Some years ago, before I retired, I was teaching classes in child and maternal nutrition and I
had quite a number of students who hsd children who were hyperactive and had poor attention
spans. Universally they all clung desperately and fervently to the diet theories of Dr.
Feingold. I argued the lack of adequate research on the subject, but they insisted that removing
food colorings and sugar calmed their children. They also felt a lot of guilt, based on what
they had learned about embryonic and fetal development during the class.
The fact is that many of the problems that are related to brain function and physical
development can be traced to maternal exposure to chemical intake during the first few weeks
after conception, often before a woman is even aware she is pregnant. It can be either innocent
or not. It is pretty much a matter of chance, like a lottery, if a drink of alcoholic beverage,
or the intake of a chemical will have an effect on a developing embryo or fetus. The window for
the development of a particular body part or system is short and well defined.
I was one of the lucky ones in December, 1944 when my doctor gave me a new treatment that
controlled the pernicious vomiting I was experiencing with my early pregnancy. This was a very
large dose of Vitamin B6. It worked. What could go wrong with the intake of an essential
vitamin? Plenty! Much later it was learned that combined with a genetic predisposition for B6
dependency, high doses during early gestation resulted in infants with grand mal seizures and
mental retardation. These children were dependent on very large doses of B6 for any kind of
normal life. An inherited predisposition for a greater than usual requirement for B6 combined
with the mother's high therapeutic intake triggered the tragic result at the wrong time. We all
have some genetic weak spots in our DNA. Mutations are occurring all the time. Most are
benign and do no harm. Others can be triggered later in life by trauma or great stress. Perhaps
PD is an example of that when the cause is not a chemical like MPTP that targets the dopamine
production cells in the brain. There is a long list of food additives in the FDA's database of
over 2000 additives, including the GRAS substances("Generally Recognized as Safe"). Many of the
food colors reside there. This list has been under review for decades and it means that these
chemicals haven't had a bad reputation so far and we'll keep using them until they are proven
otherwise.
Maybe Dr. Feingold was correct when it came to susceptible children. And perhaps aspartane in
artifically sweetened diet products is bad for those with PD. Its not possible to know what
might adversely affect an individual. If it works for you then go with it.
Some of us are more susceptible than others to chemicals that destroy vermin or weeds than
others. That may be why my husband has PD and neither I nor our children do not, even though we
were all exposed to plenty of pesticides and herbicides over the last 50 plus years.
One of my students remarked after a particularly graphic discussion of genetic defects and
inborn errors of metabolism, "How does anybody manage to be born normal!" The answer is likely
to be that nobody is, but the results are unimportant or just a minor annoyance. As the old
saying went... "everyones crazy but me and thee, and sometimes I'm not sure about thee."
A listing of food additives on the FDA list can be found at:
http://vm.cfsan.fda.gov/~dms/eafus.html
Martha CG for Neal 78/14
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