We know that the foods we eat affect the body. But they may have even more of an influence on how the brain works—it’s general tone and level of energy and how it handles its tasks. Mood, motivation and mental performance are powerfully influenced by diet.

The brain is an extremely metabolically active organ, making it a very hungry one, and a picky eater at that. It’s becoming pretty clear in research labs around the country that the right food, or the natural neurochemicals that they contain, can enhance mental capabilities—help you concentrate, tune sensorimotor skills, keep you motivated, magnify memory, speed reaction times, defuse stress, perhaps even prevent brain aging.

Everywhere you look, someone is telling you to eat organic, wear something organic etc, but for those of us on who are new the idea it can be very difficult to learn how to integrate more green living into our every day lives. If you are already doing a little but want to do a little something more to reduce your carbon footprint; here are some easy and fun ways to go organic and get greener. In most cities and towns usually between May and October, there are Farmer’s Markets. An afternoon at the Farmer’s Market can provide you numerous opportunities to find and buy organic products. Check your local free papers, city websites for dates and times . Bring your own tote bag and stock up on organic seasonal fruits and vegetables.

And remember foods aren’t the only organic things you can get your hands on. If you look through your own pantries and cupboards you probably have lots of household cleansers right? Some careful shopping can open a whole world of toxic chemical free organic based household cleaning products. Imagine, no more headaches from the noxious fumes while cleaning your kitchen or bathroom. No more worrying about young children or pets putting their mouths on things you’ve just cleaned. Another great way to get some organic into your life is to start drinking teas. You might be surprised to find that you don’t have to buy high-end bulk teas to get quality organically grown teas.

There are many name brand and reasonably priced teas that have organic ingredients. You may be asking yourself where to find these things? Many grocery stores have their organic items in their own aisles. You might even be able to find organic and “green” items at your local drug store. Very nearly any personal toiletry you might want or need, there’s a safe bet you can find that very same thing made with all organic ingredients. Supporting our organic farmers and companies is one small thing you can do to make this world a better place for all of us. If you want to go a step further than what goes in your belly or on your skin, start looking for clothing made from organic materials. A simple web search can provide you with many companies specializing in producing apparel made from organic and Fair Trade materials.

One thing to remember when buying clothing made from organic materials is to make sure you check the care labels and treat your garments accordingly. With just a little bit of effort on your part, you can incorporate organic foods, toiletries, cleaning supplies and even clothing into yours and your families lives. A few extra minutes in the grocery store, maybe a few minutes on the Internet between checking your email and playing solitaire and voila you’re living a greener life.

In addition to the mental and emotional benefits of growing and eating organic food, there are also the physical benefits. These physical benefits can be boiled down to nutrients present in organic foods that are not in commercial foods and toxins not in organic foods that are present in commercial foods. A recent article in the Journal of Applied Nutrition gave credence to the notion that organic foods have higher nutrient levels that non-organic food. In this study the mineral content of organic apples, pear, potatoes, wheat, and sweet corn were compared to commercial varieties.

Overall the organic foods showed much higher levels of nutrient minerals and much lower levels of heavy metals Other studies have looked at vitamin levels of food plants treated with certain pesticides. They showed that application of some pesticides would significantly lower the vitamin levels in the plants they were applied to. This is different than the notion that plants raised with chemicals are low in nutrients because the soil is depleted. This shows that chemicals actually reduce the amount of nutrients in plants after application. The nutrients most often affected are vitamin C, beta carotene, and the B vitamins. These nutrients are vitally necessary for the body to withstand the onslaught of chemical toxins. Vitamin C has been well documented by two-time Nobel laureate Linus Pauling to prevent and treat cancers. Beta carotene has been shown to be a stimulant of the immune system, and is sometimes able to prevent lung cancer.

When they studied organic food for mineral levels, the researchers also looked for the amount of the heavy metals aluminum, cadmium, lead and mercury. Aluminum has been implicated for years in the development of Alzheimer’s disease. It’s content in organic food averaged 40% less that in commercial foods. Lead toxicity, which has been in the new a lot lately, can adversely affect our children’s’ IQ. It averaged 29% lower in organic foods. Mercury, which can cause neurologic damage, averaged 25% lower in organic foods. Besides the lower levels of heavy metals, there are the chemical residues themselves. The big question is whether or not the accumulation of pesticide residues in non-organic foods is a real health concern or not. Studies have never been able to conclusively show a direct correlation between residues in food and a decline of human health, but there are numerous problems in doing any such study.

