Sometimes my ten year old son will suddenly become tearful, start groaning and hyperventilating and behaving in a generally unbearable manner.  The onset of this behavior is very sudden and if you give him some food it disappears just as quickly as it started.  He is old enough now to recognize that he is hungry and he will communicate this.  When he was younger he wouldn't always know that he needed to eat and it took me a while to figure out that this was the problem.  It happened recently when we were out and I had to go to a shop to get him some food.  I am not the organized kind of mother who has snacks on hand.......

Anyway this got me thinking about the connection between food and mood and behavior in children.  It is not a new subject to me as I worked for some years for a group of nutritional doctors. But it seemed to be a subject worthy of a hub because often when a child seems a bit depressed or to be misbehaving it is easy to look for causal circumstances at school or in the home.  And quite often the diet of the child is totally overlooked.

Childhood is supposed to be a happy carefree time.  Unfortunately for many children this is not the case.  They made be bored, sad, irritable or angry for much of the time.  The incidence of depression in young people is also on the increase.  Alarmingly the number of pre-school children with signs of depression is on the rise.  It seems that many people are turning to medication when there are far better solutions at hand. 

If your child seems to be bored, angry, irritable, hostile and/or sad they may need psychological help but they may also benefit enormously from some biochemical help.  It is this latter route we will consider here.  The child who is well nourished will not only have an improved mood but they will also have the energy to cope with the ups and downs of life.

A British scientist, Bernard Gesch, from Oxford, has clearly demonstrated the link between diet and behavior.  In a ground-breaking study which involved 231 male prisoners in one of the UK's maximum security prisons, half were given a daily multi-vitamin pill and the other half a placebo.  The results which are published in the British Journal of Psychiatry show an amazing 35 % decrease in acts of aggression from the prisoners eating the multi-vitamin.  There was no change in the behavior of the prisoners on the placebo.  Once the study was over and the vitamins stopped the violent and aggressive behavior increased again. 

The common imbalances that children can suffer from which will affect behavior and mood include the following:

1. Blood sugar imbalances
2. Deficiencies of nutrients
3. Allergies and sensitivities
4. Deficiencies of tryptophan and tyrosine which are precursors of neurotransmitters (but more on those later).

Blood sugar imbalances are an easy thing for a parent to control.  This is what my son suffers from and once he has something to eat he is a different child.  The best way of avoiding these imbalances is by ensuring your child has a proper breakfast of unprocessed food and doesn't go too long without food.  Sugary cereals may not be the best breakfast food.

I will not go into food allergies and sensitivities here, which are the subject of a hub in their own right,  but if you suspect that your child may suffer from a food intollerance then you should see your doctor to get them tested.

The vitamins that have the most influence on mood are the vitamins B3, B12, folic acid, B6, zinc and magnesium.  The essential fatty acids - especially omega 3 are also important.  Most of these vitamins are involved in a biochemical process known as methylation which is critical for balancing the neurotransmitters that keep the child happy and motivated.

The neurotransmitter which keeps the child happy is serotonin, whilst adrenalin and noradrenalin keep the child motivated.  So the balance of these is important.  But they are not only affected by nutrition.  Stress, lack of exercise and not enough light can also upset the balance.  Children these days may be subject to increasing levels of stress.  This has the effect of reducing serotonin levels and increasing adrenalin.  Exercise is a great mood booster and does reduce the stress induced depletion of serotonin and adrenalin, but many kids today are not getting enough exercise.  With too much time spent indoors and not enough direct sunlight the serotonin production is also compromised.  If you add a poor diet to this scenario it is no wonder many children will have low moods and poor behavior.

Serotonin is made from a constituent of protein, the amino acid tryptophan.  Tryptophan is found in good quantities in fish, turkey, chicken, cheese, beans, tofu, oats and eggs.  Philip Cowen, a researcher from Oxford, has shown that if you deprive adults of tryptophan, most will start to show signs of depression within a remarkably short time.

Adrenalin and noradrenalin are made from the food amino acids called phenylalanine and tyrosine.  These are also conveniently found in the above list of protein foods.  So ensuring your child has an adequate intake of these protein sources should help their mood.

Magnesium has the effect of relaxing the mind and the muscles.  It is important for good sleep as I discussed in Solve Your Child's Sleep Problems.  A lack of magnesium will often manifest as hyperactivity, irritability and anxiety as well as insomnia.  Zinc deficiency has been linked with depression.  Foods such as green leafy vegetables, seeds, nuts and beans are great sources of magesium and zinc and these are foods that a lot of children don't get enough of.

The omega 3 essential fatty acids which are found in fish help build the brain receptor sites for serotonin.  It has been found that children with higher blood levels of omega 3 fats will have better levels of serotonin.  Scientist, Joseph Hibbeln has done a lot of work in this area and concludes that fish eaters are less prone to depression than other members of the population.  He sees that our diets have changed quite dramatically in the last 30 years and we are now consuming more omega 6 essential fatty acids and less omega 3s.  The modern fast food, processed diet is far higher in omega 6 essential fatty acids.  Hibbeln attributes the modern diet to the increasing levels of depression in society.

Action to take to ensure your child is getting adequate nutrients for good mood:

1. Give them a diet containing adequate protein rich foods (especially, chicken, fish, turkey, cheese, beans, tofu, eggs)
2. Try to give them an omega 3 rich diet - lots of oily fish and supplements of fish oils if necessary.  
3. Give them a good multi-vitamin supplement - with all the B vitamins and magnesium and zinc as well as including seeds, nuts and green leafy vegetables that are rich in these minerals and vitamins
4. Try and ensure their diet is high in unprocessed foods and low in unhealthy sugars and caffeine.
5. Encourage outdoor exercise where possible
6. Reduce stress where possible - allowing them time in their hectic schedules to play, relax and just do nothing.