Preservative Free Foods?? Behaviour Issues with 3.5 year old....

Hi everyone :D

I need to change my DS's diet....his behaviour at the moment is out of control and he definitely has way too many processed foods (bad mummy alert) and I'm sure this is part of his problem....or at least I'm hoping it is because this I can change.....

The thing is, I dont where to start.....what numbers are the bad numbers on food ingredients?? Are those numbers all I have to cut out to make a difference? What about sugar? Is it OK? Are the preservatives bad??

What do I google? Does anyone know of any books or websites that would be helpful to me to start making this change?

DS is really REALLY loud and boisterous, doesnt listen to me, is starting to talk back, whenever I tell him something he always comes back with 'What?' even when he's heard me as I see him do what I've asked him to do. He pulls faces at people, and just down right rude sometimes. He is exposed to Ben 10 a little bit and is starting to get into Batman, Superman and those sorts of things and he doesnt get that they are goodies as he sees them fighting people and shooting things so he thinks that it's alright to do this. Nothing I say seems to get through at the moment. I know that the food isnt the only reason for his behaviour but I'd like to change at least for a while to see if I notice a difference....

Thanks for any help in advance! :dunno:

Shayna - I think its called Failsafe, author is Sue Dengate. Hopefully someone with firsthand knowledge will come and help.

I get "what?" all the bloody time too. I only repeat twice & if its important I put my hand on his shoulder and then say what I need to tell him.

Google fed up and you should find the failsafe stuff.

Good luck... I've just started looking into this and it looks like pretty big adjustments for even bigger rewards, if it works for them!

ok hope this helps I thought I had a link to the page I visited the other week but can't find it bugger

anyway with our son we narrowed it down to pres 223 once he stopped that which is found in sausages, cheerios, kabana, cordial and lot of juices etc his behaviour did improve

goog;e additives to avoid

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There are over 50 widely used food additives which are known to cause behavioural, health and learning problems in children and adults (evidence based on research on over 20,000 patients at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital's Allergy Unit in Sydney).

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Colours

Artificial Colours
102 tartrazine
104 quinoline yellow
107 yellow 2G
110 sunset yellow
122 azorubine, carmoisine
123 amaranth
124 ponceau, brilliant scarlet
127 erythrosine
128 red 2G
129 allura red
132 indigotine, indigo carmine
133 brilliant blue
142 green S, food green, acid brilliant green
151 brilliant black
155 brown, chocolate brown
Natural Colour
160b annatto, bixin, norbixin


Preservatives

200-203 sorbic acid, potassium & calcium sorbates
210-213 benzoic acid, sodium, potassium & calcium benzoates
220-228 sulphur dioxide, all sulphites, bisulphites, metabisulphites
249-252 all nitrates & nitrites
280-283 propionic acid, sodium, potassium & calcium propionates
Antioxidants
310-312 all gallates
319-321 TBHQ, BHA butylated hydroxyanisole, BHT butylated hydroxytoluene


Flavour Enhancers

620-625 glutamic acid and all glutamates, MSG monosodium glutamate
627 disodium guanylate
631 disodium inosinate
635 ribonucleotides
Yeast extract, HVP HPP hydrolysed vegetable or plant protein

Also see thefood intollerance network for more information on MSG and glutamates.


Flavours

Unregulated

Artificial Sweeteners
There are various reports on the negative affects of consuming aspartame (951) such as causing brain tumours and increasing appetite. The safety of aspartame is not proven. Consuming "diet", "lite" and "no added sugar" products may not assist weight loss. There are also reports of addiction. We do not recommended consuming products containing aspartame. Sugar is a natural alternative. Artificial sweeteners in general are unnecessary, artificial and not recommended.
951 aspartame (Nutrasweet, Equal)

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Thanks for all the suggestions girls!! Will definitely get that book!

There are so many numbers on that list - how do I narrow it down?? What are the really bad ones??

So if I'm baking stuff from scratch but it contains a bit of sugar and oil etc is that OK?