The first is that you would need a population of people who are free of chemical residues to compare to, and no one has been able to find such a group. According to an ongoing EPA study of fat samples taken from surgeries and autopsies across the country, we are all loaded with chemical residues. Similar studies done on other countries all show the same results. The clearest studies that we have about pesticide residues and disease are those looking at breast cancer. In the last few years there have been a series of studies, each building upon the other, looking at the level of DDT, DDE, and PCB in women, They have very clearly shown that chemical residues in the serum and fat cells of women greatly increase the risk of breast cancer.

Since breast cancer is a major killer of women in this country it is reasonable to say that avoidance of pesticide residues in food (the only known route of exposure to DDT in this country, since we no longer use it to spray for mosquitoes) could save numerous lives and reduce our health care cost dramatically. After 50 years of “Better Living Through Chemistry” scientists have finally shown that breast cancer is associated with pesticide residue, They have yet to prove that it causes numerous other maladies. I am not waiting for them to prove it before I change my eating habits.

As a clinician who sees numerous environmentally poisoned people with health problems, I am convinced of an association between chemicals and disease. The biggest source of exposure for many people is their workplace, then their homes, followed by air, food and water. Of these the easiest to control are our home environment and our diet.

Finings
Finings are substances sometimes added to beer during fermentation to help settle out particles and yeast, leaving the beer clear. It is important to note that finings are not present in the finished beer in any significant quantity. Their purpose is to settle out of the beer, not stay in suspension. OTOH, if a careful chemical analysis were to be performed, there would probably be a few molecules of a fining agent still to be found. Also, many brewers do not use finings at all, but filter their beer to clarify it. That said, these are the common fining agents:

Isinglass
Made from the dried swim bladders of sturgeons. Used a
great deal in British brewing.
Irish Moss
Also known as carragheen, a type of dried seaweed.
Gelatin
The same stuff used to make Jello ™. Made from animal (mostly cow) hooves, skin and connective tissues.
Polyclar
A brand name for PVP (polyvinylpyrdlidone), a man-made,  plastic substance.
Sparkalloid
More commonly known as diatemaceous earth.

FYI, beer brewed according to the Reinheitsgebot (see related Q&A) is not prohibited from using finings since it was generally assumed that finings were not present in the finished product.

Adjuncts
These are products used to alter the flavor, color, or body of beer. They are used in addition to the “Basic 4″: malted barley,
hops, yeast, and water. They do not settle out and can be present in beer in significant quantities.

Corn
Used a great deal by the mega-brewers as a cheap way to make huge quantities of beer since corn is cheaper than malted barley.
Rice
Same as corn.
Wheat
Used in some beer styles to produce a lighter-bodied beer with a tangy flavor.
Honey
Used as another fermentable sugar in addition to malted barley to impart different flavors.
Lactose
Also known as milk sugar because of its dairy origin. Used to increase sweetness and body of certain beer styles such as cream stouts.
Molasses
Another form of sugar used to flavor some dark ales.

Heading agents
Various products added to a beer to increase its ability to form and hold a head. Used most often in beers made with large quantities of corn and/or rice. Pepsin is a common heading agent and is often derived from pork. Beers using only malted barley or wheat don’t need heading agents.

Organic ingredients
To be truly organic, a beer would have to be made from barley and hops cultivated using accepted organic practices. Most brewers do not make this claim, but a few are appearing. Those that do clearly label their products as organic. It is also my
understanding that organic does not mean no animal products.

Other ingredients
Many other ingredients are used in brewing beer to give it unusual character or marketing appeal. As such, these items are often clearly indicated on the label. Some of the more common examples are:

Oatmeal, Pumpkin, Potatoes, and all sorts of fruit

Also spices such as: Ginger, Licorice, Coriander, Cinnamon, and Spruce

Each day, a growing number of other schoolchildren enjoy delicious lunches that help put them ahead. Their school cafeterias may feature healthy items they will actually choose to eat, while keeping junk foods and beverages out of arm’s reach. Or, their parents might send them to school with a tasty, healthy lunch that nourishes their bodies and their brains.

What’s on your child’s plate today?

It is my strong conviction that children deserve a healthy breakfast to start the school morning right and a healthy school lunch to fuel their growing and their learning. I have come to believe that nutrition plays a key role, by providing them with a critical physiological foundation to help them succeed in school. Behavior and academic performance are affected by the quantity and quality of the foods we provide children during the school years.

From Backyard Gardens to Kindergartens

When I was growing up, my father grew tomatoes in our backyard. These carefully tended, vine-ripened tomatoes were the tastiest I can remember—and it was all thanks to the rich, organically managed soil. All of a tomato plant’s growth is made from materials that are available in the soil. This is why plants grown in depleted soils are just not the same. Commercial fertilizers may add back nitrogen and basic minerals, but they cannot replicate the rich spectrum of nourishment in soil that is organically maintained. The plant will just do the best it can with whatever materials are available.

