"Western" diet linked to ADHD
 

They weren't comparing different nationalities/ethnicities, by the way, all of these kids were Australian. Eating crap makes your body and your brain sick, people, it's just a fact.

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This is such a patently obvious fact that I go so far as to say that anyone who disagrees with this is an idiot.

And yet I'd go as far to say that at least 60% of us eat crap on a regular basis.

85% of all medical issues are caused by . . . :right:

That's why, when I get a Wendy's double Baconator large combo, I have them leave off the mayonnaise.

The mayo is fine, for a "non-western diet" you need them to leave off the buns.

I'm thinking next time I might get it without the bacon.

[livingproof] that's true [/livingproof]

I'm sure it raises any health risk.
But my (maternal) Uncle and my brother were very picky eaters.
And by picky I mean would barely eat anything, especially not fruit or vegetables.

They improved slightly after meeting their respective wives, but spent their childhood eating sweets and biscuits.

I know this is like giving the example of the old person in the family who lived to 102 smoking and drinking every day (definitely NOT a case in my family - the heavy smokers went first, those who drank with it shortly after). And I'm not suggesting the plural of individual experience is data. I just know that not every child with an eating issue ends up with ADHD.

On the flip side, I do believe the same psychological issue plagued both my Uncle and my brother. So the cause and effect of developing ADHD would not have been relevant in their case anyway.

The other issue at play here is that the science of epigenetics is showing more and more clearly that certain types of damage builds up over generations. I know you've mentioned that your brother has no children; how about your maternal Uncle?

Yeah, you don't have to be a rocket scientist to know this. It's frightening how much damage you can do with crap food. Along with obvious behavioural issues, a junk food diet gives you a huge risk of bowel cancer due to the lack of fibre and other essential nutrients.

The shame of it is for us over here is that it's cheaper to eat junk food than it is to eat fresh whole foods, which is why we have such a problem.

Well, that, plus un-process the meat, cut it by 2/3rds or make it white meat, and quadruple the amount of lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. ;)

Now I know you're all crazy, especially Clodfobble.

The thing is, eating junk food isn't cheaper than eating fresher, tastier stuff. Go into any large store and see what size bag of apples/bananas/whatever-common-fruit-or-veg-you-like you can buy for the price of a couple of burgers.

The problem is, people try to compare one-to-one on that sort of thing. Like in Food, Inc., they followed the family into the grocery store where they lamented that this one head of lettuce was a buck fifty, and that was "way too expensive"--because their plan was to also buy meat, and buns, and cheese, and ketchup, and only eat one leaf of lettuce each on their "homemade, healthy" burgers. But that one head of lettuce would have fed all of them practically by itself, if their plan had been to make giant salads instead.

And the lettuce doesn't keep, so you have to eat it quickly, then go back for more. Fresh food has to be handled carefully, it takes time and money to stay on top of a healthy diet.

I managed fine when I was on the zone diet, but it does take organization and planning. When you are used to convenience foods, however, it would seem like an insurmountably hurdle.

Planning is the key. If you're only ever going to eat 'when I'm hungry' then you will never eat healthily. Plan all of your meals at least a day ahead - what you are going to eat and approximately when.

Also, every meal you eat shouldn't necessarily be tastier and more wonderful than the last. It is essentially just fuel remember and consider this when you plan your meals but if all the lovely flavours are important to you then make something more special once each day - if you have a family they can join you and remember that since you're planning your meals now they'll all know when to be at the table.

God, I hope I don't sound like your Mum!

We don't eat junk food at all hardly. Most of our meals are home cooked using whole foods. We don't use sauces out of jars aside from BBQ or Tomato. We have a good herb rack and make even our own curry from scratch.

The problem is, the cost of whole foods in Australia is very high, especially if you want to eat Australian grown products (which is stupid I know, but a huge amount of our fresh produce is imported from Asia). Anyway, it's expensive to eat healthily over here.

It's time I got organized now though. I've got a load of dirt coming to build up my vege garden for spring planting.

No, it's not stupid, not at all. :headshake:

I buy several bags of baby spinach each week, and it usually last that long. It's a good deal...

I don't know if it's the climate here or what, but baby spinach grows like weeds here. If I have four plants in, that's more than we can handle in this place, and the best thing about it is you just snip off what you want, and new leaves are grown in their place within a week.