It's quite overwhelming!!

with us, when the behavior started we looked back at what he had had that was new, which was juice and cordial ... we then looked at the ingredients, then notcied the pres 223 was also in cheerios which the one time he had had them he had night mares for days and physo behaviour, so we put 2 and 2 together, it can be overwhelming but the best thing is to watch for the out of control behaviour and take note of what he has eaten etc then what colors preservatives are in them if that makes sense eventually you willl see a pattern

There's a little book you can get called the chemical maze which lists all the numbers/additives and which ones are bad, why etc. If you have an iPhone there is a chemical maze app which I downloaded recently and find really useful too.

i think Rach75 listed a good reference, i was going to google something like that and post it here if no one else had. the book 'fed up' by Sue Dengate is really good, it is probably worthwhile getting it and having a read. I have had major issues with my DS from probably around the same...actually probably a little earlier LOL. the main things that effect him are preservatives, flavours and colours. Colours are the HUGEST one for us. we're pretty sure hubby is anaphylactic to artifical colours, and if DS has anything with artificial colours in it, he goes absolutely cuckoo!! :leap:

i think something i have done is learning which brands do and don't have the bad stuff in them. Like Kraft peanut butter has the bad antioxidant 320 (which you should avoid) whereas the Aldi peanut butter has antioxidant 306 (which is safe.) don't use drinks which artificial that have added colours or flavours like cordial, etc...

it's just a matter of trial and error. you would be suprised how many products have stuff in them that you should avoid! but read some books, and just try and cut out as much of the food you can that has the artificial additives in them, and see if that makes a difference :D all the best!

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Thanks for all the suggestions girls!! Will definitely get that book!

There are so many numbers on that list - how do I narrow it down?? What are the really bad ones??

So if I'm baking stuff from scratch but it contains a bit of sugar and oil etc is that OK?

It's quite overwhelming!!

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They are ALL bad.
The way to avoid them is to avoid processed food altogether.
For example - no more jars for dinner - Chicken Tonights, Dolmio sauces, etc.
No more Maggi Packets, commercial breads, 2-minute noodles, crap cereals.

You have to make everything yourself, using whole ingredients.

There is a FAB thread about "breaking the jar habit and cooking from scratch" around - check it out - it is soo much easier than people realise and much cheaper too.
Use more veggies in all meals, no packet sides like those crap microwave pastas.
Make your own chicken muggets and fish fingers, your own pies, sausage rolls are good too.

With your baking, you can substitute some sugar for sweet potato - Christy has all sorts of recipes like this I think. Oils and fats are fine in moderation. ETA: And you can jut cut the sugar in half or reduce it too - I never use as much sugar as the recipe calls for when baking, and you can't taste the difference :)

Find some recipes for things like museli bars to make at home, and no more packet cakes, muffin bars, or whatever else.
No Le Snacks and their shyte "cheese"

Also, the colours are often the worst, and surprisingly, it is the yellows that cause most issues. Even things labelled as "natural flaour" or "natural colours" are just as bad.

Real food has NO number in it at all - it isn't processed, it doesn't require google or a book to look up the meaning of its ingredients.

Buy REAL yoghurt - like Jalna, not the crap with the cartoon characters on it.

HTH :)

It is really easy once you do it, just seems overwhelming at the beginning when you actually examine and see how much of your pantry and fridge are filled with preservatives and processed rubbish. Promise though, once you get going, it is the best and easist thing you will ever do. :)

i would start by cutting out any fizzy soft drinks if he has those, they can be pretty bad, even the sugar free ones. things like sliced (processed) cheese and chips have quite a few numbers and i know DD reacts to them.

I think a small ammount of sugar is fine, if im making cakes/muffins etc i try to use half soft brown sugar and half honey instead of white/raw sugar. its so hard to read everything and remember so many numbers to avoid. WHat we did was just avoid ANYTHING that was processed, so no woolies cakes/biscuits etc as they all have things in them to keem them fresh onthe shelf for longer. ANything that isnt bassically a 'whole food' i.e fruit veg grains etc. get your bread from a bakery. try to make your own things which you would normally buy...ie, nuggets, burgers, fish bites etc. it can be quite time consuming but they great thing i found was that DD LOVED to help and will sit on the side and cook with me and eat stacks more cause she helped cook it!

then you can start adding things back in, like find a good cheese with no numbers, or a drink he can have which has no numbers, things like peanut butter and humous that your not going to make yourself, find a good brand and stick with that one, i found it easier that way.

anyway , thats just what we did and i found it alot less overwhelming! now i can tell withing 10-20 mins when DD has something i wouldnt normally give her, like chips or soft drink, cause she goes mental and its a good reminder of why we changed her diet! Good luck, i hope it makes a difference for you!

edit: just read the post above.....basically what i was trying to say :)