr. Joel Fuhrman

Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) is a long-chain omega-3 fatty acid. About half of the brain and eyes are made up of fat, much of which is DHA, which is an essential nutrient for optimal brain and eye function.1 Children's diets today are notoriously low in the beneficial omega-3 fats found in foods such as walnuts, flax seeds, soybeans, leafy greens, and certain fish. I do not recommend fish as a preferred source of these beneficial fats for children because of contamination with pollutants and mercury.

The most commonly used supplement to add DHA to the diet is fish oils, but what is not widely known is that most of us can produce sufficient DHA from short-chain omega-3 fatty acids received from walnuts, flax seeds, and green vegetables. Many fish make their DHA from eating greens, too, from algae.

New products are available that contain DHA from algae, the fish's original source. Unlike fish oil, the algae-derived DHA, grown in the laboratory, is free of chemical pollutants and toxins that may be present in some fish oil-based brands. I recommend favorable DHA products that are designed for purity and are suitable for children. Neuromins is a common (non-fish-derived) brand of DHA sold in most health food stores, and I also have designed and manufactured an all-plant-derived DHA supplement, DHA Purity, available on my Web site and in my office.

DHA is also a normal component of breast milk, and infants fed breast milk score higher on intellectual and visual measurements than those fed baby formulas lacking DHA. Children who were breast-fed, as a group, have higher IQ scores than those who were formula fed.2 Pregnant women should pay close attention to their DHA status to ensure proper DHA supply for prenatal development. Maternal supplementation with DHA during pregnancy, and lactation has been demonstrated to augment children's IQ.3

DHA is present in breast milk, but up until 2002, the United States was the only country in the world where infant formulas were not fortified with DHA, despite a 1995 recommendation by the World Health Organization to do so. In addition, the average DHA content of breast milk in the United States has been tested to be low compared to other countries that consume more fish. In fact, postpartum depression, lower IQ, dyslexia, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) have been linked by many scientific studies to the low DHA intake common in the United States.4

Deficiency in DHA fatty acids has been linked to:

• Impulsiveness
• Aggressiveness
• Dyslexia
• Depression
• Reduced intelligence
• Sleep problems
• Temper tantrums
• Alcoholism
• Schizophrenia
• Manic depression 5

The first year of life is a crucial year that sets the stage for your child's healthy body and mind. Exposure to DHA-rich breast milk while the brain is rapidly growing assures that your child will develop his full intelligence potential. To supplement her healthy diet, Mom should be taking a multivitamin plus a daily DHA supplement containing approximately 200 mg of DHA, to assure adequate DHA content in her breast milk. Even after food is introduced, continued breast-feeding is important and necessary past the first birthday for maximum disease resistance, immune function, and brain development.

Once your child is off breast milk, I recommend that parents add a small amount of DHA (50 to 100mg) to their child's orange juice, oatmeal, or other food. Even if you don't do it every day, it still ensures that no child will suffer the consequences of DHA deficiency during these crucial years of brain development. When our children don't consume the right mix of brain boosting nutrients, they have a reduced ability to learn and a lower IQ, and later in life they can develop dementia and Alzheimer's disease. On the other hand, the right mixture of brain-supporting foods will afford our children the ability to reach their maximum potential in life, not just for health, but for emotional stability, happiness, and success in their chosen careers.

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Michael Hawthorne and Sam Roe of the Chicago Tribune report that the United States safety net for safeguarding consumers against the increased mercury levels in fish is in tatters. In the article the reporters detail the fate of one particular piece of fish:

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Plenty of parents give their children vitamins. But there is so much conflicting information. Which ones should you give? Why do so many of them have so much sugar in them? Why do the other ones taste so foul? What about studies show supplementing vitamin A or beta carotene can encourage certain diseases? Should children get iron? What about DHA?

In this DiseaseProof podcast, Dr. Fuhrman talks about the troubles he had finding supplements for his own children. The ones with the best ingredients tasted so bad his children wouldn't take them. The ones they were willing to take were full of sugar, or were missing important nutrients. Others had too much of things he didn't want his children to have.

Out of frustration, Dr. Fuhrman went to work with a vitamin manufacturer, spending two years developing his own children's vitamins. They're called Pixie-Vites, and the first shipment of them arrives this week.

This podcast is under fifteen minutes, and describes a parent's search for a better child's vitamin.

Listen to an mp3 of Supplements for Children.

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In work published in Endocrinology University of Cincinnati researchers have found that a chemical widely used in food cans, milk container linings, water pipes, and even dental sealants could disrupt important effects of estrogen in the developing brain.

In a press release, researcher Scott Belcher, PhD, says Bisphenol A (BPA) interferes with the vital role of estrogen in female and male brain development even at low doses.

"We have now shown that environmental estrogens like BPA appear to alter, in a very complicated fashion, the normal way estrogen communicates with immature nerve cells," Dr. Belcher explained. "The developmental effects that we studied are known to be important for brain development and also for normal function of the adult brain," he said...

In the face of more than 100 studies published in peer-reviewed journals showing the detrimental effects of BPA, Dr. Belcher said, the chemical industry and federal regulatory agencies have resisted banning BPA from plastics used as food and beverage containers, despite the fact that plastics free of BPA and other toxic chemicals are available.

The blog Mindfully has examined plastic and food extensively. I was hoping to find some handy advice to pass along about how to recognize safer kinds of plastics, but instead found only that they conclude plastic should never touch food. I can't vouch for their conclusions, but it's something to consider.

Any plastic experts out there who can shed some more light on this for us? I bet a lot of us would like to know some steps we can take to try to reduce our exposure to these kinds of toxins. Please comment away.

