Have you noticed that more and more kids have peanut, egg, or soy allergies? When I went to school, maybe one or two people had food allergies.
When my own children started school fifteen years ago, many children had ADD, autism, behavioral issues, food allergies or were on medication for a bipolar condition. Our children were a mess.
Medicating our kids was the norm.
Medicating our children seemed to be the norm. In fact, one of my friends who was a nurse at a high school told me it was standing room only sometimes for students taking medication.
Now, I wasn’t a stranger to ADD since I too was diagnosed as a first grader and took dexedrine for five years until I could manage my own ADD. Two of my own children were diagnosed with ADD, all four were diagnosed with learning disabilities, and several of them had eczema. I was stunned as to why my own children had so many issues.
Worse yet, by the time my last two entered school, peanut free lunch room tables were the norm. Plus, no one could bring snacks into the classroom that contained peanuts.
What was happening to our children?
I never thought it was our food. In turn, I thought it was the building materials and accessories in our house off-gassing nasty chemicals. Remember what new paint smelled like in the 1990’s? Or carpet? Times have changed although we haven’t gotten rid of all the nasty chemicals in our furniture and building products.
Honestly, I didn’t turn to organic food until 2003. All that time, I was feeding my children GMO food products or products such as meat or chicken that were fed GMO corn.
Recently on Green Sisterhood, we interviewed Robyn O’Brien, author, food activist, and founder of AllergyKids.org about the changes to our food supply. She indicated GMOs and antibiotics given to cows has changed our food supply. Now, one in three American children have ADHD, allergies, autism and/or asthma
Not surprising since the following percentage of the crops listed below contain genetically modified ingredients.
“Sugar beets 95%
Soybeans 93%
Cotton (Cottonseed oil) 78%
Canola 75%
Corn 70%
Papaya 50%”
Listen to the Interview
Robyn is one of those guests that captivates you with her scientific knowledge and truly understand that changes can’t be made all at once. In her book, UnHealthy Truth (aff), she reveals how she was able to change her family’s lifestyle little by little without breaking the bank.
(*Don’t miss the Robyn’s book giveaway on Green Sisterhood’s site.*)
Be sure to watch the video interview as Robyn makes sense of the issues our children are facing.
Join the conversation:
- What issues are your child facing?
- How have your changed your family’s diet?
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Marla says
I truly believe that food allergies, autism, ADD all can be linked to processed food and GMO’s. Foods are not food that are artificial imitation. We need to teach our children to eat organic, local and healthy.
Kristina (The Greening Of Westford) says
I have read Robyn’s book and the evidence is astounding, scary even. Luckily my children do not have food allergies, asthma or ADD/ADHD. However, MANY of their friends, classmates and cousins do. Peanut free classrooms are common here. When a new child comes over for the first time, besides figuring out when to be picked up, you ask if they have allergies! I have ever only met 2 people my age with food allergies.
Esther Oppenheim says
I wonder why you have not mentioned the massive change in our diet which might explain most of the health changes we are observing – which is the huge increase in carbohydrate consumption, particularly the sugars.