Pesticides linked to ADHD – The Dirty Dozen and The Clean Fifteen
May 17, 2010 by admin
Filed under All Articles, Alternative ADHD Treatments, Diet, Diet and ADD/ADHD, Featured, Food and ADHD, Natural ADHD Supplments
In an article on MSNBC’s Today website, said that “Exposure to pesticides used on common kid-friendly foods, including frozen blueberries, fresh strawberries and celery, appears to boost the chances that children will be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, new research shows”.
Widely used types of pesticides such as malathion, were likely to cause ADHD, the behavior disorder that often plagues the social life and school life of children, but also carries over in adults, they never “grown out of it”.
Children with higher-than-normal levels of one pesticide marker were “likely to be diagnosed with ADHD as children who showed no traces of the poison”. But what’s normal? Having a pesticide in your body is “Normal”?
It is highly suggested to buy as much organic food as possible and still wash everything fresh that you eat. This helps to eliminate the chances of poisonous pesticides from entering the body, and causing any harm what so ever, or having any chance of “getting” ADHD(Attention deficit hyperactive disorder).
“Diet is a major source of pesticide exposure in children”, says the National Academy of Sciences, and “much of that exposure comes from favorite fruits and vegetables”. In 2008, detectable concentrations of malathion were found in 28 percent of frozen blueberry samples, 25 percent of fresh strawberry samples and 19 percent of celery samples, a government report found. That’s pretty high and to think we eat those things on a daily basis. I wonder how that is affecting us in other ways aside from our brain?
ADHD affects approximately 4.5 million U.S. children of which about 2.5 million of those children take medication for the condition, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A study of 1,139 children between ages 8 to 15 had levels of six pesticide metabolites in their urine, the study included 119 children who were diagnosed with ADHD. The study showed a “glimpse into average insecticide exposure in the general population of children, not a specialized group, such as children of farmworkers”.
Pesticides used in farming work by interfering with the nervous systems of insects, and have a similar effect in mammals, including humans. Most people in the U.S. have residues of the products in their urine.
The best advice for anyone who wants to avoid pesticides is choose foods least likely to contain them. Shoppers should buy organic versions of a dozen fruits and vegetables that grow in the ground or are commonly eaten with the skin, because the non-organic versions are most likely to be contaminated.
Fruits and Vegetables
Be sure to wash all fruits and vegetables under cold running tap water and scrub firm-skinned produce with a brush. Be sure to rinse frozen fruits and vegetables, as well.
A recent study, two-thirds of domestic and imported produce contained no pesticide residue, according to the Food and Drug Administration. Yet the study did not mention the other third of produce which did contain traces of pesticides.
The “dirty dozen” are the fruits and vegetables most likely to contain pesticides. Peaches top the “dirty dozen” list because they require a lot of pesticides to grow, according to the Environmental Working Group.
The dirty dozen include:
- Apples
- Bell peppers
- Celery
- Cherries
- Nectarines
- Strawberries
- Kale
- Lettuce
- Imported grapes
- Carrots
- Pears
Here is a list of the ”Clean 15” fruits and vegetables that are least likely to contain pesticide residue, especially if Organic:
- Onion
- Avocado
- Sweet Corn
- Pineapple
- Mango
- Asparagus
- Sweet Peas
- Kiwi
- Cabbage
- Eggplant
- Papaya
- Watermelon
- Broccoli
- Tomato
- Sweet Potato