(Thanks to Medical Informatics for the heads up on this story.)

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From Dr. Fuhrman's book Disease-Proof Your Child.

Acute lymphoblastic leukemia is up 10.7 percent over the last twenty years. Brain cancer is up 30 percent; osteogenic sarcoma, a type of bone cancer, is up 50 percent; and testicular cancer is up 60 percent in men under thirty. No one can tell us why. Scientific studies provide clues that are difficult to ignore:

• Children whose parents work with pesticides are more likely to suffer leukemia, brain cancer, and other afflictions.
• Studies show that childhood leukemia is related to increased pesticide use around the house.
• Nine studies reviewed by the National Cancer Institute showed a correlation between pesticide exposure and brain cancer.
• Exposure to weed killers in childhood increases asthma risk by more than fourfold.

Because young children are the ones most susceptible to toxic exposures, the National Academy of Science has issued warnings and position papers stating that exposure to pesticides in early life can increase cancer rates down the road as well as increasing the occurrence of mental and immune system disorders.2

We must be careful not to expose our children to chemical cleaners, insecticides, and weed killers on our lawns. Chemicals used in pressure-treated wood used to build lawn furniture, decks, fences, and swings sets have been shown to place children at risk. When children are around, we must be vigilant to maintain a chemical-free environment.

The Environmental Protection Agency reports that the majority of pesticides now in use are probable or possible cancer causers. Studies of farm workers who work with pesticides suggest a link between pesticide use and brain cancer, Parkinson's disease, multiple myloma, leukemia, lymphoma, and cancers of the stomach, prostate, and testes.3 But the question remains, does the low level of pesticides remaining on our food present much of a danger?

Some scientists argue that the extremely low level of pesticide residue remaining on produce is insignificant and that there are naturally occurring toxins in all natural foods that are more significant. The large amount of studies performed on the typical pesticide-treated produce have demonstrated that consumption of produce, whether organic or not, is related to lower rates of cancer and disease protection, not higher rates. Certainly, it is better to eat fruits and vegetables grown and harvested using pesticides than not eating them at all. The health benefits of eating phytochemical-rich produce greatly outweigh any risk pesticide residues might pose.

It has been shown that women with higher levels of pesticides in their bloodstream have a higher risk of breast cancer.4 However, the pesticide shown in these studies to be connected to cancer was DDT, which is no longer used in food production and was banned by the U.S. government in 1972. The problem is that DDT is still in the environment and finds its way back into our food supply, predominately via shellfish and fish consumption. So purchasing organic fruit and vegetables will not lower our exposure to DDT if we are eating fish and shellfish regularly.

Keep in mind, there is a significantly larger exposure to toxic chemicals in animal products compared to plant food. By eating lower on the food chain and reducing our intake of animal products, one automatically reduces exposure to toxic chemicals. Plants have the least fat-soluble pollutants, animals that eat plants have more, and animals that eat animals have the highest levels of these toxic compounds. Fish that eat smaller fish will store the toxic compounds from every fish it ever ate, including all the fish eaten by the fish it just made a meal of. It is important to avoid lobster, shellfish, catfish, and predator fish such as tuna, bluefish, striped bass, shark, and swordfish, where toxins such as PCB, DDT, dioxin, and mercury are likely to build up due to the compounding effects of eating lots of smaller fish. One gets larger doses of more toxic compounds from these contaminated animal products than would be possible to take in from produce.

Organic food is certainly your best bet, to further limit exposure to toxic chemicals. No one knows for sure how much risk exists from pesticide residue on produce, but here's what we do know: the younger you are, the more your cells are susceptible to damage from toxins. It seems wise to feed our young children organic food whenever possible.

Of course, wash your vegetables and fruit with water and when possible, use a drop of dishwashing detergent and then rinse well to remove all detergent residues for a little more efficient cleaning. Specialty pesticide removal products have not clearly demonstrated any more effectiveness than mild soap and water.

Besides the heightened exposure to chemicals and pesticides from animal products, the most hazardous pesticides are used on some plant foods responsible for the majority of the plant-food-related dietary risk. These foods with the most pesticide residue are: strawberries, peaches, raspberries, blackberries, grapes, cherries, apples, and celery. Imported produce is also more likely to contain higher levels of pesticides.5

There is another reason to feed our children organic food when possible. Organic food usually has more nutrients than conventional.6 One study performed at the University of California at Davis found that foods grown organically had higher amounts of flavonoids, which have protective effects against both heart disease and cancer. The researchers found flavonoids were more than 50 percent higher in organic corn and strawberries. They theorized that when plants are forced to deal with the stress of insects, they produce more of these compounds, which are beneficial to humans.7 Overall, organic foods taste better, and organic agriculture protects farmers and our environment.

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If you have listened to Dr. Fuhrman's podcast on getting children to eat well, then you know that he plays a game with his young son. He says they all get GREEN POWER from kale, spinach, broccoli or whatever green vegetable they're eating. The whole family acts like they are getting terrifed of his formidable green power as the boy eats more and more. Dr. Fuhrman usually ends up leaping over the couch in high some high theater. It's worth a listen.

Seems like the people at the Cartoon Network in Britain have a similar idea. According to Blogging Baby:

Brussels sprouts get a bad rap with British kids, and the Cartoon Network is setting out to change all that with their new Elfy Food program (Elfy = Healthy = Elven, get it?). Every time the heroes eat a different fruit or veggie, they gather another power to help them fight foes like Frank Farter and the grumpy dragon.

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