When my daughter Claire was born, she weighed 7 pounds 6 ounces. Today, she is 15 years old and weighs over 100 pounds. All of the materials for Claire’s dramatic growth have come from the food she has eaten. Like the tomato plant, my daughter’s body does the best it can with what’s available.

Food is the building block for every part of a child’s body, from bones and skin and muscles to organs, including the brain and its complex, ever growing network of neural connections. Children’s bodies are very forgiving—but why not offer them the best building blocks during the school years? And why not protect them from chemicals and junk ingredients in what they eat and drink, or from foods that have the nourishment processed out of them?

Brain Building

Today in the United States, 1 in 6 children suffers from a disability that affects their behavior, memory, or ability to learn. More than $80 billion dollars are spent each year to treat neurodevelopmental disorders. Diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) alone up are up 250% since 1990.1 How much of a role does modern food play in this increase?

Children’s brains are built differently depending on what they are fed when they are rapidly growing. Healthy brains are about 60% structural fat (not like the flabby fat found elsewhere in the body). As the brain grows, it selects building blocks from among the fatty acids available in what the child eats. The most prevalent structural fat in the brain is DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), one of the omega 3 fatty acids. DHA is also a major structural component of the retina of the eye. A large number of studies have suggested that low DHA levels are associated with problems with intelligence, vision, and behavior.

DHA is the most prevalent long chain fatty acid in human breast milk, which suggests that it’s intended for babies to consume a lot of it. Studies have shown that babies who have not gotten DHA in their diets have significantly less of it in their brains than those who have.

My point here is not about the superiority of breast milk, but that growing children quite literally are what they eat. When you think about this, you begin to feel differently about “cheap” food.

How Our Food Is Grown

We’ve established that kids develop differently depending on how they are nourished. Now let’s return to how the food they eat is, in turn, affected by what materials are available to grow it.

For instance, cheese, milk, and meat can provide high levels of DHA and other of omega 3′s (as well as providing high levels vitamin E and beta carotene) if it’s produced from pasture-fed organic cows, but not from grain-fed confinement cows. Simply put, fresh grass provides the building blocks for a different quality of product.

Iron

Iron is another nutrient that is essential to optimal brain function. Here’s a very interesting study reported in the December 2004 Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine—the first to connect children’s iron levels and ADHD.

ADHD has increasingly affected school classrooms in recent years. Between March 2002 and June 2003, 110 children from a school district in Paris, France were referred to a university hospital to be evaluated for school-related problems. Researchers analyzed blood samples from the 53 of these children who met the diagnostic criteria for ADHD, and from 27 of the children who did not. The average ferritin (iron) level in the non-ADHD kids was normal, but the average level in the children with ADHD was about half that of the other children. Fully 84% of the children with ADHD were iron deficient. And the lower the iron levels, the worse the ADHD symptoms—worse hyperactivity, worse oppositional behavior, and worse cognitive scores.

The stunning part of this study was that none of the children had iron levels low enough to indicate anemia. The iron deficiency was subtle enough that all tested normal on the hemoglobin or hematocrit blood tests used in doctors’ offices to screen for iron problems. I suspect that inadequate iron in the diet is also affecting the attention, focus, and activity of many children who don’t meet the full definition of ADHD.

When other researchers fed appropriate iron to children with ADHD, their test scores and ADHD symptoms improved.

We know from a large body of previous research that school-aged children who are iron deficient don’t learn as well. School performance is worse; memory is weakened. ADHD is more often seen in boys, but girls are also seriously affected by low iron. Today in the U.S., we are seeing that iron deficiency impacts intellectual growth in as many as 1 in 6 girls sometime in their school careers. Other studies have shown that teen girls with low iron are more than twice as likely to score below average in math achievement tests as are similar girls with normal iron status—even if they have no signs of anemia

The amount of iron children get from foods depends not just on what types of food they choose, but on how that food is grown. Recent evidence has shown that conventional, chemical farming has resulted in depleted nutrients in common food crops. Levels of vitamins and minerals (including iron) have fallen over the last fifty years, as this type of agriculture prevailed

Antioxidants

Kids need more than isolated, individual nutrients to boost their brains and school performance. There are big-picture benefits to eating a balanced diet rich in fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and fiber. Antioxidants include a large variety of compounds found in a large variety of whole foods. Antioxidants in foods have been linked to improved memory and brain function.

Even in the same food, antioxidant levels can vary depending on how the food is grown. Organic foods, on average, are about 30% higher in antioxidants than are their non-organic counterparts. That means each organic serving may be packed with more valuable nutrients. Talk about extra credit!

Avoid Organophosphates

Organophosphates are the most commonly used insecticides in conventional, chemical agriculture. These chemicals act as nerve agents, and have been linked to neurodevelopmental problems. Organically-grown foods are produced without the use of toxic pesticides such as organophosphates. Choosing organic foods for children can immediately and significantly decrease their exposure to organophosphate pesticides. That’s good protection for the developing brain—it’s elementary.

Some are afraid that school children would have to eat unfamiliar or unappetizing foods in order to make a difference. Not so! A February 2006 study conducted by Dr. Chensheng Lu and colleagues demonstrated an immediate and dramatic ability to reduce organophosphate pesticide exposure by making simple diet changes in elementary school children.

The researchers conducted this study with typical suburban children. They collected morning and evening urine samples daily from each child. Pesticide breakdown products appeared routinely in the urine samples.

Then the researchers made a simple change: the elementary school kids began eating organic versions of whatever they were eating before. For example, if they typically ate apples, now they got organic apples. Only if there was a simple organic substitution available for what the kids were already eating, did they make a switch. The kids didn’t have to learn to like any new foods.

Within 24 hours, pesticide breakdown products found in the urine plummeted! They continued this way for five days, with clean urine samples morning and night. Then the kids went back to their typical diets. The organic foods were taken away. And immediately the pesticides returned. These elementary school children went back to a chronic low-level exposure to organophosphate pesticides from the diet.

How Our Food Is Processed

Additives

Researchers at the University of Southampton studied over 1800 three-year-old children, some with and some without ADHD, some with and some without allergies. After initial behavioral testing, all of the children got one week of a diet without any artificial food colorings and without any chemical preservatives. The children’s behavior measurably improved during this week. But was this from the extra attention, from eating more fruits and vegetables, or from the absence of the preservatives and artificial colors?

To answer this question, the researchers continued the diet, but gave the children disguised drinks containing either a mixture of artificial colorings and the preservative benzoate, or similarly colored drinks from natural, food sources. The weeks that children got the hidden chemicals, their behavior was substantially worse. This held true whether or not they had been diagnosed with hyperactivity, and whether or not they had tested positive for allergies – good news for parents everywhere!

Removing artificial colors and preservatives from the diet was dramatically effective at reducing hyperactivity—somewhere between the effectiveness of clonidine and Ritalin, two prescription ADHD drugs. How much better to support children’s mood and behavior with healthy food, than with drugs! Some children may still need medicine, but with a healthy diet, we may be able to use lower doses. And it stands to reason that this diet would be better for all children, whether or not they have behavior problems.

Refined sugars and flours

Food processing can have other negative effects on kids’ brains. In the 1800s the average American consumed 12 pounds of sugar per year. Due to the overwhelming success of the refined-food industry, however, by 1975 sugar consumption had jumped 1000% to 118 pounds per capita, and continued increasing to an average of 137.5 pounds for every man, woman, and child by 1990.

Where are all these sugars coming from? It’s not just cookies, candies, and other sweet treats! Sugars—and more recently, high fructose corn syrup—show up on an astonishing variety of food labels, and high on the list of ingredients in the sweetened beverages that kids guzzle. They are ubiquitous in many convenience foods and fast foods, and you will find them in much of the processed food served in school lunches.

The effect of sugar intake is a hotly debated topic in pediatrics. Parents and educators often contend that sugar and other carbohydrate ingestion can dramatically impact children’s behavior, activity and attention. However, physicians looking at controlled studies of sugar intake do not find hypoglycemia or other blood sugar abnormalities in the children who are consuming large amounts of sugar.

The Journal of Pediatrics reported that there is a more pronounced response to a glucose load in children than in adults. In children, hypoglycemia-like symptoms (including shakiness, sweating, and altered thinking and behavior) may occur at a blood sugar level that would not be considered hypoglycemic. The authors reason that the problem is not sugar, per se, but highly refined sugars and carbohydrates, which enter the bloodstream quickly and produce more rapid fluctuations in blood glucose levels.

Serving a breakfast with complex carbohydrates (like oatmeal, shredded wheat, berries, bananas, or whole-grain pancakes) and packing a lunch with delicious fiber-containing treats (such as whole-grain breads and fresh fruit) will help keep your child’s adrenaline levels more constant, which may increase their ability to pay attention in school.

Overcooking

When foods are cooked, their nutrient profile changes. For instance, overcooking can destroy beta-carotene, an important antioxidant. Overcooked carrots have significantly lower antioxidants overall than do raw or gently cooked carrots. The same is true for broccoli and asparagus. Baked or boiled russet potatoes have higher nutrient levels than do raw potatoes—but frying the potatoes destroys important nutrients. Peeling some foods (such as apples, potatoes, or cucumbers) can also decrease antioxidant power.

School Fuel: Homework for Parents

Kids’ brains are high-performance engines, and if we want them to do their best in school, we need to provide them with clean, high-quality fuel. For growing children this means a balanced diet of delicious whole foods, grown in a nutrition-enhancing way without toxic pesticides, and prepared in an appealing manner that also preserves nutrients.

As a pediatrician, it is my strong conviction that kids need and deserve a healthy breakfast before school. Several studies have shown that a good breakfast can result in better academic performance in the classroom and higher standardized test scores in math, reading, and vocabulary.

And the need for quality food doesn’t stop when your kids leave the house in the morning. Every child deserves to have a balanced, nutritious lunch at school, every day. Organic dairy products, proteins (beans, nuts, eggs, or lean meat), whole grains and fresh fruit and vegetables are all recommended parts of the school lunch curriculum.

What can you do as a parent to make this happen? Here’s your homework:

• Model healthy eating and drinking behavior for your kids
• Start each day with a healthy breakfast with your family (and when possible, end each day with a shared sit-down dinner).
• Pack healthful lunches with less-processed, organic foods.
• Ask and research what your kids are served at school. Take a field trip to the lunchroom if you can, to observe and sample the lunch options.
• Show and Tell: Share your concerns about school food with administrators, school boards, politicians. They need to hear from you to make healthy food a school policy priority. Use your voice and your votes to make a difference.

Solid science has shown that food affects kids’ memory, attention, and cognitive skills. Even whether or not they eat breakfast changes their test scores. What they eat, how their food is grown, and how their food is processed can all help their brains to operate at their very best. Let’s give our kids the edge they deserve.

How much does a child need each day?

Kids can benefit from dietary improvements at any age. Quality foods make a difference when they are young, and their brains are growing most rapidly. It also makes a huge difference for teens, whose brains are restructuring for adult life.

For most kids, about 80% of adult height is gained before 6th grade is over, but the need for quality nutrition doesn’t stop there. About 20% of adult height and 50% of adult weight are gained during adolescence. Most boys double their lean body mass between the ages of 10 and 17. Because growth and change is so rapid during this period, the requirements for all nutrients increase.

You can use these guidelines to help make nutritious choices and create balanced meals for your kids. And remember that organic foods may provide a nutrition bonus from healthy mineral content, higher antioxidant content, as well as lowering your child’s exposure to developmentally disruptive pesticides. So whenever possible, make it organic!

* Organic beans, nuts, eggs, or lean meats
**Organic milk, other dairy, or other source of calcium and protein
Dr. Greene’s Recommendations are adapted from the 2006 American Academy of Pediatrics/American Heart Association guidelines.

Blueberries
Blueberries have been shown in numerous studies to do wonderful things for memory and the brain in general. Old rats that were fed blueberries scored the same as young rats on memory tests. Blueberries contain anthocyanin, a known memory-boosting phytochemical. They also contain many other phytochemicals that may contribute to healthy brain function.

Apples
Apples contain high levels of quercetin, an antioxidant that has been shown in recent studies to protect against Alzheimer’s disease. Although it is also present in the flesh, the most quercetin is found in the skin. Red apples also contain anthocyanin in their skins.

Spinach
One study found that feeding rats spinach prevented and even reversed memory loss. This may be due in part to its high folic acid content, a nutrient that is believed to be protective against Alzheimer’s disease and age-related memory loss. Just a half-cup of cooked spinach provides two-thirds your daily requirement of folic acid.

Onions
Red onions contain anthocyanin and quercetin. Yellow and white onions also contain good levels of quercetin. In India, where onions are an important staple, onions have been used as a folk remedy to boost memory for centuries.

Broccoli
Broccoli contains quercetin. It’s also a good source of folic acid.

Red Beets
Beets are a good source of anthocyanin and folic acid.

Grapes
Red, purple, and black grapes all contain quercetin and anthocyanin. Red wine also contains good levels of these phytochemicals, but overindulging in red wine may negate the benefits so keeping consumption to one glass per day may be wise.

Cherries
Another red food that is a good source of anthocyanin.

Eggplant
Eggplant is a great source of anthocyanin. It also contains nasunin, an antioxidant that protects the lipids in brain cell membranes.

Rosemary
Researchers have found that the carnosic acid in rosemary is neuroprotective and may play a role in the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative brain disorders. One study even found that just the scent of rosemary improved the memories of office workers.